I think I liked 2 or 3 songs off it. So he has still been doing some interesting songs.

John Lennon
 

Paul McCartney is one of the kings of pop (if so inclined) but John Lennon is an Icon. Lennon could claim status as The King of Rock & Roll in my opinion. He was the main lead vocal, front man and songwriter of the Beatles, and all of his solo material is a must own, especially by a music enthusiast. As well as McCartney's, George Harrison, and Ringo Star's solo work. Harrison is considered one of the best/influential guitarist of all-time and some of his (Harrison) solo work is outstanding . But I think John Lennon is on a level above them all as an artist, activist, personal life, whatever? His single Imagine resonates so loud while the song musically is simple and easy to play.:cool:

Early on more so, later on McCartney played really quite a big role. He took charge of later albums like Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road. The later Beatles would not have been the same without McCartney.

Yeah I agree The Beatles were a product of the song writing merits of both Lennon and McCartney. To try and attribute more or less of the praise on either kind of misses the point as I think it was the dynamic between them that let them create what they did. Although I do consider McCartney the poppier and Lennon somehow more substantial but as a team they were probably the greatest song writing team ever.

I`ve always been a Beatles fan-saw McCartney live last summer.
He has really embraced his legacy-I would estimate that about 70% of his material was Beatles songs.He sang "Something" as a tribute to George and "A day in the life" for John.
If you include material like "All my loving", "Hey Jude", "Get Back", "And I love her" and "Here, There and Everywhere", then who can top him?

Lennon-McCartney is better than either solo but if i had to choose, i'd pick Macca over John

For a so called King Of Pop I would expect to like at least a couple of songs he's done in his 50 plus year career but I don't.
I can't stand anything this man has ever put out, even the small handful of Beatles tunes I do like seem to be predominately perfomed by Lennon.

And yet I have nothing against the man whatsoever. This isn't like a Bono thing or a Matt Bellemy thing where I want to kill them on sight. I have nothing against the guy.

I just don't like anything he's performed.

That's ok, you can listen to whatever you want. Millions would disagree with you though.

You also want to kill Matt Bellamy on sight? I like you!

We have history

Intriguing......

Micheal Jackson is way better, how could you compare a Rocker to a PopStar??? its like comparing Viagra to Oranges

I'm sure there are quite a few people who would be reasonable contenders for the crown over Michael Jackson, but Paul McCartney isn't one of them.

Michael Jackson got called the King of Pop. Anyway it is funny that someone who hails The Spice Girls dismisses McCartney who wrote many standards across a whole range of styles (rock, pop or whatever).

I hate the Spice Girls and I still just don't care that much about McCartney either, for one thing he's very overrated as a bass player, Jermaine Jackson is a better bassist in my opinion. I actually like George Harrison's solo material verses McCartney. And Harrison, nothing to write home about.

oh no no, im not dismissing Paul, he is very good, but I think that comparing Paul and Micheal is too out of place, on 1 hand you have a guy who basicly invented rock with the beatles, on the other hand you have a very talented dancer, singer and song writer.. its just too different to compare

Arguably McCartney has done more as a songwriter, and I judge musicians by that more than anything.

As influential as he is, I can`t really say I`ve ever enjoyed any of his solo material or stuff with Wings etc. I`d put him in the same category as David Bowie and Mick Jagger as icons who were always at their best when working with the bands that made them famous, or in Bowie`s case in his golden era of the 70`s. These artists as well, have usually tarnished their reputation by working with just about anybody. Does it get any worse than Jagger and Bowie singing "Dancing in the Street" or McCartney and Jackson singing "Say Say Say" and Elton John and George Michael with "Don`t Let the Sun Go Down on Me." Personally, I`d sooner listen to Lionel Richie at least he was up front with the mediocre material he put out and made it reasonably listenable.

Can't Slow Down was a good album, not mediocre to me or many others. Not sure if the rest of Lionel Richie's work is as good though.

I don't really care about the duets. I think he has done enough good and popular songs to be above Jagger or Bowie.

Can you please name some? Because I can't think of any.

Hello
Three Times a Lady (with the Commodores)
Endless Love
Dancing on the Ceiling
Easy (with the Commodores)
Truly
Stuck on You
All Night Long
Penny Lover

i love me some Lionel

Running with the Night, The Only One. I think all the songs on Can't Slow Down are ok and it was a huge seller, critics just get snobby about it and miss it from their lists all the time.

Well it depends what you like. Something that rocks a bit like Jet or Maybe I'm Amazed? Or maybe ballads like Only Love Remains, Here Today, London Town, Warm and Beautiful. Or something with more of a dance beat like Take it Away, With a Little Luck, Silly Love Songs. Albums? The Band on the Run album. All kinds of other songs from folk like Callico Skies, more of a quirky song like Let Em' In, bubblegum pop like CMoon, dramatic film tune like Live and Let Die. Many others.

His solo stuff on a par or ABOVE Bowie?

Wow

:laughing:

I like some Bowie songs like Life on Mars, Starman, Ashes to Ashes, Space Oddity, but he is overrated.

I never realised it was Beatles fans dismiss the merits of every other artists albums ever recorded week.

What next? Ringo's solo output eclipses that of Stevie Wonder & Frank Zappa combined?

I don't know man, Liverpool 8 is a pretty good song. I think it might be better than Mozart.

The bassline to China Girl is awesome, & fun to play on bass. I don't think Bowie's overrated, just unique.

McCartney is obviously nowhere near as good as Mozart, Bach or Beethoven. But then neither is Bowie.

I never mentioned Ringo Starr.

I don't like the melody of China Girl so much. I do like Blue Jean and Let's Dance from the 80s though. I like Changes too. But I just think I've found his albums not so great in the past as some people say.

Apart from some songs off "Lets Dance" and some songs off albums like "Heathen" etc. Bowie hasn`t really done anything worthwhile since the Berlin Trilogy and "Scary Monsters" and that`s like 30 years ago!

I thought 1. Outside is rather good

And McCartney has?

Outside has two very good songs in "A Small Plot of Land" and "Hallo Spaceboy" The last sounds like a bit of a cut and paste job from earlier Bowie songs but still sounds good.

You seem determined to go on about McCartney and the Beatles for some reason, maybe we should talk about Mick Jagger`s solo stuff.........now that is amusing :laughing:

Agreed. It is a ridiculously under rated album. Best thing he has done for years.

The real king of Pop was and is Ray Davies anyhow.

Why? I'm not claiming Jagger's solo stuff is any good.
I just want to know what McCartney's released over the past 30 years that eclipses anything Bowie's done.

....and I never claimed McCartney`s solo stuff to be any good either, looks like we agree.

If you look at the original post, you`ll see I never claimed that any one of them to be any good outside of their golden eras anyway! Whether Bowie has some better songs than McCartney is largely irrelevant, as we have artists here that are largely living off their previous reputations and have been spent creatively for like 3 decades now.

Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
Ram
Band on the Run

Ray Davies is one of the best. Along with some others like Brian Wilson, Paul Simon, McCartney, Bacharach, Webb, Jobim.