Lennon and McCartney: Were they equal?

[wosl]

.

[Oops! Wrong Planet]

McCartney ftw, according to this piece I just read on the veranda. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3028185/SIMON-HEFFER-people-lionise-wife-beating-IRA-apologist.html

[JesusAndYourBush]

I was just listening to a few of the Lennon albums I'd not listened to in ages.  I saved his more experimental albums until last, I'm now listening to "Unfinished Music No. 2 - Life with the Lions".  I think "Cambridge 1969" is my most hated song of all time. 10 minutes in now and it's taking all my willpower not to skip to the next track.  It's such a shame that John made so few live appearances after the Beatles final tour, and that the few we have include dreck like this.  There's a phrase that people sometimes say about any very popular singer/band, that they could release a  record of themselves farting/burping/etc and it'd sell. Cambridge 69 proves that point.  Argh Yoko STFU, I've got 12 minutes of this awful track to listen to and it's doing my nut.  It's just as well John left a plethora of studio recordings (which have found their way onto many bootlegs) to make up for the lack of live material.

For anyone who's never heard this track I urge you to listen.  Share my pain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_ScyKztGA0

[Johnny Yesno]

I can't say I'm sold on the vocals but the guitar is great.

[Nowhere Man]

I really love this little ditty, apparently Paul's Dad wrote the tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDU8BrIhHvw

[Petey Pate]

Uh oh...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/06/beatles-did-not-revolutionise-music-study-claims

[NoSleep]

Interesting (typical) how the research went out to examine when radical changes occurred in music and then there's "controversy" because the Beatles don't register a blip; it wasn't about them in the first place.

[Petey Pate]

It's interesting as well in that the data used to measure the change in musical trends is based on record sales.  The part about 1983 being the 'arrival of country and disco' seems bizarre, but it just means that those music styles were being bought by more people, not that either genre was invented that year.  Likewise hip hop 'crash-landed' in 1991 despite being around for longer.

Interesting too how you can now get a masters degree in The Beatles, but even that guy is saying that they were more popularisers than innovators.

[daf]

McCartney ftw, according to this piece I just read on the veranda. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3028185/SIMON-HEFFER-people-lionise-wife-beating-IRA-apologist.html

(Lennon's) quality declined rapidly once the Beatles broke up in 1970 and when he lost the apparently superior talent of Paul McCartney as his songwriting partner.

Eh? Does he think Paul and John actually wrote all their songs together up until the split?

I'm faily sure they were writing solo from about Rubber Soul onwards (other than something like 'Day in the Life' or  'I've Got a Feeling' - which were two solo half finished songs combined into one).

[NoSleep]

It's interesting as well in that the data used to measure the change in musical trends is based on record sales.  The part about 1983 being the 'arrival of country and disco' seems bizarre, but it just means that those music styles were being bought by more people, not that either genre was invented that year.  Likewise hip hop 'crash-landed' in 1991 despite being around for longer.

Interesting too how you can now get a masters degree in The Beatles, but even that guy is saying that they were more popularisers than innovators.

If it's based on sales and yet doesn't register the Beatles, then what revolutionary changes in music did they popularise?

[Serge]

Eh? Does he think Paul and John actually wrote all their songs together up until the split?

I'm faily sure they were writing solo from about Rubber Soul onwards (other than something like 'Day in the Life' or  'I've Got a Feeling' - which were two solo half finished songs combined into one).

I'd have said solo from pretty much the first album onwards, other than polishing up each other's works in the studio.

[Steven]

Didn't Macca start to get all revisionist and say things like he actually wrote most of In My Life? Then there's Mal Evans' royalty cheques gathering dust..

[Serge]

To be fair, Lennon started that in one of his epic interviews, claiming that he wrote 'a good half of the lyrics or more' for 'Eleanor Rigby'. I suspect their memories alter(ed) to suit how they felt about each other at the time they were asked.

[grassbath]

Eh? Does he think Paul and John actually wrote all their songs together up until the split?

I'm faily sure they were writing solo from about Rubber Soul onwards (other than something like 'Day in the Life' or  'I've Got a Feeling' - which were two solo half finished songs combined into one).

Nah. They were still at the very least running the completed song past each other for revision before it went into the studio in the Sgt Pepper period. "With A Little Help from my Friends," "Getting Better" and "She's Leaving Home" were co-written (from original McCartney idea and tune, but Lennon certainly helped polish the lyrics, and in the case of the latter two contributed a countermelody).

[Black_Bart]

I think the relationship between Lennon/McCartney was something along the lines of this

Lennon: Eh la, I've this massive issue with my mum, my fucking useless at playing guitar, and you have look at it, put some sus 7 chordage on it, make it a "proper song"?

Macca:  Yeah, just as long as you help me with my nice (if bland) lyrics.

That's how I've always read it. One of them would come up with a basic idea (usually taken from a black rnb tune) and the other add a mid8 or whatever, add aline etc.

But if we move into the studio, Lennon would have been the first to admit he had to learn the board all over again ever time he went into the studio.