Three ridiculously good songs to play on tax day

Hooray! It is tax day in the United States. This is almost like a holiday, am I right? (OK, maybe not for some.)

Thankfully, we have several songs to help us get through the day. That is if you waited until the very last day to file your taxes. I do every year simply because I am quite lazy.

On Monday, I will likely be listening to quite a bit of black metal while counting my dollars and cents. But the three songs that follow will help push me through the day as well. Oddly, all three excellent tracks are from British bands.

Three songs to help get you through tax day

The Kinks - "Sunny Afternoon" (1966)

Oh, Ray Davies had a way with a line while also trying to connect with the oppressed of England. This is a song about being poor and having to pay too much in taxes that one cannot afford to pay their daily bills. Meanwhile, the rich celebrate their wealth by buying things they do not need. The sarcasm is true in the opening verse, "The tax man's taken all my dough/And left me in my stately home/Lazing on a sunny afternoon."

Obviously, those with less money have time to laze around as they are too busy working away trying to save up enough for the bills and the taxman. Davies made a lot of money with the Kinks - or he should have - but he didn't start off rich. In the 1960s, he still spoke for the masses. Plus, the song is catchy as heck.

The Who - "Success Story" (1975)

This was one of the rare Who songs that was not penned by Pete Townsend. While this song is not about feeling oppressed and impoverished - the Who were never the Kinks in that regard - there is still a feeling that what one earns can be taken away by the government. Hopefully, it will be spent well.

The lyrics include the lines, "Six for the tax man, and one for the band/Back in the studio to make our latest number one." The track is about the band making hits records but owing a lot of taxes because they do so. This must be an English thing. In the United States, the wealthy would find a way out of such drivel such as paying a lot of taxes.

The Beatles - "Taxman" (1966)

I did not want to add this track to this list if the truth be known. Not that there is anything wrong with the song, but it's almost cliche to add this Beatles tune to a best-of about tax day. Still, to leave the song out would be too intentionally avoiding adding possibly the greatest track about paying taxes ever.

As opposed to other songs about paying the government, the protagonist of this song is the actual taxman. I mean, "Let me tell you how it will be/There's one for you, nineteen for me/'Cause I'm the taxman" is pretty obvious, right? Yet, while you may dread paying taxes no matter where you live, the fact is that this track is simply too fun to not listen to on any day of the year, let alone April 15.

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