When U was living with my parents, in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), I can't remember very much of what the Beatles—post breakup—were doing. I probably didn't really know. (Actually, I thought Imagine was post-breakup, but it might not have been ...)
Then, when I got here, I was confronted with a lot of McCartney and Wings-type music, a little of which I really liked ('Uncle Albert, Admiral Halsey' - type songs, and Band on the Run), but a lot of which I didn't care for. John Lennon's early songs I rather liked, but not the Double Fantasy songs, for the most part. But that was close to half a century ago; I heard Wonderful Christmastime just yesterday, I believe, and I thought: wow, what a great song!
Some of these late McCartney songs really show us, in clear focus, what McC could do: very musical, highly whimsical songs.
Lennon, in contrast, thought in very edgy musical terms. If Paul declared that something John wrote was a little too conventional or formulaic, we have reports that John would rewrite it. ("Here come old Flattop," the opening phrase of Come Together, was a case in point. I recently sangthis with a Karaoke machine, at wedding, andpeople looked at me crosseyed.)
You can easily see how Lennon and McCartney, together, could moderate each other's tendencies, to produce essentially perfect pop songs, which is what the fans wanted. The fans who still deplore the fact that the band broke up don't realize that the vast majority of Beatles fans just would not like Lennon/McCartney songs now. It's impossible.
The Concert on the Roof, which was their last live broadcast, was (in my view,) brilliant. You might think: why couldn't we have more of that? Well, those songs were mostly written when they were in their teens, or were just parodies of their early songs. They had had breakups, the frustrations that they wanted to express were very individual. There were "You never give me your money," - type frustrations, which united them, but a lot of what they wanted to express would probably not found echoes in what the others wanted to express. Or they probably didn't want to express some of those feelings at all; after all, they were English. They were quite capable of expressing their feelings, but I'm sure they had rather not. Perhaps in allegorical form, but it might have struck them as just too much work.
(I can't resist deploring the murder of John Lennon. Can't say anything more than that.)
Well, all McCartney's post-breakup music awaits my attention. I would not be able to persuade anyone who wasn't already an ardent Beatles fan about what an amazing band they were. Listen to the music, I'd say; if it doesn't grab you, give it up.
Archie
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