Rock 'n' Roll Music (album)
Rock 'n' Roll Music is a compilation album by the English rock band the Beatles containing previously released tracks. It was issued on 7 June 1976 in the United States, on Capitol Records, and on Parlophone in the United Kingdom, four days later. A double album, the 28-track compilation includes 15 Lennon–McCartney songs, one George Harrison composition ("Taxman"), and a dozen cover versions of songs written by significant rock and roll composers of the 1950s, including Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins and Larry Williams. Not counting the 1971 Spanish compilation album, Por Siempre Beatles, Rock 'n' Roll Music was the first Beatles album to include "I'm Down", which had previously only been available as the B-side of the "Help!" single.
Rock 'n' Roll Music, Vol. 2 (1980)
Image: Beatles Rock N Roll Musicalbumcover
"Taxman" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album Revolver. Written by the group's lead guitarist, George Harrison, with some lyrical assistance from John Lennon, it protests against the higher level of progressive tax imposed in the United Kingdom by the Labour government of Harold Wilson, which saw the Beatles paying over 90 per cent of their earnings to the Treasury. The song was selected as the album's opening track and contributed to Harrison's emergence as a songwriter beside the dominant Lennon–McCartney partnership. It was the group's first topical song and the first political statement they had made in their music.
Cover of the Northern Songs sheet music (licensed to Sonora Musikförlag)
Harrison references Prime Minister Harold Wilson (pictured) and Conservative Party leader Ted Heath in the song's lyrics.