Creativity Quote by Paul McCartney

McCartney’s offhand recollection turns “Taxman” into something more revealing than a Beatles deep cut: it’s a snapshot of pop innocence colliding with the bureaucracy that comes for you the moment you become valuable. The line “He wrote it in anger” frames the song less as clever satire and more as a gut-level protest, the kind that only arrives after the first real shock of adult power structures. Harrison isn’t philosophizing about government; he’s reacting like a working musician suddenly told that the reward for breaking through is getting skimmed to the bone.

The most telling phrase is “He had never known before then what could happen to your money.” That “never known” signals a class and career pivot: four lads from Liverpool become a corporate entity overnight, and the state greets them not with applause but with a ledger. McCartney’s tone is casual, almost amused, which doubles the sting. He’s describing a system so normal it can be delivered as anecdote, but the emotional core is betrayal: you thought success meant freedom, and instead it introduces new, invisible owners.

Context matters: mid-60s Britain, punishing top rates, and a youth culture watching its heroes get treated like revenue streams. McCartney also slips in a small but pointed credit adjustment: “George wrote… and I played guitar on it.” It’s band politics in miniature, acknowledging Harrison’s authorship while quietly reminding you the Beatles machine still ran on shared labor, even when the anger belonged to one member.