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[Jack Remington]

Wanted to see what people on GAF think about this. I've switched back and forth between the two over the years. Right now I probably favor Paul ever so slightly.

I'm going to try to avoid songs that were written by Lennon and McCartney together and list only the songs that were written entirely or almost entirely by one of the two. I'm also not going to try to list every song, because there are tons. I'm omitting songs that aren't really in their top tier, and a lot of earlier stuff from the first 3 albums. I've probably still left some good songs out, so feel free to add them.

John
A Hard Day's Night
Do You Want to Know a Secret
You’re Going to Lose that Girl
Ticket to Ride
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Help!
Day Tripper
Nowhere Man
In My Life
Girl
Hey Bulldog
I Am the Walrus
Strawberry Fields Forever
All You Need is Love
She Said, She Said
Tomorrow Never Knows
And Your Bird Can Sing
Doctor Robert
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Good Morning Good Morning
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Happiness is a Warm Gun
I’m So Tired
Yer Blues
Revolution 1
Julia
Across the Universe
Come Together
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
Because
Sun King
Polythene Pam
Don’t Let Me Down


Paul
I Saw Her Standing There
Yesterday
I've Just Seen a Face
Can't Buy Me Love
And I Love Her
All My Loving
Drive My Car
I'm Looking Through You
Michelle
You Won't See Me
Eleanor Rigby
The Fool on the Hill
Penny Lane
Here, There and Everywhere
Good Day Sunshine
Got to Get You Into My Life
For No One
Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (song)
Fixing a Hole
Lovely Rita
When I’m Sixty-Four
Back in the USSR
Blackbird
Helter Skelter
Let It Be
The Long and Winding Road
You Never Give Me Your Money
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
Paperback Writer
Lady Madonna
Hey Jude


Dark Horse: George Harrison
If I Needed Someone
Taxman
It's All Too Much
Love You To
I Want to Tell You
Within You Without You
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Piggies
Savoy Truffle
Something
Here Comes the Sun

 

[Volimar]

Why even make a distinction? Both were great songwriters in the Beatles. No need to choose.

 

[UltraGunner]

I've always been a fan of George.

 

[Placktor]

Pretty close. I would probably go with John though

Spoiler

You can never go wrong with a George song though

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

Paul wrote better traditional pop songs. John wrote more interesting songs for me, so I pick John.

My top 5 is probably

A Day In The Life
Strawberry Fields
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Across The Universe
Something

 

[ronito]

George.

 

[Cat Party]

Paul all day.

All of the truly shitty Beatles songs are John's.

 

[chadtwo]

Paul writes better traditional pop songs. John writes more interesting songs for me, so I pick John.

Probably this for me too.

 

[Zabuza]

John.

 

[mstevens]

Paul, for sure.

 

[Affeinvasion]

George had the best Beatles songs and the best post Beatles songs.

 

[Jack Remington]

Paul all day.

All of the truly shitty Beatles songs are John's.

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill single-handedly knocks The White Album out of top-tier status for me.

 

[- J - D -]

I'm going to cheat and say A Day In The Life. It was credited to both John and Paul.

 

[Zach]

I like John and Paul together balancing each other out. George's got "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" so I've gotta go with him.

 

[Meatfist]

Paul writes better traditional pop songs. John writes more interesting songs for me, so I pick John.

Yep. Paul had very good pop songs and John/George were really pushing the envelope in terms of form, texture and orchestration

 

[Jack Remington]

I'm going to cheat and say A Day In The Life. It was credited to both John and Paul.

Do you prefer John's sections "I read the news today, oh boooy..."
Or Paul's sections "Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head..."

 

[Yaboosh]

Paul.

Eleanor Rigby is da best.

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill single-handedly knocks The White Album out of top-tier status for me.

+ Yellow Submarine, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Ob La Di etc... Paul's lowest stuff is worse than John's, in my opinion. John wrote some shit songs, but they weren't drizzled in saccharine bullshit.

Do you prefer John's sections "I read the news today, oh boooy..."
Or Paul's sections "Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head..."

Considering Paul's section takes up about 32 seconds of a 5+ minute song, John's.

 

[WyndhamPrice]

Paul fo sho

Over the years I find myself appreciating the poppier stuff more.

 

[Zabuza]

Do you prefer John's sections "I read the news today, oh boooy..."
Or Paul's sections "Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head..."

The combination makes it the greatest Beatles song of all time, but I like John's more.

 

[terrisus]

Ringo

>.>

 

[Zach]

Do you prefer John's sections "I read the news today, oh boooy..."
Or Paul's sections "Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head..."

Love them both.

 

[Jack Remington]

+ Yellow Submarine, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Ob La Di etc... Paul's lowest stuff is worse than John's, in my opinion. John wrote some shit songs, but they weren't drizzled in saccharine bullshit.

I really like Maxwell's Silver Hammer

 

[Zach]

I really like Maxwell's Silver Hammer

Eeewww...

 

[Gouty]

Heres a better question;

Why did the version of Tomorrow Never Knows that played at the end of a Mad Men episode hit so fucking hard????

I need that mix.

 

[Fey]

Within You Without You is the best and potentially only good thing the Beatles have ever made so Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J) George Harrison gets my vote.

 

[- J - D -]

Do you prefer John's sections "I read the news today, oh boooy..."
Or Paul's sections "Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head..."

John had the lions share in terms of lines, but I always recall Paul's ""found my way upstairs and had a smoke / somebody spoke and I went into a dream" first when thinking about the song.

 

[nateeasy]

One Vote for Ringo

 

[D.Lo]

Paul. And he also 'fixed' many of John's songs (he wrote the iconic bass line to Come Together, for example). John's songs are weaker on melody (not weak, just compared to Paul), so rely on instrumentation to be more interesting.

It's not as clear cut as to who wrote what, they stopped each other from going off into extremes many times.

George is certainly not in the league of either of them.

 

[Jack Remington]

Yep. Paul had very good pop songs and John/George were really pushing the envelope in terms of form, texture and orchestration

I'm not saying that anyone in this thread should trip on drugs, but if you DO decide to trip on drugs, John's psychedelic quatra-fecta of Strawberry Fields Forever, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite, and Tomorrow Never Knows can't be beat.

George is certainly not in the league of either of them.

Not early on, but I'd say he wrote the best song on the White Album (While My Guitar Gently Weeps) and two of the top four on Abbey Road (Something, Here Comes the Sun). Plus some of the songs from his first couple solo albums were written while he was in the Beatles and should have been on The White Album instead of the shit John/Paul songs they ended up including.

 

[StuBurns]

Lennon by no small margin, Across The Universe being the strongest.

 

[Origami Superman]

John > George / Paul >>>>>> Ringo

 

[dtrush]

Paul

 

[munchie64]

Both are too good.

So I'll be saying George.

 

[rhino4evr]

All of the above. Equally excellent in their own ways.

A harder question is who had the best post Beatles album?

Plastic Ono Band
RAM
All things must pass

Tick tock tick tock

 

[brianjones]

more of a lennon fan

rain and you can't do that are 2 of my fav lennon songs not mentioned.. & ill be back

 

[Xion385]

Paul via the greatest pop song of all time in "Yesterday".

 

[Moff]

 

[Fugu]

I've debated this endlessly, and I give the edge to Lennon every time. It's not clear-cut, however, and I could babble on about this forever.

The short version is that McCartney is more consistent, but Lennon is more diverse and more frequently struck gold. McCartney sticks to the concept, however, and is probably the most responsible for Sgt. Pepper and is unquestionably the driving force behind the Abbey Road medley, which is maybe the best thing the Beatles ever did. That, and the fact that Lennon wrote a lot of duds, makes the question worth talking about.

However, at the end of the day, Lennon wrote more songs that I like, and I feel that he approached songwriting as an art more frequently than McCartney did. Let it Be sounds like him giving up to me.

 

[strobogo]

All of the above. Equally excellent in their own ways.

A harder question is who had the best post Beatles album?

Plastic Ono Band
RAM
All things must pass

Tick tock tick tock

Chaos and Creation and Memory Almost Full are Paul's best post-Beatles work by a lot I think.

 

[jay]

This is handy, though I have no idea how accurate:

http://c0573862.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/1/0/4829/72772/AuthorshipB11.6_o.gif

John for me, though they both wrote some terrible songs along with the classics and under-appreciated stuff.

Paul. And he also 'fixed' many of John's songs (he wrote the iconic bass line to Come Together, for example). John's songs are weaker on melody (not weak, just compared to Paul), so rely on instrumentation to be more interesting.

It's not as clear cut as to who wrote what, they stopped each other from going off into extremes many times.

George is certainly not in the league of either of them.

That's not close to one of John's best songs, though. I actually find it kind of irritating. As a counter example, I offer John's part in We Can Work It Out. Short but minor key and the best part of the song.

 

[stolin]

John > George / Paul >>>>>> Ringo

 

[Dr Duncan Steel]

This thread is reminding me of the seasonal period where I listen to nothing but Beatles songs now and don't get me started on the Anthology. Now that's a musical black hole I wanna get sucked in to again.

For that, I thank you OP.

Spoiler

Rubber Soul is the best album.

Spoiler

Sometimes I'll sway for Abbey Road.

 

[Deleted member 80556]

It's not really fair to take those songs for either, really. Many, of the songs they composed together were really work done by an amazing duo. It was only towards the end of the group when they composed mostly solo.

Now George, he's a pro. He only occasionally needed help from the others. Heck, he even helped Ringo and gave him song credits when he helped him a lot. Very awesome guy.

Ah, I wish I had lived in that period.

 

[Mii]

By sheer number, Paul.

By quality, John.

By percentage good of personal output, George.

Basically, they're all amazing.

 

[Monado Blade]

I feel John is the best songwriter, with Paul coming in close behind. But my favourite will always be George. Ringo's one song is pretty damn good as well. Together though, they're magic.

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

Spoiler

Rubber Soul is the best album.

You are a good person.

 

[munchie64]

By sheer number, Paul.

By quality, John.

By percentage good of personal output, George.

Basically, they're all amazing.

Ringo is sad.

 

[Xpike]

Love both of them, this is wrong, like choosing who's your favorite son.

 

[McGullive]

Its super difficult for me to choose but i think i gotta go with Paul as Martha My Dear, Your Mother Should Know, She's Leaving Home, and I'm Looking Through You are 4 of my 5 favorite Beatles songs. My favorite though is definitely In My Life, which Beatles historians still aren't really sure about which of the two wrote it.

Paul all day.

All of the truly shitty Beatles songs are John's.

Definitely not true. Lots of people criticize many of Paul's songs for being way too corny and say he has some of their worst songs.

I'm going to cheat and say A Day In The Life. It was credited to both John and Paul.

To be fair, ALL of their songs are credited to both John and Paul.

Within You Without You is the best and potentially only good thing the Beatles have ever made so Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J) George Harrison gets my vote.

Funny, I'm literally obsessed with The Beatles and love almost all of their songs but thats one song that I'm not entirely sold on.

All of the above. Equally excellent in their own ways.

A harder question is who had the best post Beatles album?

Plastic Ono Band
RAM
All things must pass

Tick tock tick tock

Gotta go with John. Plastic Ono Band is definitely my favorite post-Beatles album and Imagine is in a close second.