Lennon or McCartney?
It is the the most ancient Beatles argument: “John Lennon or Paul McCartney” Which one was more essential to The Beatles music? It’s my belief as a huge Beatles fanatic that the real answer is “both!” It may sound like a cop-out but I definitely believe it’s the best answer.
I’m not one of those critics that goes out of his or her way to disparage the solo careers of John and Paul but I do think it’s clear that they never reached the same level on their own as they did together as The Beatles (of course who has?) I think that’s pretty good evidence that there was something magical about their songwriting partnership that allowed the songs they wrote together to be more than the sum of the parts.
A lot of The Beatles best work wasn’t the songs that they wrote on their own but were the songs that they worked on together. Most of The Beatles early #1 songs such as “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” were written as a team and some of their best work such as “A Day in the Life & “We Can Work It Out” consisted of different song segments that Paul & John wrote which were added together to form a whole song.
And even when a song was solely written by one or the other such as in the cases of “Hey Jude” and “Dear Prudence” there was still some great input by the other one.
Lennon would sometimes offer helpful advice on lyrics to McCartney. With “Hey Jude,” John told Paul to keep the “the movement you need is on your shoulder” bit that Paul actually wanted to drop from the song as he felt it was too weird. With “Getting Better” John added the “it couldn’t get much worse” bit which helped to add a bit of weight to the positive lyrics of the rest of the song.
McCartney added some amazing bass parts to John’s songs such as “Rain,” “Come Together,” and “Dear Prudence.” Try to imagine those songs without the bass, they wouldn’t be anywhere near as awesome!
The essential point that I’m trying to get across is that both Paul & John were necessary parts of what made The Beatles such an excellent band.
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Tags: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, The Beatles