Lennon/McCartney vs. Morrissey/Marr

[O&Afan]

The McCartney issue is one that is always hotly debated by fans. Yes, Lennon's songs are as a whole superior to Paul's. However, Paul wrote a lot of excellent songs; "For No One," "Hey Jude," Yesterday," "Eleanor Rigby," "I'm Looking Through You," "Blackbird," "All My Loving," "You Never Give Me Your Money," "Carry that weight/golden slumbers/the end," "Drive My Car," "Things We Said Today," "Hlter Skelter," "Penny Lane," and I'm just stopping there because I'm sick of quotation marks. But if you read books on The Beatles, it is clear that McCartney played a bigger role in the music than Lennon. Even on Lennon's songs, it was Paul who was staying with George Martin after the others left to arrange strings and re-work songs with Martin. While it has become slightly overrated, "Pepper" was so groundbreaking it was remarkable, and 75% of that album was written by McCartney and almost all of it was arranged my Martin and McCartney. McCartney was the orchestra director on Lennon's masterpiece, "A Day in the Life." While people complain about many of Paul's songs being too upbeat, in the early days, Lennon was the one who wanted to do the rockabily numbers.

I agree that Lennon sang the better songs, I just don't want Paul to get completley thrown under the bus here.

I always found Paul to be more in depth from the musical standpoint and John lyrically. My coworker who is a huge Beatles and solo Beatles fan like myself said it best: "if I want to listen to fun/nice music I listen to Paul, when I want to cry I listen to John." John's lyrics are far more powerful, but I couldn't picture John ever writing the music that Paul has, especially with his classical works, etc. No comparison.

As far as Marr/Morrissey vs. Lennon/McCartney? Very difficult and almost unfair, both extremely powerful in their own right. Both have obviously timeless music, the world will never see as powerful pairs ever again. Period.

 

[Imhotep]

With Lennon/McCartney, you had two singer/songwriters who could (in theory) do everything from scratch, whereas Morrissey/Marr HAD to work together to acheive a single idea each time. With the Beatles, you had so much variety with two such prominent talents. And let's not forget, Lennon wrote some utter shit in the Beatles too on the odd occasion, and sometimes Paul would knock out a belter!

 

[Not Right in the Head]

With Lennon/McCartney, you had two singer/songwriters who could (in theory) do everything from scratch, whereas Morrissey/Marr HAD to work together to acheive a single idea each time. With the Beatles, you had so much variety with two such prominent talents. And let's not forget, Lennon wrote some utter shit in the Beatles too on the odd occasion, and sometimes Paul would knock out a belter!

Too true. For example, compare John's utterly horrible "Run for Your Life" with Paul's "I'm Down", both from 1965.

 

[Dave]

Pete Townshend?
here's one person who can equal both Morrissey and Marr at what they do.

 

[Kumo]

With Lennon/McCartney, you had two singer/songwriters who could (in theory) do everything from scratch, whereas Morrissey/Marr HAD to work together to acheive a single idea each time. With the Beatles, you had so much variety with two such prominent talents. And let's not forget, Lennon wrote some utter shit in the Beatles too on the odd occasion, and sometimes Paul would knock out a belter!

Didn't I already say that?

Kumo