Live and Let Creativity Die

The Beatles final album may be too close to call, but the overall tally isn't. While the band's melody-happy poster boy lacked his partner's edgy brilliance, he wrote the majority of the Beatles enduring hits. (I'd put the figure at three-quarters.) It's that simple.

My personal theory is that Paul, younger than John and always an intellectual step behind, felt constant pressure to impress. John, meanwhile, got diverted by drugs and politics and Yoko and left the business of writing brilliant pop songs to his eager-beaver kid brother. This may help explain why Paul's solo work has been such dreck since the Beatles broke up. (Flaming Pie, ibid.) Or it may be that Paul simply exhausted himself creatively, as happened with Dylan, the Stones, and the rest of the rock fossils still rolling around.

This is not the point. The point is that Paul wins. John loses.
Next week: Donovan versus Dion -- who rocked harder?