Foz said:
Who brought up Complete musicians?
From this I take it your a Lennon fan who himself regarded many other musicians far superior to himself.Yes and that included his old mate Paul.
A complete musician can actually read music?(full on)Could Lennon?
McCartney couldnt until the mid 70's.
He can now.
Can Lennon?
Ok so its not the be all and end all but you did say complete musician.
You mentioned earlier Lennon could play piano.
Hell yeh but not in the same League as McCartney.
He even asked Paul if he could play the piano on Revolution to do the song justice.Check out who the piano player was on Revoulution (and Revolution 1 if you dont believe me).He even thought George Martin was as good as himself.
Wasnt the only song he asked Paul to do the instruments as most would know.
I also know Lennon played the odd piano on Beatle tracks (on Pauls songs) but it was more a case of other instruments being done by other Beatles.(and George Martin) not by an actual request for him to do it.
Ballad of John and Yoko?
Who was the only musician John could trust with this?
How do you think Paul got a credit on Give Peace a Chance because everyone knows he wasnt in the same country(or bed when it was written).
The Beatles interchanged for the sake of it on a lot of songs (convenience)but if you think Lennon was a better musican than McCartney your about the first.(given Lennon didnt think it you can argue with him)
Also could you give me a review of Lennons performances live from when then Beatles broke up.
Actually from 1966 if you want.
You can include his grammy performance of Imagine as well if you like.
Also a run down of his Maddison Square Garden concert and Yokos performance.Actually made Linda Mccartney look like a musician.
There werent that many performances so please list them and we can go through them individually if you like.
To say he was the complete musician is a stretch.
You can list his country/orchestrial/reggae(yep I know 1 of them) performances if you like.
Imagine was a pretty simplistic song with not many different instruments required.Nothing outstanding from Johns piano thats for sure.Hell your right a 5 year old could play it.
Knock Band on The run and Yesterday and Let It Be and Get Back and The Long and Winding Road and I Saw Her Standing There and Hey Jude etc as much as you like.
Compared to some of the crap Lennon wrote its not even worth mentioning.
And yes Lennon wrote some great songs but open the eyes up.
You can hate everything Mccartney ever did but I dont really care.
He was always a better song writer than Lennon and I'm afraid Lennon wont be improving any.
I think you mentioned the great Brian Wilson somewhere.
(really we must have similar taste because I loved him as well).Serious.
Guess who Brian Wilson regards as the greatest musician of all time.
Give you a hint he's a Beatle and he's not John Lennon.
Good post, i won't reply to all of it as you went into some detail and obviously know alot about McCartney, but i will say a few things from it.
-What makes a great songwriter? imo someone that can influence people to a degree in which they think the songs reflect there own lives, Lennon imo had more of this in his tunes.
-Many musicians never learnt the theoretical side of music, but learnt to play from the ear, this is better then any text book can provide. Lennon had this, maybe also McCartney, probably did.
Most musicians are self taught, so knowing music theory is irrelevant.
- Ever musician had crap songs, but i pay attention to the great ones.
Lennon was a complete musician imo. He played ever instrument well, good songwriter, great singer, charismatic.
And as for Brian Wilson? yep what a talent, don't know who was his biggest influence though.. Paul McCartney? or the voices in his head;-)
