Rank the solo careers of the four Beatles
by Brian V
In order of your preference, please. This has nothing to do with any of the songs they wrote, sang, or whatever while in the Beatles – I’m mainly interested in what people think of the solo stuff.
I’ll go first:
1. Paul – He gets a bad reputation because he tended towards treacly, over-sentimental stuff both in and out of the Beatles, but he’s hands-down the most interesting of the four. Pretty decent arguments could be made about his first 2 albums (literally homemade, playing 99% of the instruments himself, with weird, half-finished experiments sitting alongside pop gems like Maybe I’m Amazed) being a large influence on the lo-fi indie-pop thing that happened in the 80s and 90s. The highly-underrated Wild Life and the classic Band on the Run are also very worthy of your attention. And while it’s true that he’s been not very good in the last few decades, he does surprise you every once in awhile with something like 1999′s Run Devil Run, where he covers some of his favorite 50s rock songs. The whole thing isn’t great, but the 1/3 to 1/2 that is good is almost punk-rock in its approach and execution (see the title track, She Said Yeah, I Got Stung, and Honey Hush if you need proof).
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2. George – All Things Must Pass is far and away my favorite solo Beatle project, but I’ve ranked George at #2 because it’s the only one of his albums that I really like. Granted, my collection is missing Gone Troppo, but I’m fairly confident that it wouldn’t move him past Paul.
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3. John – A good portion of my favorite Beatles material is John’s, but remember, we’re talking solo. His first solo album, Plastic Ono Band, is a classic. About half of his second album, Imagine, is good, but the slide into mediocrity has already begun. Beyond that, you’re looking at a few good singles (#9 Dream, Mind Games, Jealous Guy) swimming in a sea of over-produced light rock. His oldies album, Rock & Roll, is totally smoked by Paul’s Run Devil Run.
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4. Ringo – I’m actually putting him here by default since I’m pretty unfamiliar with his solo stuff other than a song or two.
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Posted on December 14, 2008, in Music. Bookmark the permalink. 18 Comments.
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I agree with your order but I think that john’s early death really makes this a bit unfair. He might have had a change of course in the 80′s.
Ringo’s solo material is crap, but I have to give him some points for organizing his All-Star bands. I’ve seen two versions, and the first one featuring Peter Frampton, Jack Bruce, Gary Brooker, and Simon (forgot his last name–from Bad Company and Free) were really good, especially doing stuff Bruce wrote for Cream. Ringo doing his solo material was the lowlight of both shows, by a wide margin. They only did maybe two Beatles songs each time.
1. george, if only for the travelling wilburys.
2. john.
3. paul.
4. ringo, although i wish i could put him third for the reasons last lemming listed. but obviously paul can’t be last. hey, isn’t he “mormon?” i vaguely remember that he was the uncle of an lds kid i grew up with.
John
George
Paul
Ringo
Updated my original post to include a sample track from each. The Ringo song is good enough to make me reconsider putting him last…
John
Paul
George
Ringo
I think. John is definitely #1 for me. I love his solo stuff.
Paul’s 70s soft rock rules. And “Let Me Roll It” is an awesome song.
George and Ringo I’m not very familiar with.
I like the Traveling Wilburys.
For solo stuff though I really haven’t followed them much. That Hari Krishna song by Harrison was catchy although I can’t say I listen to it much. Imagine by Lennon while superficial was a good song. But McCartney has Live and Let Die and Band on the Run which are both pretty solid.
Overall though it’s kind of a “meh” from me. Looking at my iTunes I only have two songs from all of them.
I’m deeply disappointed that This Song is Just Six Words Long has been left out of the discussion.
I concur with Susan Brian V’s rankings. Carry on.
My thoughts:
Paul – say whatever you like, but his last two albums “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard” and “Memory Almost Full” were awesome. And then his stuff with Wings was even better. You can’t stick all of Paul’s great songs on one or two or even three CDs. If you doubt the magic of McCartney, attend one of his concerts the next time he tours – he rocks for 3 hours. And get acquainted with his album “Memory Almost Full” – if you can’t stand sweet pop then try out his newest album by the Firemen “Electric Arguments.” From what I’ve heard it’s like “Helter Skelter” only better. Sure he’s had some duds (“Driving Rain,” anybody?), but he makes enjoyable music, and is willing to push his creative bounds (his classical choral album “Ecco Cor Meum” wasn’t too bad, although he’s not the next Handel by any means). And I will admit that Paul was kind of jerky after the Beatles broke up, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t make some great songs.
I’m making George and John a tie. I can’t choose which one I like worse
George – I’ll ditto what others have said – even if it was just for the Traveling Wilburys, George had a great solo career. All Things Must Pass, Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) were great songs too. He had a real gift to understanding the spiritual nature of things. But then, he had some weird stuff too that makes me not like him, like his Dark Horse album. Even if he was dying when he wrote it, did it have to be so awful?
John – I’m hit and miss with John. The songs I love I REALLY love, but the songs I don’t…ugh. Unfortunately we’ll never know what he could have done with the time that Paul or even George had to make music. Imagine, Instant Karma, and (in the spirit of the season) Happy XMas are all great, but you can fit John’s great solo songs on one CD and you won’t be missing out on anything. John’s angst is great, but there’s only so many times you can listen to a song where he’s sorry for cheating on Yoko yet again.
Ringo – So I have a CD of Ringo’s greatest hits and there are definitely some great ones on there, but even among the “hits” there are some real “misses.” Photograph and No No Song are classics, but his most recent album Liverpool 8 just isn’t really that great other than the title song. In fact, it’s mostly intolerable (and it’s really hard for me to say that, because I love me some Ringo).
I love John, and love all his albums, but I have to rank Paul at number 1 for his solo work. He really does have an amazing body of work and it’s pretty consistently good.
Close second is John, but for different reasons. John is the greatest, but I don’t think as an overall collection of solo recordings it can live up quite as well, if only because some of his early 70′s stuff is a little dated when you listen to it now.
John and Paul could really be a tie, almost.
3. George.
4. Ringo.
12 comments in and not a single mention of Atouk?
Comparing bests with bests, rather than complete packages:
1. George
2. Paul
3. John
4. Ringo
Ha! ~
Ringo rules – but only because he (and George Carlin) do voiceovers for Thomas the Tank Engine.
Well if we’re counting movies, George wins for The Rutles and for producing a bunch of Monty Python stuff!
Good point meems. I didn’t know he produced the Rutles.
David J, and Ringo played the character Mr Conductor in Shining Time Station (not just a voice-over).
I don’t know if George produced the Rutles, but I know he was in it and he was a consultant.
One thing that is amazing is how much they all suck as solo artists compared to the Beatles. With the exception of a handful of songs I can listen to the last several Beatles albums back to back without thinking, “this one is skippable”.
The Beatles were clearly more than the sum of their parts, because the parts by themselves weren’t all that.
Frankly the best thing any of them did afterwards was George doing the Traveling Wilbury’s, another group effort.