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It really depends on what year you're talking about. I think Lennon really dominated the early years ('63 - early '65) (think of Lennon's There's a Place, All I've Got to Do, A Hard Day's Night, AnyTime at All, I'll Be Back, Ticket To Ride, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away)
John and Paul were virtual equals in '65-'66 (John's: Norwegian Wood, The Word, In My Life, Girl, Rain, She Said She Said, Tomorrow Never Knows, to Paul's I've Just Seen A Face, I'm Looking Through You, We Can Work it out (middle credit to John), Paperback Writer, Eleanor Rigby, Here There & Everywhere, Got to Get You into me life).
Beginning in '67 I think Paul started to dominate, though John clearly had many peaks (Strawberry Fields, Revolution, Dear Prudence, Don't Let me Down) and George also contributed many significant tunes (I always thought Its All Too Much deserves more praise than its received).
For solo years-- all had their ups and downs: Paul gets some rightful scorn for some of his weaker material (LondonTown, Press To Play, anyone), but deserves credit for several top notch discs (McCartney, Ram, BOTR, Tug of War, Flowers in the Dirt, Flaming Pie, Chaos & Creation in the Backyard). John's POB, Imagine, Mind Games, Walls & Bridges & his portion of Double Fantasy were great LPs. George's All Things Must Pass ranks as one of my favorite ex-Beatle discs, and 33-1/3 and Cloud 9 were also great discs.
Ringo had a few great tracks (Photograph, It Don't Come Easy), but he's really not a songwriter or vocalist.
John is my favorite. He and Paul are both extremely talented. They are kind of like Simon and Garfunkel, great song writing TEAM.
But I like John best, he was the wittiest and smartest in my opinion.
I agree it really sucked how he was killed. I was still a kid and was literally shocked when I heard. I didn't think such a thing could happen, not because Lennon was famous. It just sounded insane to walk up to someone and shoot them for no reason. And the murderer was/is insane, so I guess that explains that. But when I first heard I was floored.
Trying to choose between Lennon and McCartney songs is a futile exercise. A decade or so ago, my brother and I went through all the Beatle albums we had, which between the two of us was all of them, and also all the solo albums we had of those two, which was the major ones on both sides, and in a Christmas weekend fab four binge re-listened to every side song by song choosing the best of Lennon and then the best of McCartney and then compared them again in a kind of all-star run-off, and the truth is, in the end it came out a dead tie...
By the way, for those of you who don't know, these two guys rarely wrote as a team after maybe 1965. They'd help each other out if they got stuck. For instance if Paul had the verse but not the bridge he'd pay John a visit and see if he could come up with anything. As a rule, whoever sang the lead wrote the bulk of the song. Early on they were solo artists, pulling at the Beatle reins. Had after maybe the Revolver album been solo song writers that used the Beatles as a backup band. Harrison had so much trouble getting his fair share of space on Beatle albums that his first solo effort, "All Things Must Pass," had to be a double album, even at that was busting with great "A-side" type songs. All or the great majority written while he was still a Beatle, he said something about it in his book, "I Me Mine," something to the effect that he would get a few great songs together, bring them into the Apple Studios, bursting with excitement and pride, "Only to find, that I was up against the same old McCartney ego again." What a tough act to break into, I guess.
Though John and Paul didn't write together, I have a hunch that their work from the onset and into the later years, wouldn't have been half as good without the influence both had on the other. That's why in their solo careers the rap against Lennon was that his stuff lacked melodic cohesion, the rap against McCartney post-Beatles was that it could be a little on the lightweight side, almost bubble-gumish. But in the ten plus years they shared a stage the romantic, melodic McCartney was roughened by the harder edge, intellectual lyrically driven Lennon, while John wrote some of the most beautiful love songs of his life as a Beatle.
They had from the beginning, a "healthy" competition. Had met at a gig John was doing as a sixteen year old lad with the Quarrymen, and backstage after the show stranger Paul played a couple songs for Lennon and was asked to join his band. Paul later brought a neighbor of his, George, to a rehearsal; the youngest of the four, Harrison was probably the best guitarist of the three, but I always had the feeling that the dynamics between Paul and John, John two to three years the elder, was like that of older/younger brother. From the beginning John was the engine that drove that band. I think that right away what he saw in McCartney was a natural musical talent, and decided he'd keep that as close to himself as possible. Make him an ally instead of someone he'd have to compete against for the best gigs around Liverpool. Like all older brothers, John probably pushed that to the limit at times, to a point bordering on abusive, but he was just ambitious, just trying to make the Silver Beatles, as they were called originally, the very best band in town...
"Where we goin' fellas?" John would routinely drill into them at their lowest times in the early days.
"To the top, Johnnie," they'd recite in uncertain unison.
"Where's that fellas?"
"To the toppermost, Johnnie. To the toppermost of the poppermost!"
I think Harrison was the best. Yeah I know Lennon and McCartney were great song writers as others have said, pretty much seperately. I like Harrison's guitar style and song writing better. I just find it more interesting. He had a great solo career also. Better than Lennon and McCartney.
A friend of mine was working as a DJ at a Philadelphia radio station, and he called me on the night of December 8, 1980 to say that the news about John Lennon being shot had just come over the newswire. I told him that was without doubt the most tasteless joke he'd ever tried to play. I could not imagine such a thing actually happening.
I remember it well. It was on Monday Night Football is how I learned of it.
. The New England Patriots were playing the Miami Dolphins in the Orange Bowl. It was close to the 2 minute warning near games end and Cosell announces "We have just received word through the ABC news wire that John Lennon has been shot." Maybe 15 or 20 seconds of silence went by and he said "I hate to report news like this to you people but it is our job to do so."
In a very subdued manner Frank Gifford continued the play by play, but did so in a professional manner. Don Meredith, from what I remember, didn't say a word. Cosell confirmed his death after the game was over. It's on youtube.
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