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Five songs for Tax Day

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Taxes are great. They pay for roads, trains, education, fire, police, medical care, Social Security and all sorts of things we can’t imagine life without. However, they also make for great material for peeved songwriters, who usually have more to surrender to the IRS than most (unless you’re the Rolling Stones, which has famously avant-garde accountants).

If you’re still lollygagging on those returns -- they’re due today, you know -- here are a few jams to get you through that last 1099.

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The Beatles: ‘Taxman’

The gold standard of the tax-revolt genre. Catchy enough to make that check to the government feel like a thank-you letter.

Cheap Trick: ‘Taxman, Mr. Thief’

One of the power-pop band’s angrier tunes. Its minor-key dirge accurately evokes the feeling of opening TurboTax and cracking your first bottle of wine to prep for what’s coming.

Johnny Cash: ‘After Taxes’

The Man in Black sounds like a Man in the Red on this classic. ‘I peep inside and lose all hope’ is, unless you’re a major GE shareholder, about as universal a sentiment as there is about opening a tax bill.

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The Kinks : ‘Sunny Afternoon’

A response in kind to the Beatles’ tax tune above, the Kinks go wry and sarcastic where the Beatles went angry. Fortunately, this afternoon in L.A. actually is pretty sunny, if you can get your paperwork filed in time to enjoy it.

Biggie Smalls: ‘Mo Money, Mo Problems’

You could read this Biggie staple as an argument for a flat tax, but ‘Mo Money, Commensurately Scaled Problems’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.


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