Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have looked and looked on the internet trying to find out who speaks the intro (1,2,3,4) part to Taxman. My friend insists it's John and to me it doesn't sound like any of the Beatles. I have been a Beatle fan from the beginning but have no idea who counts it off. Also what is the best book on the Beatles? As big as a fan as I am I have never read one and now there are too many to chose from. I get consumer overload trying to pick one. Any suggestions???

David, Are you referring to Geoff Emerick? Thanks for the recomendations.

Emerick was the engineer for those sessions. I think it was the first LP which he completely engineered. David is right. The Lewisohn books are the best by far.

I went to Amazon to order and found a number of Lewisohn Beatle books. Some with extremely similar titles and some with the same title and different covers. Can somebody help with the multiple choices? He couldn't have written that many books on the same subject. HELP!

Hey guys. The Beatgear Cavern forum discussions of this typically assume that the voice is Paul. Another comment typically made about it is that the count-in was a later addition -- Paul supposedly counted in at the beginning of his bass part, which was not part of the original guitar/vocal track. Further, George apparently commented later that he didn't really appreciate the count-in, or the lead guitar part (played by Paul, too). I'm not saying all this is correct; I'm just reporting what's assumed to be the case in another forum's discussion of the same topic.

I always thought it was George doing the slow count off and Paul doing the fast one. Sounds like their voices to me.

Thank you David!

Hmm, I have always assumed that George did the "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2" in the deeper voice, then John shouted "1-2-3-4!" right before the music comes in.

To my ears, the spoken count sounds like none other than George. I hear no hint of anybody else. If it was an engineer, I doubt you'd get the Beatle-type clowning around. It has to be a Beatle, and it sounds pure George to me.

The real count sounds pure McCartney.

I agrre, Andrew, it has always sounded like George and Paul to me.

I agree that Paul probably did the second count, just based on the fact that he is generally accepted as the one who led them into many recordings.

But for some reason, the tone really sounds like John on that bit.

Paul did the real count, audible in the background. I think George's voice, in an effort to disguise it somewhat, was recorded at a slightly higher cycle and then returned to the normal cycle using the variable speed control. It then gave it somewhat of a slower pitch.

As an added note. The only reason I suggest the variable speed control was because the Beatles were enamored with the use of it at the time. Good examples are Rain, and I'm Only Sleeping. Try to play along with those songs in standard tuning. I can't say it was even George who really did the count, but it is likely. The whole count in had a 'dragged affect' to it.

It was Twiggy. Really. I just read that somewhere on-line. It's gotta be true.

Hmmm I always assumed it was John too as something that he would just clown around doing. I thought the cough was Paul. Another John interseeds with something so then Paul has to put in something too. Typical of the lads like the backup in Paperback Writer.
I never heard that George was unhappy with the lead guitar done by Paul in the song though. Looks like if he was he would have just cut it. They made cuts all the time and he even had his friend Eric Clapton do the while guitar gently weeps solo.
I know that he thought Paul's bass part in something was too busy at first but later decieded it was fine.

I've always believed both counts were done by Paul.

Definitely George's cough - just listen to the Phil Spector audition tapes for ATMP and you'll note that the coughs are identical. Plus George coughed all over the Get Back sessions...wait..err..