In general, I like John’s songs better and his voice better than Pauls.
But Paul McCartney is THE reason I play bass.
This. I prefer John’s voice and songs, that’s pretty much it. His last verse of A Day in the Life still gives me chills, 30+ years after I first heard it.
IMHO, Strawberry Fields Forever, Mr. Kite, Tomorrow Never Knows, I Am the Walrus, Help!, Norwegian Wood, Rain, Across the Universe and In My Life is a better collection of songs than Hey Jude, Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, She’s Leaving Home, Let It Be, Can’t Buy Me Love, Got to Get You Into My Life, Helter Skelter, and the majority of the last 20 of Abbey Road.
Blue
Then why did Sinatra have to go and do “that thing” to “Something”. Ahhrrrrrgh!!
I didn’t choose, as depending on the day, it could be any one of the Fabs. The thing is that they worked together in a way that they never did during their solo careers. A sort of joyful discovery of a new world.
And yes, there are whole days when Octopus’ Garden and It Don’t Come Easy could be my favorite Beatles songs.
I believe he also famously (mis-)credited the song to Lennon & McCartney.
Paul was my favorite Beatle.
George was my favorite ex-Beatle.
William Campbell.
My vote is highly biased by my age and television viewing habits as a child: between his role as Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station and his reply to Marge’s letter on The Simpsons, Ringo always seemed like the coolest Beatle to me.
Paul, although many of my favorite songs are George songs.
Bottom line is they’re all better together.
John, by a mile. With the Beatles, it’s all about who you relate to, it seems. Not surprising to me that this would be a George-leaning board (no insult intended; he seems the most SDMB-ish choice to me, for some inexplicable reason).
At a San Francisco Dopefest, the subject of why everybody likes George came up. I concluded that it’s not so much that everybody likes George, it’s just that nobody dislikes him, with the possible exception of The Chiffons. What’s there to dislike, really?
This about says it for me.
He’s So Fine?
Thirded. John was not a very nice person, sometimes, Paul was very success driven and he’s way too bubble-gummy for me (with and without the Beatles), Ringo seems to be nice enough but not really bright enough to want to have a long conversation with. George, though, was quietly intelligent, and even if he was extremely rich and famous, didn’t appear to want to be a celebrity with a celebrity’s perks.
I have to admit, at first I loved Ringo until I read that he was so anti-feminist in one of the early (late 60s?) official biographies. He couldn’t believe that women wanted equal rights instead of being a man’s inferior. Maybe he’s changed. I mean, everyone has. But that left me with a very bad taste in my mouth about him.
For the record, I’m 52, and I started to listen to rock just about when the Beatles broke up.
Apu, the fifth Beatle.
Mine’s used to be John, but these days I lean Ringo. John was all wide eyed idealism and convictions, Paul was a raging dillhead, George was into the weirdest shit… Ringo just got on with the beating on stuff with other stuff and the goofy smiling. He never did seem (to me at least) to take any of it seriously. Dim ? Maybe a little bit. But if his drumming is any indication, simplicity can be deceiving.
Micky. Or maybe Peter.
There’s a reason why Ringo continued drumming on the others’ solo albums.
I voted for Paul, even though I wanted to say “all four of them.”
Paul’s contribution to the Beatles was at least as great as any of the others’, and from what I understand, the role of pushing the band to break new ground and be all that they could be alternated between John and Paul. Paul’s the most sheerly musical of the Beatles. He seems to always have genuinely loved making music and performing, and though he certainly could have long since rested on his laurels and retired or just kept repeating himself or turned into an oldies act, he’s never stopped writing and recording and performing new material and trying to remain at least a little bit vital as a creative artist—and for me, the points he gains for this make up for the points he loses for his tendency to be “bubblegum” or schmaltzy or to crank out forgettable pop.
John’s at a bit of a disadvantage, since he might well have gone on to do some really good things if he hadn’t been killed. There’s no question about his greatness, but some of the attention he gets is due to his being so outspoken about his politics and about his personal demons, in ways that I don’t identify with as strongly as some other people do.
As a Beatle, George was overshadowed by John and Paul and hadn’t yet fully matured as an artist. As both a Beatle and a solo artist, I like him very much, but he never had the range or versatility of Paul or John. Still, he gets points for The Traveling Wilburys, for financing and befriending Monty Python, for his quiet spirituality and his sense of humor.
Ringo is Ringo. A great drummer and a cool guy. I’m actually glad that “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Octopus’s Garden” are part of the canon; he was the right choice to sing songs like “With a Little Help From My Friends”; I’ve enjoyed his solo work; and his birthday’s the same as mine; but the competition’s just too stiff for him to have a shot at being my favorite Beatle.