I was wondering......????

[2 of 3]

Ok...so....you have the Beatles....and, the general consensus is...individually, as solo artists.....they don't quite match up musically..as far as quality goes. Now....did this happen to others in the past....and over time proved wrong? Did Mozart and Beethoven have their..."quality" years... and then tailed off later on....but now.....hundreds of years later...most don't differentiate what was considered great then, and not up to par later on? Will Mamunia be just another great song like Here, there and Everywhere?

What say you?

[mervap]

I think it's very hard to compare the writers of the "classics" with more contemporary artists. Guys like Mozart and Beethoven, they had a relative few people ever hear their music during their lifetime, whereas Macca et.al. have the ability for millions to hear their latest. I've heard stories about Bach: He had a very large family and he had to take whatever patronage he could get. He would often be working on several pieces at once for different people and, because the people in question were never going to know the difference, he would borrow from himself a great deal. Not very artistic, but practical. Macca can't get away with that much. Remember that Ravel took a lot of crap from his contemporaries for "Bolero"....I wonder who THEY were? 

[Paperback Writer]

Great question.

It will depend upon what length and depth the listener goes to.

A McCartney listener, a hundred years from now, will recognize Blackbird and Calico Skies as great.  If that person chooses to delve further, it will become clear that Blackbird was written as a Beatle and Calico Skies as a solo.  Then, the distinction will be made that when Blackbird was made, it came during a long creative peak arc in his career.
Calico, will be seen as a bright spot during a "spotty" solo career, of which Calico was written during a minor peak.

For perspective _ take Elvis and Sinatra.  People today may think that Elvis song "Burning Love" is great, but it came on a smaller arc of creative burst, than his earlier hits, which spanned a longer more productive period.

Sinatra s "New York, New York, like-wise, came long after several of Franks longer, creative periods, which were numerous.

This is a point that the current, younger Macca fan, often, does not get.  Often they will argue, on other sites, that Macca should play only solo-Wings material, because they are all so great.  He should play more, but they do not all meet his peak standards - and Macca knows this - and his song-set lists reflect this.

Frank and Elvis did this as well in their concert dates.