The worst thing Japan has ever unleashed on the world

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
You guys are crazy. Paul was a vital part of the Lennon-McCartney writing team and a better songwriter than John in my opinion. You can dismiss all of Paul's work as "fluff" if you want, but his pop sensibilities are what made the Beatles the biggest band in history.

And how can anyone consider "Yesterday", "Hey Jude" and many of the other McCartney-Lennon songs to be fluff?

"When I'm 64"?
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"?

Compare to "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Revolution #9" etc. Which tunes do you think will be remembered for breaking new ground?

I don't hate McCartney or anything like that, I even own a couple of Wings albums which should be all the proof one would ever need. But I really think Lennon was the more creative artist. Certainly his work stands up better than McCartney's for me in the 35 years or so that I've been a Beatles fan.

[TheStinger]

The only reason Lennon is thought of more highly than Macartney is that he is dead

[Sikander]

Originally posted by TheStinger
The only reason Lennon is thought of more highly than Macartney is that he is dead

Maybe so, but I liked his writing better than Paul's long before he died, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who feel the same way.

[TheStinger]

I have no problem with people preffering Lennons music to Macca's. I do have a problem with the mythologising(is that a word) of Lennon.He sat in a bed for peace, so what. he wrote imagine which is a great album. He was one of the forrunners of musicians thinking they have something important to say, when infact all they are is musicians.

Oh and he beat up his wife

[Sikander]

Originally posted by TheStinger
I have no problem with people preffering Lennons music to Macca's. I do have a problem with the mythologising(is that a word) of Lennon.He sat in a bed for peace, so what. he wrote imagine which is a great album. He was one of the forrunners of musicians thinking they have something important to say, when infact all they are is musicians.

I don't idealize Lennon believe me. I only care about him as a musician and writer, which are two things that I think he was really good at.

Originally posted by TheStinger
Oh and he beat up his wife

If only it had been Yoko at least Drake would be happy.

[Drake Tungsten]

Compare to "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Revolution #9" etc. Which tunes do you think will be remembered for breaking new ground?

John was the more experimental of the two; I fully admit that. If you give a **** about breaking new ground, then I guess John is your man.

I prefer good songs, however, and Paul was always better at cranking out beautiful pieces of music. He may not have been as groundbreaking as John, but I'll take McCartney's catalog over Lennon's any day of the week.

And Revolution #9 is absolute ****e.

[Drake Tungsten]

I have no problem with people preffering Lennons music to Macca's. I do have a problem with the mythologising(is that a word) of Lennon.

My thoughts exactly. The mythic reputation that has sprung up around Lennon produces statements like this...

and let's face it, Lennon was the far more important and artistic member of the Lennon and McCartney writing team.

that piss me off to no end.

Why can't McCartney get any respect? Lennon provided the experimental drive and lyrical weight, while McCartney provided the melodic sense and pop sensibilities. They were a team and it really irks me when people act like Lennon was the whole show. I can certainly see why McCartney gets upset about it.

[monkspider]

Macca is great. I really would find it tough to pick a favorite between John and Paul. I guess if I had to pick one, it would probably be John. But my all time favorite Beatle is neither of the Lennon-McCartney combo, but George rather.

PS Revolution 9 rocks!

[Drake Tungsten]

PS Revolution 9 rocks!

You're obviously not serious about this. I refuse to be fooled twice in one night.

[Drake Tungsten]

While searching the web for info on the real songwriting credits for Lennon-McCartney songs, I stumbled on some interesting facts I didn't know before.

First, it turns out that only about 5% of the Lennon-McCartney songs were true collaborations. 15% were written mainly by John, while the rest were written primarily by Paul. (edit: I haven't been able to confirm this piece of information, so it may be BS. From the little research I've done, Paul seems to have written more songs than John, but not a huge number. The split seems more like 60-40)

Second, while "Tomorrow Never Knows" was written by John, he was inspired by experiments Paul had been doing with tape loops and electronic sounds. So Paul was really the trendsetter on that one.

Interesting stuff, although it has been hard to find. Most sites just list the songwriting credits as Lennon-McCartney and leave it at that. It's hard to figure out who wrote what.

[Jaguar]

It's funny that there is such universal love for Lennon but hate for Yoko.

[Flandrien1]

Originally posted by Stefu
In fact, there are Saddam Hussein, Jiang Zemin and... Yoko Ono.

... and Napoleon (Bonaparte)

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

And Revolution #9 is absolute ****e.

I don't listen to it every day, but it's interesting and one of the first instances I can remember of sound collage, and on a huge album owned by tens of millions to boot. Consider the impact that sound collage has had on music since that time. What would Hip Hop be without the samples? Nothing. The Beatles generally and John in particular pushed the envelope and improved the quality of music generally by making a thousand cool ideas ok for other smaller bands to try out. The difference in artistic freedom in music from the early 60s to the early 70s was huge, and the Beatles deserve a large share of the credit for combining a willingness to experiment whilst still remaining oustandingly commercially viable. Both Lennon and McCartney deserve credit for this. I just think Lennon's stuff is more interesting in general, though both wrote some excellent stuff.

[Drake Tungsten]

Both Lennon and McCartney deserve credit for this. I just think Lennon's stuff is more interesting in general, though both wrote some excellent stuff.

I don't think we're in disagreement here. I think we both agree that Lennon and McCartney were geniuses; we just differ on who was the better genius.