The Beatles - Who Do You Think Was The Best and Why

ianmc38

I've heard lots of different opinions from people on who they think was the best or most talented member of the Beatles.

Who do you think was the best and why?

jcoote

in fairness the beatles weren't that musically talented at all...

lennon and mccartney wrote some great lyrics and lyrical melodies thats all really imho.

i would say george was the most talented tho because he wrote alot of the trickier guitar stuff and seemed to have a greater influence in the later years.also his music after the beatles was so ****in good better than the others by far

so yeah george is the man

LOTTOWINNER

Paul "was" the most talented song-writer.
John was the best live performer.
George was an all round nice-guy
And Ringo was the luckiest man alive!

ianmc38

jcoote wrote:

in fairness the beatles weren't that musically talented at all...

LOL.

That must be one of the most ridiculous statements of all time.

MrJoeSoap

Ringo was the best.

Why? Thomas The Tank Engine.

MrJones

john was the most talented. the beatles were great because they complemented each other perfectly. john and paul were songwriters but wrote about totally different stuff(perfect example is -a day in the life).
george was a great guitarist and ringo wasnt bad. sounded great on yellow submarine too!
john could sing, write songs, play and he was a leader and outspoken as well.

Draupnir

jcoote wrote:

in fairness the beatles weren't that musically talented at all...

I know of an opening for a professional ****e-talker, drop me a PM

jcoote

ianmc38 wrote:

LOL.

That must be one of the most ridiculous statements of all time.

i'm speaking from amusical point of view...most of their songs are very simple ie not complex

John

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Ringo was the best.

Why? Thomas The Tank Engine.

Beat me to it!

I can see Jcoote's point, the Beatles aren't exactly the epitome of complex musicianship but then again they never set out to be that. They wrote some great songs and were hugely influential. They didn't repeat the same formula over and over again (look at the difference between early Beatles and late Beatles, could be two different bands). I wouldn't put them anywhere on my favourite bands list but they do deserve a bit of respect for some great songs.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

Beatles are tolerable I guess....George Harrison is probo my favourite...

deedee lepoopoo

The time signatures on some of McCartney's songs in particular were very unusual.

I think there was synergy within the whole band, but they also had some sparks of genius on the solo side. Harrisson was the best of them in his solo career IMO.

It's probably popular to discount The Beatles at the moment - but they were one of the greatest influences of popular music.

super_furry

George had the best solo album. All Things Must Pass is brilliant.

gracehopper

It's hard to say who the most talented was. My favourite however was john as he possessed great heart and wrote some great songs. He was a lot more interesting than paul mc but the latter probably had the better vocal ability.

tbh

my favourite was John, but I have to say, I don't think any of them would have been famous without the other three.

Doctor J

Ringo, if only for the way he said "GEAR!" in the Simpsons

MrJones

id say john lennon would have been famous anyways. he had a pretty successful
solo career after the beatle. i know he didnt have one unbelievable album like george harrison but he still came up with 20-30 class songs over the course of 4 or 5 albums.

tbh wrote:

my favourite was John, but I have to say, I don't think any of them would have been famous without the other three.

jcoote

deedee lepoopoo wrote:

The time signatures on some of McCartney's songs in particular were very unusual.

thats LSD for ya

quickbeam

Not particularily a fan of the Beatles, but I really like George's solo stuff, so I voted for him. Next would be John. Then Paul. Then .... well.

Boo-yah

Mc Cartney was the best songwriter.

egon spengler

lennon, his songs are more experimental and have more artistic integrity

Goodshape

John, with George not far behind in second.

I think the differece in quality between the Beatles stuff and any of their solo stuff shows that they all worked much better as a team than they did alone. You could say that Harrison is an exception here, although he was never giving too much of a chance to shine within the band - but when he was, his 'beatles' songs were again far better than his solo work imo.

Never cared for McCartney's song writing, in our out of the Beatles, but he was the pefect compliment to John.

Amazotheamazing

Paul, by some distance. Wrote the best songs, wrote the widest range of songs, was the better singer, better guitarist than John (according to John), better producer too. tried to keep the band fresh by introducing more instruments etc.

What Paul is lacking is the lyrical sense of John, Paul isn't a bad lyricist but his solo career is littered with good songs ruined by lazy lyrics.

Also, unlike John, George and Ringo, he never beat his wife. The other 3 have all confessed to beating theirs.

Bodhidharma

I dont really care who the most talented member was. They worked as a group so its irrelevant.

I liked Ringo best. Big nose, poor enough drummer, awful voice - still though, he was the man. I'd say he was a great laugh. I hope he outlives that w***er McCartney, he wants too be the only Beatle so badly.

The Stones RULE!

Mrs. MacGyver

Paul wa always my fave, brill songwriter, lovely personality, geat voice by far the most talented and attractive Beatle. He just had this charm about him and he did most of the compositions with John Lennon.

Jonny Arson

How the hell has John only got 5 votes out of 24 when he should have 24 votes out of 24???

Amazotheamazing

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

How the hell has John only got 5 votes out of 24 when he should have 24 votes out of 24???

People here prefer the music over the image?

quarryman

Paul. He just was.

ctrl-alt-delete

I voted for George, he has always been my favourite - apart from being a great singer and guitarist he also wrote 3 of (in my opinion) the best beatles songs, these being "something","while my guitar gently weeps" and "here comes the sun".

Charm Offensive

George Martin.

dream brother

Amazotheamazing wrote:

Also, unlike John, George and Ringo, he never beat his wife. The other 3 have all confessed to beating theirs.

Best quote of the day!

This is a tough one though cause without each other I think they wouldn't have that extra push to write the songs, but I have to say that I prefer John's songs more than the others. A day in the life and I'm only sleeping are great tunes to listen to.

nlgbbbblth

I think John.

In my opinion the best solo Beatle album is John's Sometime In New York City.

SBob

Couldnt possibly vote, to try to figure out which one is the best is to miss the point completely.

the beauty of the beatles is that they are so different but so similar, i.e. paul and john wrote on some levels similar types of songs but they came at it from completely different angles. The Beatles represent almost the full spectrum of modern song writing. The personality of the band is incredibly complex as is how the indivudual personalities relate to each other. but you could go on all day about it.

As for the music being simple, they released like 2 or three top class albums a year, the music was flowing out of them, they had no time or inclination to go into a studio and like radiohead or somebody really work on making something complex and meaningful (on a rational, intellectual level). they let the music speak for itself. Abbey road is one of the most beautiful albums ever to come out of the modern era, and alot of the lyrics seem silly and pointless. The riffs, the base lines, the piano, everything seems so perfect they you feel they must have just played it without any planning whatsoever.

Who needs complex when you can have simple perfection

bluto63

I went with Paul.

John was a little too out there. While Paul was in creating Blackbird for the White Album, John was in another studio making Revolution 9.

George, havn't heard much about him.

Ringo is just plain useless

Paul was/is the man. But still, as has been said like 50 times already; they worked as a group

Goodshape

The U.S. vs. John Lennon trailer

The music may be debatable (I'd still go for John tbh), but Paul, George and Ringo ain't got **** on this guy.

Jim_Are_Great

Bodhidharma wrote:

The Stones RULE!

I second that.

Anto McC

George!

As well as being a fantasic guitarist,he wrote some of their best tracks and his "all things must pass album" is genius

nohshow

In brief but heartfelt defense of Ringo: John's quote "He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles" was a joke. I know Paul drummed sometimes on the later albums, but that wasn't because anyone reckoned Paul's drumming would be better - it was because Ringo was away.

Ringo was highly rated as a club drummer and was the only one of the four to have been a professional, gigging musician before the Beatles. After the split, the others still wanted to work with him and not only because of his amiable personality. His drumming was always solid and precise. Try setting a metronome to any of his tracks and see how far he drifts. He didn't go in for flashy fills and trashy frills, preferring to treat the drums as the rhythm back-bone of the music, using them as musical instruments to complement what the others were playing. In so many songs (Hey Jude, Please Please Me, Let it Be, Birthday (might have been Paul), Rain, Tomorrow Never Knows, George's Long, Long, Long and dozens more) the drums are as much a part of the music as any of the guitars or voices. There are even tracks where you can't help but sing the drum parts when you're humming the tune.

He is the only one who worked with each of the other three immediately post-break-up. He is the only one that each considered a close friend. If it's on personality, on level-headedness, wit and amiability, he might be considered the best man out of the four of them. In musicianship, Paul is probably the most influencial bass player of his era. For songwriting, John needed Paul and Paul needed John, but George created three of the Beatles' greatest songs (Something, While My Guitar and Here Comes the Sun - personally, I really love Long, Long, Long, as well) working almost entirely on his own, with not even George Martin, as he later confessed, giving him enough attention. But take any one of those names off the roster and the band wouldn't be The Beatles anymore. There was no best Beatle. It's like asking which is the better arm or leg.

Pigman II

My fav was George. Didn't get many tracks onto the records but what he did was usual good stuff. Plus I watched the Beatles Antholgy and he seemed to have the least amount of bull**** to him.

Amazotheamazing wrote:

Also, unlike John, George and Ringo, he never beat his wife. The other 3 have all confessed to beating theirs.

He just had to whip out the hacksaw to keep his wife in check.

Doomspell

I like George too.....need I state a reason...

C Fodder

I can't vote because I need four votes. In fairness nohshow got it right in defense of Ringo because the Beatles wouldn't be the the Beatles without him. John was my favoutite songwriter by a long way e.g. he got it right solo on "Working class hero". Paul is a musician and a half and my respect grows for him over the years but George was just George and well brilliant......... ( maybe not quite as brilliant as Keith Moon but.......). The true quality of the Beatles was that four very different and talented people came together and made music better than any one, two, or three of them could.

loyatemu

the beatles as a band were obviously genius, but as solo artists none of them realy lived up to expectations. you could fit the best solo work by all 4 of them onto 1 CD.

Goodshape

loyatemu wrote:

the beatles as a band were obviously genius, but as solo artists none of them realy lived up to expectations. you could fit the best solo work by all 4 of them onto 1 CD.

I'd rate Imagine and Plastic Ono Band as two fantastic albums. Likewise All Things Must Pass.

They're not given enough credit if you ask me.

MrJones

well i have a compilation -lennon legend, with 21 tracks on it of some of lennons best solo stuff and all of it is quality. and im sure there are a good few good songs left out at that.

loyatemu wrote:

the beatles as a band were obviously genius, but as solo artists none of them realy lived up to expectations. you could fit the best solo work by all 4 of them onto 1 CD.

Beastieboy

For me it's hard to choose between John and George. I love John for his lyrics and George for his melodies.

ogy

even mccartney has acknowledged that the beatles were an obvious example of the whole being (far) greater than the sum of its parts. All the beatles were equally important in making the beatles so great (including ringo!:).

saying musically theyre not that great is completely missing the point of music. theres so many factors that make up what a good song or good album or good band is. in terms of harmony/melody/lyrics the beatles have undoubtedly some of the greatest music ever written. with some bands and genres flair/musicianship/complexity are an integral part of what makes them great e.g. rock blues crossover acts like zeppelin etc, virtuosic classical stuff, jazz fusion like mahavishnu etc. But with other genres different elements are more important like the bealtes/the beach boys/elvis costello etc. I guess its whatever you look for in the music you like, but i always think the ability to write a great song full of sublime melody and harmony is far more impressive and more artistic than someone who can play incredibly fast over complex arrangements, or music that uses intricate harmonys just for the sake of it, which i always felt makes a sport out of music rather than an art. anyway in summary, to say the beatles are not that musically talented is utterly daft.

ps - i don't think ringo really was a very good drummer. how hard would it be to make it as a working drummer during the skiffle era, also check out the extras on the last waltz when levon helm has to leg it on stage to cover ringos awful drumming, he was what he was and it worked:)

so atari jaguar all the way