Paul Simon > McCartney or Lennon

[Jack Reacheround]

Carly Simon > Paul Simon

Mock
InG
Bird
Ing

 

[loyalyolayal]

What's interesting about the proposition is that it sounds absurd, at first.

But judging by what? Hits?
Not really a meter I care about.
Good song writing. Musicianship.

And as much as I love the Beatles, Simon has a killer resume

Lennon has an actual killer on his resume.

 

[loisestrad]

So, Paul Simon retires, gets a lot of attention, and now he's greater than The Beatles.

I wonder what would have happened and been said if The Beatles had retired yesterday.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

Lennon has an actual killer on his resume.

Ooooooh

That joke went down like Jodie Foster at a clam festival

 

[badascan]

It's a true story...

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

Like a Briiiiiiiidge Over Troubled Waterrrrr,
Chapman laid John down

 

[OldTimer]

Who is Paul Simon?

Some people call him Al

 

[Nameless Ghoul]

Who is Paul Simon?

That dude from Kiss

 

[OldTimer]

As someone who has a hard-on for innovation, complexity, and weird psychedelic shit, there's no way Paul Simon can hold a candle to Lennon/McCartney.

I don't always clap, but when I do, it is for posts like this.....

 

[TheNinja]

Hello Darkness My Old Friend

 

[moreorless87]

As someone who has a hard-on for innovation, complexity, and weird psychedelic shit, there's no way Paul Simon can hold a candle to Lennon/McCartney.

This comparison would have better come up when Holger Czukay passed,



What Simon did have I spose was great longevity.

 

[-Nada-]

There are a lot who are upper echelon and who's better goes down to personal preference imo.
Josh Homme, Prince and Elliott Smith are up there for me with many others.

 

[Mr Mojo Lane]

I wasn't alive then; but, from listening to my parent's generation, the Beatles were more of a cultural revolution and more musical innovators. Listen to some of the music before the Beatles and then after. Look at how many musicians said that they wanted to play b/c of the Beatles

 

[franklinstower]

Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Chuck Berry, John Fogerty, Gordon Lightfoot, Dan Fogelberg, Harry Chapin

All of these bands are better than the Beatles. Their music is candy. It is good and sweet but ultimately empty.

 

[MaureenCretis]

I agree. Not that they're bad by any stretch, but they're a fairly standard pop act that happened to be lucky enough to come around when the time was ripe. IMO, they basically were the first to be good enough to catch the wave that redefined popular music for decades. If it hadn't been them, it would've been someone else.

People loved the Beatles back then because it's all there was. Their primacy was then justified on the basis of their talents, not their timing. I feel that rationale has since stuck in history. We've seen some similar, albeit smaller waves happen in the years since: Nirvana is another good example (although, unlike the Beatles, they were decidedly NOT a pop act).

Nirvana were VERY pop, even if they felt cooler by pretending they weren’t.

 

[Mr Mojo Lane]

Nirvana were VERY pop, even if they felt cooler by pretending they weren’t.

Nirvana was not very pop. You didn't hear them on Top-40 stations being played over and over in the 90s. GNR would have been more pop. They were very popular for a punk band which is what they called themselves back then not grunge.

 

[Son of Werdum]

Simon is a very good top of the food chain songwriter. Up there with Don Henley, Fogerty, Tom Petty and a few select others.

Consider me +1 on The Beatles being overrated bandwagon. The Rolling Stones were always the better, cooler band.

 

[MaureenCretis]

Nirvana was not very pop. You didn't hear them on Top-40 stations being played over and over in the 90s. GNR would have been more pop. They were very popular for a punk band which is what they called themselves back then not grunge.

They were all over the pop charts in the UK. They may or may not have deliberately courted a pop audience, but their music was about as underground as U2.

 

[moreorless87]

All of these bands are better than the Beatles. Their music is candy. It is good and sweet but ultimately empty.

 

[TeTe]

Never a big Beatles fan, so its hard for me to not agree.

But sounds like you are assuming people automatically put McCartney and Lennon at the top. They never deserved to be.

As far as Simon is concerned, I'd still think Van Morrison or Jackson Browne or Hendrix are better. But of course this is all subjective.