jamesg1213

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.

Oh we're going to be serious... Bach gets my vote along with runners up Norman Dello Joio, Wagner, Brahms (particularly his folk songs), and Dvorak (for The New World Symphony). Beethoven (for composing while deaf...) and of course our own Stephen Foster. I like Benedictine and Gregorian Monk chants too, acapella beauty. I love Jerusalem and Ava Maria too. Oh, I almost forgot Handel. His Messiah is, I think, an example of true inspiration, it is a very complex work, he wrote it in 24 days.. and that is amazing.
One page of 259 written in those 24 days... if you've ever been part of singing The Messiah, you know it is a BOOK.

That's a composer! You reckon we have been dumbed down a bit? Dello Joio was 20th century and I'm sure there are contemporary composers of whom I know nothing.
 
Burt Bacharach was no slouch either, but not a composer as such. A great songwriter though,
 
J

No way... He was an exceptional songwriter when paired with John Lennon, by himself he did one especially great song, Yesterday.

 
My all time favorite McCartney tune ...and it was post Beatles.....Maybe I'm Amazed. 
 
I would concider Let It Be and Hey Jude to be pretty big songs for the Beatles.  You do realize that they pretty much stopped cowriting songs by '66/ '67??  They labelled everything Lennon/ McCartney because of their early business agreements.  McCartney infact wanted to label his tunes, McCartney/ Lennon, but legally was not able to do so.  I am a huge Lennon fan as well, but I don't see how people discount that McCartney was equally as productive as a Beatle and probably the most productive post Beatle.
 
There is quite a bit of info out there on who is recorded as contributing to the songs:
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Beatles_songs
 
http://www.musicbyday.com/lennon-vs-mccartney-who-wrote-each-of-their-27-1-hits/517/
 
Incidentally, the case could be made that George wrote 2 of the most popular Beatles songs with Here Comes The Sun and Something.  Here Comes The Sun was the number 1 down loaded Beatles song when the catalogue finally became available on iTunes.

jbow
Frank Zappa was a better "composer".

 

...or maybe a better composter. 

MakeShift
 
My all time favorite McCartney tune ...and it was post Beatles.....Maybe I'm Amazed. 
 

Mine too. In fact I think it's the only solo song of his that matches what he achieved in The Beatles.

Ditto on Brian Wilson. I can listen to God Only Knows, Don't Worry Baby, and Good Vibrations, anytime! LOL
RE Peter Green Ditto on Oh Well, though Albatross is usually playing in my mind and I am quite pleased about it! LOL
and though I never was a Zappa fan, I still find myself singing "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body" ! and I find Justin Hayward's songs show up whenever I am noodling about on guitar, piano or mandolin. Freddie Mercury's Bohemian Rhapsody is an amazing piece!
   Life is movement and I don't expect things to stay the same, yet there are pieces of music that seem to always delight, amuse, get my attention and start me daydreaming. I think that is great! I wouldn't have it any other way.
Michael
 
 

jbow
 
Oh we're going to be serious... Bach gets my vote 

Exactly. 
 
To me, when we talk about "the greatest", we need to show a bit of objectivity. It's not about who I like best or who wrote my all time favorite piece of music. 
 
Bach isn't just technically brilliant - his work is also very powerful emotionally. Who can listen to St. Matthew's Passion and not be completely blown away or look down upon it as inferior to Let it Be? Or listen to his Mass in B minor and find it less touching than Yesterday?
 
To me, the greatest has to be the one who couples technical brilliance w/ emotional content. Not many come close to Bach.
 
I look at it this way - this house is my favorite place in the land, but there's no way I can pretend that it's the greatest piece of architecture in the world. And the Beatles are a lot like this house, whilst Bach is more like Notre-Dame de Paris or Canterbury or Versailles or other such architectural wonders...
 
 
 

Nicely put, Rain.
Michael

Funny story about "Maybe I'm Amazed"...One of my ol pals (unfortunately deceased now) was in a band called The Chaps back in the late 60s/early 70s.  And one of them had been in England and heard MIA off the "Mcartney" album BEFORE it came to the states.  They learned the song, recorded it and put it out here in America well before Paul's version was released.  It was IIRC at least a southern regional hit.  Probably was recorded at Robin Hood Bryan's studio in Texas.  Until I actually purchased the "Mcartney" album myself, I thought Paul had covered them!!
 

Ruben


In Great Britain, yes, "Sir" is different from having an MBE. In addition to his MBE, McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1997 - and that's what makes him a "Sir".

Stuff Elizbeth's opinion. If there is a keep a religion out of conversations policy, then the same applies to royalty, as they are supposedly appointed by god. He's just Paul to me.