The Beatles' Solo Careers Poll - Voting and General Discussion Thread

added most tracks mentioned itt to the collaborative playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/betamaxdk/playlist/61os6iMh4h0qY70BawKB5U

not much Lennon on it, maybe his cuts are too obvious? added #9 Dream which is gorgeous and weirdly proto-Ariel Pink

Ok, so I made these a while back - imaginary LPs from Abbey Road up to 1981 (I planned to continue up to the present day but didn't for whatever reason) - I am positive that nobody will 100% agree with my choices, but thought I might as well share / get some feedback on them.
was there a blog with fake news to go with these? rings a bell

George's voice which even on a good day isn't a beautiful instrument to listen to
hate to admit it but listening through these George's voice indeed isn't that great

Plastic Ono Band is a great album, not a bad song really (okay mayyybe Working Class Hero) my choice cuts apart from Mother which will surely place are Love and Well Well Well

u crazy, Working Class Hero is top ten easy

bravo niels, collabo playlist looking much more robust. though very short on john as we've had our attention focused elsewhere. hmmm. well i'm gonna continue with my ringo adventure for now but maybe i'll swing back to john before revisiting paul...

xposts

POB, Ram, and All Things Must Pass are kind of my starting points for this whole exercise (as i'm sure for some other people here? maybe i'm wrong about that). it's really hard to cut more than a handful of songs from any of them

secret fave on POB (though "Mother" floors me more than any of 'em) is "I Found Out" - I like John pissed off and reveling in what an angry young man he can be and how many enemies he's realizing he has. "Gimme Some Truth" is in that same vein, ditto "Crippled Inside" even though the sonic attack has been reined in in favor of a jaunty, old-timey boogie. Love all those.

Not that I don't buy positive-activist John too! "Give Peace a Chance" is something really special IMHO, maybe wore it out when I first got my hands on the John Lennon Collection on cassette... but the refrain is so good, and the lo-fi "live in some administrative room we're occupying" sound in the recording, where the assembled chanters sound numerous but by no means unstoppable, give it this incredible hope-against-all-odds vibe. Maybe a weird connection to the hollow sadness haunting "One Of These Days" - of course I'm hearing it in the hindsight of knowing that peace has not been given its chance, but more than most of the anti-war songs of this period, it still comes through fresh and alive with the sound of genuinely optimistic young people reclaiming their naivete as strength, and believing that it really might just be as easy as giving peace a chance.

A few Lennon songs I'll probably vote for that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Bless You
Nobody Told Me
Watching the Wheels
Jealous Guy
Oh Yoko!
I Don't Wanna Face It
One Day (At a Time)
Oh My Love
Give Me Some Truth
Hold On
I Found Out
Isolation
Remember
Look at Me
God
Power to the People
Remember Love

Instant Karma should be v high on any lennon list imo

"How Do You Sleep?" will likely be way up there on my ballot, which i didn't expect when starting all of this.

i really appreciate its cruelty, especially after trawling through the coasting crap that eventually overwhelmed so much of the beatles' mid-1970s-80s. he heard Paul's indirect swipe at him, "Too Many People", and responded by punching back directly, 100 times as hard. it's not the most noble reaction, but at least i remember it afterward. having george on hand to add the little bluesy licks adds to the viciousness. even the phil spector strings have a raw synthetic quality and a nasty bite in some places (like the way they cut off at the end of the first chorus).

it's not the most noble reaction, but at least i remember it afterward.

(just to be clear, i love and remember "too many people" as well. the songs i can never remember are the filler on Walls and Bridges, Mind Games, etc)

Macca's gonna dominate any discussion of Beatles solo output just because there's so much *more* of it, it's a lot to ruminate over (even if huge swathes of it are forgettable nonsense). At the same time, John's smaller discography also results in him having a much higher hit:miss ratio than any of the other Beatles imo. There's mushy sounding filler on Walls and Bridges and Mind Games, and some real misfires like Once Upon a Time in NY - but that's pretty much the limit of it. The range of great albums in his pocket - both POBs, Imagine, Fly, Pussy Cats, etc. - is very impressive.

which is why a George or Ringo playlist would be cool!

btw Living in the Material World is a forgotten blockbuster: #1 five weeks, #1 single, best-ever solo guitar work, pffft

I like the account How Do You Sleep's recording by Felix Dennis (about halfway down here):

https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/john-lennon/songs/how-do-you-sleep/2/

this sounds like George's guitar (over a ska beat? lol) but I guess it's actually Joe Walsh...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnN3IRPSOjs

that whole album "Old Wave" is Ringo + Walsh apparently

that was the ad campaign: "Old Wave = Ringo + Joe Walsh!"

and never even released in the US! which is sort of crazy

a Beatle not being able to get a record contract in America (even with an Eagle!)

yikes is there anything more literal than the "I've been here so very long/I've lost all direction" lyric in this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGfKqMW5WiQ

Thanks for the Spotify playlist, niels! It's nice to listen to a ilx-curated collection of these songs. I've found it really challenging to slog through Harrisons non-ATMP solo work in particular. I've put on Dark Horse, Extra Texture, etc so many times and always give up after a couple of songs. Nice to discover so many gems I've ignored.

that features the appearance of at least Beatle.

i assumed you were trying to approximate Leo McKern in Help!

I think George would win for me via Peak Value (like Sandy Koufax). Thus Paul would lead in volume of gold AND shit.

At the same time, John's smaller discography also results in him having a much higher hit:miss ratio than any of the other Beatles imo.

The guy made two great albums, and you seriously have to cherry pick from the rest.

My favourite Lennon deep cut is 'What You Got' ... awesome song, great vocal.

oh god I hate that honking pre-disco vibe. I can smell the old cigs on sofa cushions.

yeah, blech

made two great albums

I listed five, which is way more than you can say for McCartney

not a bad track on any of those imo. That can't be said of a lot of Macca's albums, which feature not just boring or lazy songs but actively terrible ones.

(I re-listened to "My Love" after being reminded of it by Alfred but being unable to recall it and jeeeeeezus christ that is godawful)

always loved the Spector-ish melodrama of this, would've fit right in on Death of a Ladies Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O28PqKx8n2s

I listed five, which is way more than you can say for McCartney

― Οὖτις, Thursday, May 17, 2018 4:38 PM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You listed two John Lennon albums, two Yoko Ono albums and a Nilsson album, and four of those albums came out prior to 1972. McCartney not only made more very good to great music, but made more of it in Lennon's lifetime alone.

I'm using the criteria for this poll, John was deeply involved with the production of all those albums, regardless of when they came out

John was obviously better at choosing collaborators/projects too, nobody of any quality was willing or able to work with Paul throughout the 70s

I'd say "able" more than "willing", but it doesn't matter since McCartney had the talent to be able to do it himself anyway.

xxpost What I love about Working Class Hero is that each time he sings the chorus, its meaning seems to shift, from ironic to sincere to resigned. Also, a Beatle calling his listeners "fucking peasants" must have been shocking.

my v helpful contribution to this thread is i'd rather listen to ram than almost any lennon solo album, and yoko is a more consistent songwriter than either

idk if i'm gonna vote in this though, i know yoko's and john's catalogs really well and love all things must pass, ram, and band on the run but... beyond that idk!

You listed two John Lennon albums, two Yoko Ono albums and a Nilsson album, and four of those albums came out prior to 1972. McCartney not only made more very good to great music, but made more of it in Lennon's lifetime alone.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Thursday, May 17, 2018 5:03 PM (nineteen minutes ago)

this is a strange statement since lennon didn't make any albums for the last 5 years of the 70s. if you're comparing lennon 70-75 to mccartney 70-75, lennon wins that one hands down.

and McCartney's '75-'80 output is godawful, a few scattered gems aside

Don't provoke the Maccamaniacs, whatever you do.

anyone like "Girls School"?

this is a strange statement since lennon didn't make any albums for the last 5 years of the 70s.

Moot point. Not McCartney's problem.

Also between 1970-1975 McCartney released Band on the Run and Venus and Mars, both superb and untainted by not being hipsterflappybirdPitchforkcore a la John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Also, he put out Ram and singles such as 'Live and Let Die', 'Another Day' etc.

Just create the Beatles forum already pls

hipsterflappybirdPitchforkcore a la John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

https://i.imgur.com/zrw2CSd.jpg

You mean like that Steve Hoffman thing? (xp)

i like "girls' school!"

and i am back from cleaning the kitchen to report that goodnight vienna and ringo's rotogravure are both lousy records, though both with some flashes of energy that put them above the bulk of ringo. generally though the vibe is similar: some lennon-penned or lennon-ish good-time goofy party numbers, dragged down by oddly disinterested rhythm tracks and hungover vocals from our boy. his cover of bruce channel's "hey baby," the only rotogravure single to chart in the US (#74) is remarkable only for its decadent blowsiness - not recommended as an interpretation of the song, but it does offer an alternately appealing and gross glimpse into the endless party ringo was apparently having at this point. spotify also uses these albums as a vehicle for the non-album back off boogaloo which isn't exactly my cup of tea but at least musters something close to thunderous force. you do indeed want to back off!

highlights if you need 'em: snookeroo (john/taupin) is what these records are mostly going for but missing through undistinguished MOR overproduction. occapella is also pleasant dopey fun but basically superfluous next to lee dorsey's earlier version. no no song and husbands and wives i've already praised upthread and are the best things here. pure gold (mccartney) was evidently not good enough for speed of sound and it's not great in ringo's hands but there's the outline of a great slow-dance prom number there. cryin', thank god, takes him back to sad-sack country, the one mode he was always reliable in. lady gaye is about good enough to be filler on most horrible 70s albums with titles like ringo's rotogravure.

oh mannnn the next album opens with "drowning in the sea of love." i might not make it back this time.

occapella is also pleasant dopey fun but basically superfluous next to lee dorsey's earlier version

How about Van Dyke Parks' version?

xposts
you are truly doing the lord's work there, dr casino. however, i skipped straight to "no no song" to check it out and i feel like i'm listening to Jimmy Buffet. i can't, i'm out ringo, sorry

"No no no no, I can't take it no mo'!" - Karl Malone