Say whatever you like - Liberace was a Homo, Ali was a draft dodger, Lennon was a left-wing PooPoo Head.
All of the above were the BEST at what they did.
Lennon/McCartney were the best song writing team to hit the pop scene EVER. At their WORST, they were still better than most.
We have the luxury of time - when we compare contemporaries to these guys. Lennon was the genius of the two. McCartney meanders on with his syrupy sophomoric pap, all the drive and bite lost when Lennon left the scene....sigh...
rant completed...
I'm sort of taken aback by all these posts. I'd bet more than a few on this thread were flaming lefties 25 years ago but they can't give a dead guy a break. Lennon would probably have figured out by now that he'd been brainwashed by the English socialists. He did always speak his mind and I think he would have realized that the socialists, the media, and terrorists are on the same side and gunning for the destruction of western civilization.
While Lennon was exceptionally talented, while with the Beatles, he certainly was no genius as his post-Beatles work (or more honestly dreck) rivaled McCartney's insipid post-Beatles work for bad songs. In fact I'd argue that McCartney's overall work with the Beatles was better than Lennon's. Too much maryjane probably dulled McCartney's artistic talents, and drugs plus Yoko Ono killed Lennon's. But that's just my opinion.