Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

This is “Taxman” by Junior Parker:

I guess because yesterday was George Harrison’s birthday, I’ve heard this Junior Parker interpretation of “Taxman” twice on the radio this week, on two different stations.  I’m not sure I’d heard it before.  Dull-minded critics like to point out that “Taxman” is a cynical song because it’s a rich guy (George Harrison) complaining about having to give back to the state for the benefit of society.  One of the paradoxes of pop music, however, is that while lousy lyrics can ruin a song, and excellent lyrics can help make a song, a lot, if not most, pop song lyrics are basically negligible. “Taxman” falls into that third category for me.  I’ve never much bothered with the lyrics of it, because musically it’s a gem. I do like the way (on the original) they punctuate the lines with “Taxman!” like it’s Batman or something.  Junior Parker’s louche interpretation here erases all that angsty energy of the original and replaces it with groooooooooove.  I like the way he punctuates all the complaints with little comments, especially when he says, “If you take a walk–and this is awful–I’ll tax your feet.” Junior likes it, too, because he repeats himself in the refrain: “Mmmm, it’s awful.”