The Beatles (the best beatle..)

The T wrote: I think neither one of them was a MASTER of their instrument

Exactly, and that is why I'll review the Beatles based on their song-writing ability... and voice...

Paul McCartney
Paul was (and still is) excellent at writing memorable pop or rock tunes, he's definitely one of the best composers of melody lines. He's also resposible of creating my other favorite genre, heavy metal, because he wrote Helter Skelter. Besides simple rock songs, he did also write more experimental stuff in the Beatles. First of all, the legendary orchestral crescendos in "A Day in the life" was his idea. Not to mention the Abbey Road Suite.
Paul's singing voice is very pleasant, and also very raw when it's necessary. I actually like some of his basslines as well. The bass in "Rain" is AWESOME! He can also handle some other instruments quite well.

John Lennon
Compared to Paul, John was extremely "PROG". Of course he also wrote simple songs, but in my opinion he was way better at doing those psychedelic songs than Paul. Songs like I Am The Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite and Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds are great examples of this. He could also rock, though. Just listen to Revolution or I want you (she's so heavy).
I also like his voice very much. He could do soft and rather high-pitched vocals (Lucy in the sky with diamonds) or very raw vocals, which I prefer (I want you [She's so heavy]).
He's one of my idols, no doubt, a true genius who was way ahead of his time.

George Harrison
George didn't write as much as Paul or John, but when he did, it was always at least good. He did many songs featuring the sitar, and I like them quite much because they are so different.
George's guitar playing -style really did fit the sound of The Beatles, even though he might have not been technically that good.
His voice is pretty similar to Lennon's, a bit softer though. It was quite good indeed.

Ringo Starr
Probably my least favorite. The songs he wrote weren't that good, his drumming wasn't great at all except for A Day in the Life or Rain maybe. I don't even like his voice really - With a little help from my friends would me much more listenable if it was sung by Lennon or Paul.

It's difficult to decide between John and Paul. What comes to songwriting, they were similar, but also very different. I think I'll go with John, even though Paul is the king of melodies.

None...but together they were good.

Edited by Okocha - December 03 2007 at 17:24