Just watched a documentary about Gordon Lightfoot. Gord says he would work months on putting multiple ballads together for an album together with original words and all the music and then it gets released and almost immediately the Beatles bring out an album that sells in the millions while Gord’s sold in the thousands. He said it was very demoralizing but he didn’t stop. Thankfully.
Frank Zappa used to excoriate the Beatles. I remember McCartney stating something to the effect that they shouldn’t sell millions of records?
Lightfoots songs are deep. Beatles had much more varied styles of music. Stones were bluesy rockers. All different from each other. All excellent. Should not be compared for greatness.
Personally, Lightfoot songs take me away to envision and live his stories. One of my favorites, ostensibly about an ex soldier suffering from shell shock/PTSD...Summer side of Life...