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is John Lennon over-rated?

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  • prowlaprowla Frets: 4896
    SidNewton said:
    Jimbro66 said:
    As one half of the Lennon & McCartney song writing team he was perfect. His rougher edge balanced McCartney's suger-sweet tendencies to the benefit of their music. That balance was absent when they went their separate ways, with Lennon being sometimes brilliant but often awful whereas the unchecked McCartney was free to produce dross like Mull of Kintyre. They never should have separated.

    Ringo was perfect for the Beatles IMO regardless of whether he is over- or under-rated.
    That pretty much sums it up for me. I prefer Lennons solo stuff to any of the others. I think he wrote more quality songs during his short solo career than McCartneys managed in the last 50 years.
    That said, any of his collaborations with Yoko are utter dross. Plastic Ono Band, Imagine and Walls and Bridges are all fine albums, Mind Games not so good.
    Hmmm - I quite like Mind Games.

    However, of the Beatles, I prefer George Harrison's solo stuff; perhaps it's because he'd built up a portfolio of songs he wasn't allowed to put on Beatles albums.
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  • SidNewtonSidNewton Frets: 660
    There is of course one thing missing from both Lennon and McCartneys solo careers, which is a definite factor..........George Martin.
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  • SidNewton said:
    There is of course one thing missing from both Lennon and McCartneys solo careers, which is a definite factor..........George Martin.
    He returned for McCartneys ‘C’mon People’... unfortunately. 
    'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'
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  • He'd certainly done most of his best work by the time he left The Beatles or shortly thereafter, although that's true of the other Beatles as well. Even George will be remembered for Something, Here Comes the Sun, While My Guitar etc more than his solo stuff. IMO only the title track of All Things Must Pass ranks with his best 3 or 4 Beatles songs.  The brilliant artist who's burnt out by 30 and dies young/goes and gets a job/repeats himself with ever diminishing returns is more common than that artist who continues to mature into better work.

    I also have a feeling that with Lennon it wasn't his talent that went awol it was his motivation.  He was desperate to be huge but once he achieved that he was incredibly ambivalent about whether he still wanted it.  I always suspected that if  for some reason the need to produce great work became imperative for him again he might just have pulled it off.

    I think George Martin mattered but his importance can be exaggerated.  He himself was extremely insistent throughout his life that The Beatles' music was explicable only in terms of the genius of the individual Beatles and was impatient with people who claimed he deserved a lot of the credit.  I don't think that was just modesty.  He has a pretty large body of work but take the Beatles stuff out of it and it doesn't amount to all that much.  Blow by Blow is probably the pick of it.
    “To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.”
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  • FretwiredFretwired Frets: 24601
    Piece of John Lennon trivia. In the 1960s he heard a song written by a young Francis Rossi and got in touch to say he'd like to write some songs and maybe work with Rossi Their respective schedules meant it never happened - Rossi in a band with Lennon? No Status Quo? Lennon reduced to playing three chords .... Ringo on drums ... :-)

    Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    Lennon couldn't even sweep pick.

    Total crap.
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  • gringopiggringopig Frets: 2648
    edited July 2020
    .
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  • MrBumpMrBump Frets: 1244
    Ringo sang on "Boys", live at the Hollywood Bowl, which was pretty good from memory.  Lennon was great, but suffers from the legacy of a premature death, and is now virtually sainted.  Probably one of the reasons he's elevated above McCartney.
    Mark de Manbey

    Trading feedback:  http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/72424/
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    Best of the Beatles - Amazing
    Best of John Lennon - Amazing

    Conclusion, probably not over rated.
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  • GagarynGagaryn Frets: 1553
    adampeter said:
    is John Lennon over-rated?

     He's certainly past his best.
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  • I thought that Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey were brilliant albums (remove the Yoko songs) , shame his life ended at the age of 40 
    “Ken sent me.”
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  • SidNewtonSidNewton Frets: 660
    I thought that Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey were brilliant albums (remove the Yoko songs) , shame his life ended at the age of 40 
    I have a 4 CD box set of Lennons solo stuff. The 4th CD consists of his tracks from those 2 albums. Much better. It's a shame it wasn't released like that at the time with Yokos stuff as separate album.
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  • ReverendReverend Frets: 4974
    Imagine undoes a lot of his great earlier work. 
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  • SidNewtonSidNewton Frets: 660
    Reverend said:
    Imagine undoes a lot of his great earlier work. 
    Song or album? For me the albums great but the title track is one of my least favourite songs of his.
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  • excellent rhythm player
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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  • Jimbro66Jimbro66 Frets: 2419
    excellent rhythm player
    T'is very true 
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  • SidNewton said:
    I thought that Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey were brilliant albums (remove the Yoko songs) , shame his life ended at the age of 40 
    I have a 4 CD box set of Lennons solo stuff. The 4th CD consists of his tracks from those 2 albums. Much better. It's a shame it wasn't released like that at the time with Yokos stuff as separate album.
    I like the stripped down version of DF, but prefer the original version of Woman.
    “Ken sent me.”
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