Who does the count-in for The Beatles’ song ‘Taxman’?
“One, two, three, four, one two.” A cough. The bass and bass drum kick in followed by a syncopated guitar stab, and so begins one of the most important albums in rock history. These are the opening seconds of the opening song on The Beatles’ album Revolver, ‘Taxman’.
But who is it we hear at the very beginning? Who is doing the counting? Spoiler alert: it’s definitely one of The Beatles.
Well, that’s not necessarily true. It could be more than one of The Beatles, actually. If you listen closely, trailing behind the first count-in but way in the background of the mix is a second count-in. Immediately after the cough and before the instruments come in, someone shouts “One, two, three, four!” in a manner similar to Paul McCartney on ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, at the very start of The Beatles’ first album Please Please Me.
Now, you might not think there’s much of a debate to be had here. After all, does the count-in really add anything to the song? Surely it may as well not be there. But most admirers of Revolver would beg to differ, arguing that its opening seconds are one of the many inimitable quirks The Beatles liked to leave in or even add to their recordings to make it more personal and unique. Other examples include the amp feedback that opens ‘I Feel Fine’, and the looped sounds which appear at the end of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘A Day in the Life’ just when you think the recordings have finished.
Hence, a fierce debate rages to this day amongst Beatles fans about who counts in the beginning of ‘Taxman’. Is it John, Paul, George, Ringo? A combination of two of them? Or none of the above?
The first count-in ‘Taxman’
Let’s start with the first, clearly audible count-in at the front of the mix. When it was decided that ‘Taxman’ would be the first track on Revolver, the band actually made a conscious decision to record and overdub a count-in for the song. We hear this overdubbed count-in.
Music critic and Beatles expert Tim Riley attributes the count-in to George Harrison, believing it to be marked by Harrison’s characteristic “sneer”. This theory also makes sense because ‘Taxman’ is written and sung by George Harrison. It’s his song, one of three he wrote for Revolver, so he gets to count in.
The difficulty is that the voice doing the count-in is quite clearly an impression. It’s not the natural voice of any of The Beatles, and seems to be mimicking some inflections of the cockney or estuary London accent.
All of The Beatles were known to enjoy doing impressions, having grown up listening to actor and impressionist Peter Sellers on The Goon Show. The biggest joker in the band when it came to impressions was probably John Lennon.
But the voice of the main ‘Taxman’ sounds too low-pitched to be Lennon, or McCartney for that matter. Unless, of course, the group was playing around with speed effects, as they began doing from 1965 onwards, and slowed down the recording of the count-in, lowering the pitch.
And if you think only Harrison could have perfected a mockney sneer that low in tone, think again. Just listen to Paul McCartney messing around with a bassy American accent during Take 36 of ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’, which was released as part of Abbey Road’s 50th anniversary edition in 2019. The voice sounds remarkably similar to the counter at the start of ‘Taxman’, and nothing like McCartney – until he switches back to his regular voice mid-sentence.
There is no definitive answer as to who does the first count-in, then. On the balance of probabilities, the common-sense answer is George Harrison, the song’s lead singer. But it’s far from certain.
The second count-in ‘Taxman’
Who does the second, muffled background count-in is even harder to discern. Tim Riley, for example, doesn’t appear to have noticed it at all. This count-in was picked up by a studio mic during one of the takes of the band recording the song. It is much higher in pitch and very much in the style of Paul McCartney.
Ironically, though, because this count-in isn’t done in a funny voice, it actually sounds more like a Beatle. When isolated and remixed, this second count-in clearly bears the hallmarks of one Beatle in particular.
The “one” in the count-in has the rounded nasal twang of George Harrison’s Liverpool accent, which was thicker than Lennon, McCartney or Starr’s. And rather than the guttural growl McCartney offers on the “four” of ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, here the “four” has a scratchy nasal quality to it that could only belong to Harrison’s voice.
The second count-in is definitely George, then. Can we be sure about the first, though? Have a listen to the outtake from Abbey Road below, compare it to ‘Taxman’, and see what you think.