Lennon or McCartney?

Kind of forgetting about a year of my life was taken up with two stints as Followspot on Let It Be at The Garrick. What was notable about the show was one song in particular got the biggest applause and response every night, and that of course was While My Guitar Gently Weeps!
 
Squarewheelbike said:
Kind of forgetting about a year of my life was taken up with two stints as Followspot on Let It Be at The Garrick. What was notable about the show was one song in particular got the biggest applause and response every night, and that of course was While My Guitar Gently Weeps!
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Saw the show on Broadway, loved every minute.
 
BoroMart said:
It only proves that saying Imagine is a terrible song is going against the grain. Of course popularism is often wrong, but in this the popular opinion is right, in my opinion.

It's a great song that captured the zeitgeist of a time when the Vietnam war was on the news, religion was beginning to be questioned openly and faulter, the nuclear arms race had led to the CND movement, and the hippy culture was ending....but even though it had to die, the essence of love thy neighbour, be part of a community that cares, peace not war, was an important message.

Musically, ok it's hardly cutting edge in it's chord progressions, but some great little harmonic twists, and the melody is beautiful and very unlike Lennon who preferred to sing a very flat melody, the melody sounds more like it had been written by McCartney to be honest.
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I agree with all that you say but I don't think that it has died.
I think the lyrics are timeless and unique.
The lyrics are still relevant in todays world and probably will be in another fifty,
hundred or a thousand years. Unless of course, the world is living as one and in peace by then.

Somehow though, I doubt it, and that is why I suggest that the lyrics are timeless and will be
played and sung until and even after that day of world peace has arrived.
 
redblood said:
I agree with all that you say but I don't think that it has died.
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I meant the hardcore hippy culture likes the communes in San Fran, full of people absolutely off it on LSD, dropping out from society died. They become fraudulent in their message of the world being about love and about psychedlia being the route to it.

I guess it didn't die, it just took a different form, today, that mindset of love and peace is still there, but in today's capitalist society it's much weaker. You're a "lefty snowflake commie" if you dare show any empathy or desire for a better world. Lennon would have been reviled in today's society by the media, they would have hounded and destroyed him.
 
You see, people say "oh it's all about opinions, so I can't be wrong ". I say bull****.
If someone says Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi has had a rubbish career and are terrible footballers , you'd be laughed out of town as a clueless idiot and proven wrong by facts.
I say exactly the same is true for people who use words like garbage and talentless about Lennon, Mcartney and The Beatles. I respect peoples taste but saying such obviously clueless things when there is mountains of overwhelming evidence that it isn't true, just makes you look daft.
 
I prefer John’s songs to Paul’s, both during the Beatles era and post Beatles. I also prefer John’s voice, it’s got a raw quality that Paul‘s didn’t.

As for their solo careers, give me Instant Karma…Beautiful Boy…Just like Starting Over…Imagine…Cold Turkey…Watching the Wheels…#9 Dream or Woman over Mull of Kintyre…Pipes of Peace…The Frog Chorus…Temporary Secretary…Say Say Say or Ebony and Ivory. I’ll give you Live and Let Die and Coming up, though…but those are exceptions in my opinion.
 
EI_Owen said:
I prefer John’s songs to Paul’s, both during the Beatles era and post Beatles. I also prefer John’s voice, it’s got a raw quality that Paul‘s didn’t.

As for their solo careers, give me Instant Karma…Beautiful Boy…Just like Starting Over…Imagine…Cold Turkey…Watching the Wheels…#9 Dream or Woman over Mull of Kintyre…Pipes of Peace…The Frog Chorus…Temporary Secretary…Say Say Say or Ebony and Ivory. I’ll give you Live and Let Die and Coming up, though…but those are exceptions in my opinion.
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Interesting you choose probably Lennon's best songs, and Paul's worst output.

What about Band on the Run, Listen to what the man said, Jet or Maybe I'm amazed ?
 
EI_Owen said:
As for their solo careers, give me Instant Karma…Beautiful Boy…Just like Starting Over…Imagine…Cold Turkey…Watching the Wheels…#9 Dream or Woman over Mull of Kintyre…Pipes of Peace…The Frog Chorus…Temporary Secretary…Say Say Say or Ebony and Ivory. I’ll give you Live and Let Die and Coming up, though…but those are exceptions in my opinion.
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The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
Interesting you choose probably Lennon's best songs, and Paul's worst output.

What about Band on the Run, Listen to what the man said, Jet or Maybe I'm amazed ?
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I was about to say something similar. But if those are Lennon's best then it doesn't say much about the rest.
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
Interesting you choose probably Lennon's best songs, and Paul's worst output.

What about Band on the Run, Listen to what the man said, Jet or Maybe I'm amazed ?
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Band on the Run and Jet are still nowhere near Instant Karma, Imagine, Jealous Guy etc. I mean a song named after his pony (Jet), or a song addressing his own failings as a man (Jealous Guy)
 
Song quality is purely subjective and personal. That’s what music is. It’s deeply personal. I wouldn’t argue with anybody about their musical taste.
 
Capybara said:
I was about to say something similar. But if those are Lennon's best then it doesn't say much about the rest.
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Fair point, but those are the McCartney songs that I am most familiar with, probably due to their popularity and the amount of radio play they received.

l guess the massive factor is that we lost Lennon in 1980 just as I was getting into music whereas Paul kept writing and recording through the 80’s and 90’s.

In my opinion both are brilliant writers and The Beatles wouldn’t have been the band they were if it wasn’t for their chemistry. You only have to watch the film “Get Back” to see that in action…they were past their peak at that point but the dynamic is fascinating.
 
Zoophonic said:
Song quality is purely subjective and personal. That’s what music is. It’s deeply personal. I wouldn’t argue with anybody about their musical taste.
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very true, although I'm quite prepared to do serious prison time if someone is going to tell me that Gary Barlowe is a better song writer than Thom Yorke. Everyone has their limits.
 
BoroMart said:
I meant the hardcore hippy culture likes the communes in San Fran, full of people absolutely off it on LSD, dropping out from society died. They become fraudulent in their message of the world being about love and about psychedlia being the route to it.

I guess it didn't die, it just took a different form, today, that mindset of love and peace is still there, but in today's capitalist society it's much weaker. You're a "lefty snowflake commie" if you dare show any empathy or desire for a better world. Lennon would have been reviled in today's society by the media, they would have hounded and destroyed him.
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Again, I agree but I'm not sure that the media would have been able to destroy him.
I know that we will never know but had he still been alive today, I think that we would have seen him many times being outraged
and speaking out at the injustices of the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc etc and even today with the events happening
in the Ukraine and elsewhere.

I'm sure he would find it sad to know that " Imagine ", his message and sentiments of peace and harmony has been heard and welcomed all around the globe
and still being heard and talked about today some fifty years since penning the lyrics, and yet, we are no closer to achieving his dream and vision.
 
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