"But speaking strictly about music, objectively - the most musically talented was, without doubt, Paul."
From the final line- I didn't realise my thinking John's writing of almost all the real Beatles pieces of genius such as Strawberry Fields, Tomorrow Never Knows, Day in the Life, Across the Universe, was objectively an incorrect viewpoint. Thank goodness we are blessed with suhc objective human beings in this earthly confusion.
As I understand it, Andrew, those were collaborations with McCartney, whose melodic gift can hardly be gainsaid. Musically, I think McCartney had the gift. As a lyricist, the palm definitely goes to Lennon. Lennon's songs, post-McCartney, are musically feeble, it seems to me. McCartney's songs, post-Lennon, are good tunes in seach of words to match. The only exception - and that only to some extent - is some of the material on Tug of War.
I think, Frank, that Plastic Ono Band and Imagine albums contain some great stuff, and are not feeble. I think with Yoko Ono, Lennon came increasingly in the grip of a woman it is hard to see as other than manipulative and fairly crazy, and I htink this explains his musical falling away through the 70s. It generally isn't enough to be simply a genius; the life one is living is pretty intrinsic to what one creates. The greatest Beatles tracks were generally Lennon tracks and while McCartney was a technically great musician, so are hundreds of thousands of session musicians....Van Gogh was in strict academically technical terms rather deficient, though this doesn't mean some polite nonentity was a superior artist to him. Which isn't to say that I'm describing McCartney as such. Also, plenty Lennon tracks such as much more than great lyrics and musically very inventive. George H, who was techically very able, said that he used to sometimes find Lennon creations very unusual in matters like timing, but when he'd ask John how he came up with such and such idiosyncracies, he wouldn't understand where George was coming from, such invention simply his natural outpouring. For instance, listen to I'm Only Sleeping from Revolver. It's not as if McCartney was composing the music to John's songs.
"But speaking strictly about music, objectively - the most musically talented was, without doubt, Paul."
ReplyDeleteFrom the final line- I didn't realise my thinking John's writing of almost all the real Beatles pieces of genius such as Strawberry Fields, Tomorrow Never Knows, Day in the Life, Across the Universe, was objectively an incorrect viewpoint. Thank goodness we are blessed with suhc objective human beings in this earthly confusion.
As I understand it, Andrew, those were collaborations with McCartney, whose melodic gift can hardly be gainsaid. Musically, I think McCartney had the gift. As a lyricist, the palm definitely goes to Lennon. Lennon's songs, post-McCartney, are musically feeble, it seems to me. McCartney's songs, post-Lennon, are good tunes in seach of words to match. The only exception - and that only to some extent - is some of the material on Tug of War.
ReplyDeleteI think, Frank, that Plastic Ono Band and Imagine albums contain some great stuff, and are not feeble. I think with Yoko Ono, Lennon came increasingly in the grip of a woman it is hard to see as other than manipulative and fairly crazy, and I htink this explains his musical falling away through the 70s. It generally isn't enough to be simply a genius; the life one is living is pretty intrinsic to what one creates.
ReplyDeleteThe greatest Beatles tracks were generally Lennon tracks and while McCartney was a technically great musician, so are hundreds of thousands of session musicians....Van Gogh was in strict academically technical terms rather deficient, though this doesn't mean some polite nonentity was a superior artist to him. Which isn't to say that I'm describing McCartney as such. Also, plenty Lennon tracks such as much more than great lyrics and musically very inventive. George H, who was techically very able, said that he used to sometimes find Lennon creations very unusual in matters like timing, but when he'd ask John how he came up with such and such idiosyncracies, he wouldn't understand where George was coming from, such invention simply his natural outpouring. For instance, listen to I'm Only Sleeping from Revolver. It's not as if McCartney was composing the music to John's songs.
I think the 'such as' line was heading towards Happiness is a Warm Gun.
ReplyDelete