r/beatles • u/sdpinterlude27 • 11h ago
Opinion Why I Think John Was The Superior Beatle
I know you shouldn't really compare John and Paul because they complemented each other, I get it. But as a diehard Beatles fan, this is just a fun, harmless thought experiment. If you put prime John and Paul in separate rooms for 30 minutes and told them to come up with a song, Paul probably comes out with the better track 7 out of 10 times. He had more hits, had better melodic instinct, and is genuinely at least a top 15 bassist of all time. Purely as an all-around musician and craftsman, Paul clears John.
But John made the Beatles’ absolute greatest, most important, most groundbreaking songs. Part of that was his willingness to experiment, which is common knowledge. But the bigger, more underrated factor was that John was way more open to letting the other guys contribute to his songs. That openness is what ascended his songs. Whereas Paul usually had his songs 90-99% baked in his head before he even brought them to the band.
We see this all over their history. During Get Back, John told Paul that there had been a period when nobody could suggest anything about his arrangements because he would reject their ideas. George’s frustration with Paul is well documented too like their famous arguments over guitar parts on "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be" (even if Paul was mostly in the right musically). After the breakup, George also famously said, "I'd join a band with John Lennon any day, but I couldn't join a band with Paul McCartney," clarifying that he meant this from a musical standpoint. Even Paul's infamous micromanagement of Ringo's drumming shows how specific and controlling his arrangements could be. It doesn't make Paul a bad collaborator, but it did limit how much the rest of the band could have elevated his stuff. "Fixing a Hole" had the potential to be his "Lucy in the Sky" had he included weird psychedelic textures. Some of his vaudeville tracks could've taken dark, avant-garde twists, I could even see "Hey Jude" having an "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" type ending.
"Norwegian Wood" brought the sitar into Western pop; "I'm Only Sleeping" pioneered reversed guitar; "Rain" brought backwards vocals to rock; "Tomorrow Never Knows" threw tape loops and avant-garde noise into the mainstream; "Strawberry Fields" pushed studio editing to new heights by splicing takes with completely different tempos and keys; "Good Morning Good Morning" turned animal sounds into a rhythmic collage; "I Feel Fine" pioneered the use of guitar feedback as an intended effect; "I Want You" had one of the first use of Moog synthesizer to build a massive wall of noise; "I Am The Walrus" innovated hijacking live radio broadcasts as sound effects to a song; "A Day In The Life" and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" basically invented the multi-suite, episodic song structure in rock music years before "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "Paranoid Android". I also don't think it's not a coincidence that some of Ringo's most iconic drum parts are in John's songs (Ticket To Ride, Come Together, Rain, She Said She Said, A Day In The Life, Tomorrow Never Knows, I Feel Fine)
That’s the whole point. The entire band, Paul especially, were instrumental in making those innovations happen, but it was John’s receptiveness to collaboration that elevated his music. Paul was the better standalone talent, no question. Some of his greatest hits didn't even require the band (Yesterday, Blackbird, I Will). But John was better at tapping into the collective genius of the group. And that’s ultimately why I think John was the superior Beatle.
