Taking Sides: Paul McCartney vs Jeff Lynne

Both are underrated though.

McCartney never did any notable production work did he?

??? Being a member of what is considered generally to be the greatest band and greatest songwriting partnership of ALL TYMES IN HUMAN EXISTANCE=underrated?

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Compared to Lennon, he is underrated. His solo work is also underrated.

Paul McCartney is the greatest composer since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

As a matter of fact, McCartney would have benefited from a slightly smaller stylistic range.
He is perfect at dramatic, melodic ballads and somewhat twee midtempo melodic pop songs. He sucks at rock'n'roll though, and his pure music hall work isn't always on par with the rest of his output either..

Here at ILM, we are in no way prone to hyperbole.

I assume things like "Another Girl" end up in "somewhat twee midtempo melodic pop songs." I'm fine by that, although by many standards I think these would count as "rock and roll."

As for his pure music hall work, I think a lot of it suffers from the context - there's always that token music hall track, and they feel like such cutesy exercises in the middle of otherwise fairly consistent-sounding classic rock albums. It might be interesting to gather all of these together in one place and see how they hold up as compositions - what all is there? You Gave Me The Answer.. does Baby's Request count?

(I'm in the beginning stages of what will probably end up being a 2xCD McCartney covers album, so I've been thinking a lot about trying to recontextualize his songs by getting all the production aesthetics and instrumental combinations to sort of feel of a piece...)

The exception here being "Rock Show", which is a brilliant Badfinger/Big Star/Raspberries-like powerpop number and highly underrated.

Rock Show isn't bad, although it's the chugging "green metal suit" section that I get excited about moreso than the self-consciously "rock" part. I still think "So Glad To See You" covers about the same territory but with a more solid punch. Rock Show wins on lyrics though.

Me, I'm still waiting for "TS: Wino Junko versus Medicine Jar"...

As for McCartney rock n' roll, I'm partial to "Get On the Right Thing" and "Mumbo" -- I mean, shit, "Mumbo's" fuckin' incredible.

Here is a thread title I've been considering for awhile:
Jeff Lynne: So Much To Answer For

"Jeff Lynne: So Much To Answer For" could be wonderful. Blount was over the other night and was curious to some extent about the Traveling Wilburys. During "Margarita" he stopped in mid-sentence talking to somebody else and slowly turned towards me with a look of complete disgust. I love it personally, but hey...

He produced most of Wings' records. Many timies he's a better producer-arranger than songwriter (the doorbells and martial drums of "Let'Em In," the brass section on "Letting Go," the flamenco flourishes on "Goodnight Tonight").