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Macca Vs. McCartney
Competing with his Beatle self is an impossible, thankless task for Paul
Even now, more than 50 years after the four Beatles went their separate ways, fans and critics grouse and argue about the quality of their respective solo outputs compared to their work as parts of the group.
This is especially true with regards to Paul McCartney because he is 1) still kicking and 2) still kicking it.
He’s 82 and in the middle of a world tour!
The conventional wisdom is that McCartney as a solo artist has seldom, if ever, matched the quality of his Beatles recordings. I don’t think that’s accurate or fair.
The problem for Macca, as he’s come to be known, is that he up against not only his best Beatles work but with the “moment” in which it was created.
It was a long moment to be sure, some seven years, but the music world had never seen anything like the Beatles’ explosive debut and accelerated evolution, and it never will again. They had to live with the world they changed just like everybody else.
The singles and albums the Beatles produced during their time together accumulated listening interest like a giant snowball rolling down a mountain.