I have my personal "Top Ten British Vocalists of all time" list.
Generally I include Lennon/McCartney as one entry.
(that way my list can go to "eleven")
I would put Lennon/McCartney near the top of my "Top Ten" song writers as well.
Are all song writers composers?
I guess that depends on your point of view.
Topic for another thread?
 
T

there's no point comparing pop music with classical or jazz, ditto prog metal or hip-hop.
 
Is McCartney one of the greatest composers ever? No.
Is he one of the greatest popular music composers ever? No.
Is a member of one of the greatest popular music bands ever, who composed some of the greatest songs ever? Yes.
 
Unfortunately for him, Lennon died and attained sainthood...
 
 

Wasn't he in one of those "boy" bands? 

Fact: Paul McCartney is not the greatest composer of all time.
 
 
End of history lesson.
 
Cheers

Or bass player. Or singer. Or songwriter. Or person. Or anything...other than being the best Sir Paul McCartney ever. Maybe not even that. And I LOVE the guy!!!

Or bass player. Or singer. Or songwriter. Or person. Or anything...other than being the best Sir Paul McCartney ever. Maybe not even that. And I LOVE the guy!!!

 
+1
 
 
 
So, who is the greatest composer of all time?  How would one qualify that?  What criteria are you using to judge this category?
 
I am assuming that composer has to mean....Classical Music???

MakeShift

Or bass player. Or singer. Or songwriter. Or person. Or anything...other than being the best Sir Paul McCartney ever. Maybe not even that. And I LOVE the guy!!!

 
+1
 
 
 
So, who is the greatest composer of all time?  How would one qualify that?  What criteria are you using to judge this category?
 
I am assuming that composer has to mean....Classical Music???

No, but it's probably Mozart, so far (cos we ain't had 'all time' yet). Arguably.
 
If you use the criteria - most prolific (over 600 works), most gifted, most lauded by his peers and critics, having the most influence on subsequent composers and Western music in general, and enduring popularity, he would appear to be 'the guy'.
 
Or not.

Yeah, ditto for me, yorolpal! I heard Fixing A Hole, and Band On The Run, yesterday and thought Sir Paul has brought some ..well, LOTS of really nice music into my life and I am delighted with him and the Beatles for that! The whole "greatest" thing has too many shifting facets in my thinking, for one person to stay in that focus.
    I realized how impressive Stephen Stills has been on my musical life, as writer, singer, player, and arranger/producer, and I don't see him as "the greatest". Certainly, he is the best at being him! and THAT is great! for me. Ray Davies' Waterloo Sunset, popped up, too after reading this, the last time, and those last three words make me think of all the Richards/Jagger songs I love! Sting, Paul Simon, Garcia/Hunter, Pete Townsend, Leon Russell, JT, Mark Knopfler, etc, all have made music I love to hear! 
   Holst' Planets, Tchaikovsky' Nut Cracker and others, Bach's Jesu,  joy of man's desiring, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and Stravinsky's Rites of Spring, ( I could go on but I am sure you get the point..) all are pieces that I treasure hearing over and over for my 65 years here on the planet. I could add MJQ and Bennie Goodman and Charlie Christian and they are ALL great. It's morning and this afternoon, I will think of others, like Phil Keaggy and Vangelis. I know I will think of MORE this evening, and so it goes......
     It is a rhetorical question. Who is the greatest? Why do you ask? I certainly will answer differently at any given moment.....
Michael
 
 

No way... He was an exceptional songwriter when paired with John Lennon, by himself he did one especially great song, Yesterday.
 
Jimmy Webb and Dolly Parton are more elite, IMO. Frank Zappa was a better "composer".
 
There was certainly a synergism when he and John worked together though. The sum of the two was more than any two people should be. The same is true of Frey and Henley, Becker and Fagen.
 
It is all subjective...
 
J

bitflipper
Paul Simon gets my vote. 

That is what I mean by subjective. I cannot turn the channel fast enough when Paul Simon comes on. In 8th grade or so, I liked the Sound of Silence but his other stuff is just OK ad a lot of it I just don't like... but I like YOU!
I the 60s I LOVED the BEATLES, these days... I'm like eh about BEATLES music, sometimes I like it other times I don't want to hear it BUT I still know every word to almost every song, every inflection in tone... everything. I remember seeing the TV broadcast of the film of The BEATLES at Shea, I forget which network aired it but I do remember pacing back and forth the whole time it was on. Beatlemania, in full force. I guess when I grew up, some of their stuff became at odds with my values and other stuff I had just heard too much.
It's funny how time changes us.
Brian Wilson is another great songwriter and the competition between him and the BEATLES brought out some great music. I really wish that the Beach Boys had supported Brian in the SMILE effort. What a piece of work that could have been had it come out in it's day.
Jimi was another great songwriter and great at interpretation of other people's music. What he did with Dylan songs was amazing.
Pete Townshend is another great writer TOMMY was unprecedented in pop music as was Quad..
 
Paul and John laid a foundation though and no one can take that away... though the best "composer" in the BEATLES was George Martin.
 
I can see why yu really like Paul Simon though. He wrote some great tunes, Bridge over troubled waters, Mrs. Robinson, SoS, others.. they just over time have come to grate on me. I can't explain why, probably because I have grown more cynical with time and have read too much history and have come to see this world as it is rather than how it could be (but never will be).
Oh Well, said Peter Green... LOL.
 
J