A Taxing of the Taxonomy in the Beatles' "Taxman": 
Beyond the AAB phrase model of the 12-bar blues

by Trevor de Clercq

A number of scholars have written about the song "Taxman" by the Beatles, yet there has been no consensus on its form.  At issue is the role of the last five bars in the main 13-bar section.  [NEXT] Analysts generally take one of two views: [NEXT] that the last five bars are a refrain enclosed within a larger verse section; or [NEXT] that the last five bars are a separate chorus section, distinct from the preceding eight bars of verse material.  Let's listen.  [NEXT]

It's not surprising to find a song where the choice between refrain or chorus is ambiguous.  Stephenson discusses this issue in his book, and he characterizes the difference in terms of text: a refrain has only one or two lines, whereas a chorus has several.  On this basis, "Taxman"seems more like a verse-refrain form.

But then why do authors such as Everett and Temperley hear a verse-chorus form?  To unravel this question, we need to unravel the relationship of this song to the blues.  Yet existing models of blues form make that thread difficult to find.  Therefore, I'll present more detailed models so as to enrich both our knowledge of blues forms in general and our hearing of "Taxman" in particular.  [NEXT] 

The blues pedigree of "Taxman" has been noted by both Pollack and Biamonte, who hear the main material as a modified version of a classic 12-bar blues.  Standard accounts of the 12-bar blues describe it as an AAB form, and the song "Shake, Rattle and Roll" provides a good example. [NEXT]  The AAB pattern is clear, [NEXT] since the first two phrases have identical lyrics and similar pitch content.  I have found that clear iterations of the AAB pattern in a 12-bar blues context correlate highly with the melodic phrase organization seen here.  [NEXT] Notice how in each 4-bar hypermeasure, the melody extends through the first two bars and ends only on the downbeat of the third bar. (The dashed bracket in my graph represents the parallelism between the first two vocal phrases.) [NEXT]

If we compare "Taxman" to a classic 12-bar blues, we do indeed find the generic AAB phrase organization of a classic 12-bar blues. [NEXT]  The harmonic structure of "Taxman" is harder to derive from a 12-bar blues model, but Biamonte and Pollack each make the same mapping: [NEXT] the subdominant chord in the fifth bar of a 12-bar blues is omitted in "Taxman," while the cadential dominant chord is replaced and expanded via a subtonic chord.  The melodic phrase organization also differs in terms of both phrase length and phrase parallelism, but neither author notes this issue.  These problems aside, deriving the main material of "Taxman" from a classic 12-bar blues makes a verse-chorus reading of "Taxman" even more odd, as no theorist (to my knowledge) has considered the last four cadential bars of an AAB-structured 12-bar blues to be a standalone chorus. [NEXT] 

All blues forms are not equal, however, even within the 12-bar context.  Consider, for example, the song "Long Tall Sally." [NEXT] Here we find the harmonies of a 12-bar blues but not the AAB phrase pattern.  Instead, we have three separate 4-bar sections in what is more like an ABC arrangement. [NEXT] I refer to this configuration as a hybrid blues, which I have found correlates strongly with the melodic phrase organization seen here.  [NEXT] I use the term "hybrid blues" because it's as if we have separate verse- and chorus-like qualities within a single statement of the blues harmonic pattern.  In the A gesture, we find many verse-like characteristics, such as a reduced instrumental texture, a high density of lyrics, long beginning-accented melodic phrases, and new lyrics on future iterations, while in the B and C gestures, we find more chorus-like qualities, such as an increase of instrumental density, shorter end-accented melodic phrases, and a high level of lyric repetition both internally and on future iterations.

Hybrid blues configurations are common in a 16-bar setting as well.  [NEXT] These 16-bar versions can be seen to arise from a doubling of the first hypermeasure of a hybrid 12-bar blues.  [NEXT] The result is an AABC pattern.  [NEXT] "Jailhouse Rock" is a good example of this blues type.  [NEXT]  As you should hear, the sense of separate verse- and chorus-like segments is even more pronounced in the 16-bar context.  And  this is an important point many theorists have analyzed hybrid 16-bar blues songs as verse-chorus forms.

Let's now compare a classic 12-bar blues and a hybrid 16-bar blues.  [NEXT] They are similar in that both forms begin with an AAB pattern.  But "A" does not equal "A," [NEXT] since the second "A" of a hybrid 16-bar blues occurs prior to the subdominant harmony.  With this observation, I would like to propose an alternative relationship of "Taxman" to the blues.

Instead of deriving the main material of "Taxman" from a 12-bar blues, we could derive its AAB pattern from the first 12 bars of a hybrid 16-bar blues.  [NEXT] In other words, the main material of "Taxman" acts as only a partial instantiation of a larger, more fully-realized blues model.  One advantage of this reading is that the harmonic structure of "Taxman" lines up more closely with its blues framework. [NEXT]

Admittedly, there are still differences in the melodic phrase organization of the A gestures.  In this regard, though, consider the change in melodic organization that occurs in the middle section of "Taxman."  [NEXT]  If we consolidate the lead and background vocals of the middle section into a single line, we find the same melody from the opening; but now it occurs every two bars, just as we would find in the verse-like area of a hybrid blues.  [NEXT]

[NEXT] The most compelling evidence for a hybrid 16-bar reading occurs in the final vocal passage of the song.  This passage repeats the opening material, but now it is extended beyond its original 13-bar length via a flat-three chord.  Assuming some phrase elision (or metrical overlap), the background model of a hybrid 16-bar blues is now revealed.  [NEXT]

In summary, I believe the form of "Taxman" is best understood as a deconstructed version of a hybrid 16-bar blues.  [NEXT] It's as if the 16-bar blues model has been "taxed," and only the after-tax amount remains.  George Harrison wrote this song as a critique of the British tax system, and so it seems appropriate that the song breaks apart traditional paradigms.  Ultimately, our ability to recognize and comment on this deconstruction process falls out of refining the taxonomy of blues structures beyond the AAB phrase pattern.  

This reading also helps explain the issue of refrain or chorus.  I won't say definitively whether it's one or the other, but I will say that "Taxman" evokes in a listener familiar with rock history the (perhaps unconscious) sense of a larger, more prototypical background structure that is often considered to be a verse-chorus form.   

As an brief outro, I will mention that hybrid blues models help explain the form of many other rock songs, including "The Last Train to Clarksville" by the Monkees, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by U2, "Screen Door" by Uncle Tupelo, and "Cover Me" by Bruce Springsteen.  In many cases, it's the melodic phrase organization, not any strong evidence of a blues harmonic pattern, that reveals the relationship between these songs and their blues roots. [NEXT]