I love a good discussion, and I am in the middle of putting together a radio program on the subject of who is the better musician, Paul McCartney or John Lennon? There are few people that have ‘no comment’. Most folks are firmly in one camp or the other. I have faced some fierce emails on this subject, but I am very clear in my choice. In a futile attempt to take myself out of the equation I asked my wife Jan to review this one. So, all hate and discontent needs to be pointed at her. But, I will add my two cents, McCartney has more ability in his pinky toe than Lennon. He chose better friends, and he chose a better lifestyle. Music is subjective, and here is Jan’s review – Simon
A three night concert held by Paul McCartney at New York’s Citi Field had 120,000 plus fans attending. Hear Music/Concord Music Group released the recording of the concert names Good Evening New York City made available in two formats: a 3 disc (2 CD and 1 DVD) deluxe version expanding package and a bonus DVD which includes Paul McCartney’s headline making July 15 performance on the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee. The set features the 30 plus songs and almost 3 hours of music.
Citi Field is the former Shea Stadium. Holding the July 2009 concert here held a specific significance for McCartney and generations of his fans. The Beatles performed on the same hallowed ground in 1965 where they played a 34 minute show that set the modern day stadium rock show and where McCartney joined Billy Joel in 2008 for the final rock show before Shea Stadium was demolished.
Some of the music played at this concert, Good Evening New York City includes Drive My Car, Got To Get You Into My Life, The Long and Winding Road, Blackbird, Eleanor Rigby, Back in the USSR, Paperback Writer, Let It Be, Hey Jude, Helter Skelter and lots more.
There was a tribute made to John Lennon, as they played A Day In The Life and Give Peace A Chance in the form of a medley. There were also performances from the Wings era including Band on the Run, My Love, Let Me Roll It and the pyrotechnic tour de force of Live and Let Die. McCartney does solo material ranging from Here Today to Flaming Pie and Dance Tonight.
The concert footage featured on Good Evening New York City standard edition features concert footage directed by Paul Becher, who has overseen live visuals for McCartney for some 200 performances and counting. The 33-song 2 hour 40 minute performances were shot in High Definition using 15 cameras and digital footage incorporated from 75 Flipcams handed out to fans over the course of the three night stand. The audio mix, in both stereo and 5.1, was handled by longtime McCartney engineer Paul Hicks, whose credits include the recent Beatles remasters, The Beatles Anthology, Let It Be… Naked and two Grammy awards for his mixing work on the Beatles’ Love album.
You can learn more by going to the official web page on how to purchase this CD/DVD set. It can be bought from Amazon also. If you would prefer to sample some of the music before buying you can go here and listen to some and view some of the video’s.
Jan Barrett
(4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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Who is the better musician, Paul McCartney or John Lennon?
Each is a unique music genius. However, both together are a fantastic, magnificent, awesome couple.
Jan misses the point. Dating from their first musical exchange, Paul’s versatility was self-evident. John described himself as a “primitive” musician and acknowledged Paul as a better musician. The point, however, is that rock and roll is not about musicianship. It’s about emotional impact. John, together with Bob Dylan, helped turn rock and roll into an art form. Therein lies the transcendence of Lennon’s music. And, by the way, I concur that together they enjoyed a musical symbiosis like none other.
Paul wrote “Yesterday”, “For No One’ , “Here, There and Everywhere ” and oh yea, “E.Rigby” , not to mention blah , blah , blah .. I think we can all qualify Paul as a musical genius…did I forget “I Saw Her Standing There” , “Can’t Buy Me Love” , “Back in the USSR’, “Helter Skelter” or his voice ripping version of Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally”, to remind us of his ‘rock n roll roots and as far as turning rock into an art form, I think “SGT PEPPER” which Lennon himself in ROlling Stone 1970 called “Paul’s Baby” did more to turn rock into art than anything else sorry. revionist theory gone bad.
Hundreds of years from now, philosophers will still be debating precisely what cosmic forces brought McCartney and Lennon together.
Paul is without any context a better “musician”. His ability to play bass, guitar, piano, mandolin. On the bass side he is phenomenal, has inspired quite a lot of bass lines and musicians. Lennon is great, was adding ideas and fierceness in the band, but nothing much on a pure “musical” level.
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