Here is my problem with John .
How can I listen to "all we need is love" from a jerk who leaves his baby boy , crushes his world and never looks back. I am not impressed with feigned passion. Words.. that is all they were.
Objectively speaking, Lennon and McCartney were perhaps the greatest pop music songwriting team ever (in spite of the few duds they created). As performers, they were adequate.
All the hysteria and idolatry surrounding them is just silly. Last year I rented "A Hard Days Night" for my daughters to watch. They were singularly unimpressed, and thought they had bad teeth.
Hell we grew up with the Beatles, knew all their songs...I was a little bit older than the rest of the troopers having signed on when I was over 21.
I remember the reaction of one of our instructors, E-7; by the name of Sgt Rock (no kidding). He said he was glad they got the "bastard." I kept my mouth shut, after all he had a real collection of ears from the 'Nam...
But I remember commenting to myself at the time that things must be bad when they are killing the artists...
John's politics? Who cares, perhaps if he got a chance to grow older he may have changed his views, then again maybe not...
I've known three people in my life who either (a) hated the Beatles, (b) were indifferent, or (c) just didn't "get it". In all three cases, they were horrible people. Okay, maybe "horrible" is too harsh a word, but they were certainly vile, cretinous, vapid, humorless, disgusting, clueless, bitter, idiotic, stupid, moronic, brainwashed buttheads.From this life experience I surmised that people who like the Beatles ARE GOOD, people who dislike the Beatles ARE BAD. It's a handy "benchmark" test. For example, you're on a first date. Over dinner, the subject of the Beatles' comes up. She says; "Oh, I think their music sucks." Ding-ding! Time to excuse yourself to the restroom, sneak out of the restaurant, and leave the bee-yatch with the dinner bill!
In short, it's empirical evidence, I tells ya!
I watched a VH1 special several months ago, I think it was "Top 100 Greatest Albums of All Time". "Sgt. Pepper" was in the #1 slot and "Rubber Soul" was #3 (as I recall).
But more to the point was the numerous interviews of other "rock stars" regarding their opinions of the Beatles shown in the VH1 special, such as Tom Petty, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Huey Lewis, Pat Benatar, etc. They all spoke highly of the Beatles and their music, and the extent of the influence on their music careers. I may be wrong, but I think even Kid Rock had a segment on the VH1 special expressing his kudos to the Beatles' influence.
I also remember reading an interview in Rolling Stone with Curt Cobain (Nirvana), in which he said he was heavily influenced by the Beatles. He indicated that when he was about 13 or 14 years old, he concluded that he would never be a "virtuoso" guitarist, so he decided he would be a great songwriter instead, like Lennon & McCartney. So, at that early age, he concentrated on song writing skills, rather than trying to be the next Eddie Van Halen.
Did you know that the Beatles' first demo disk was turned down by every major record production company in the world (except one)? You know what one "suit" said when he heard their demo disk? He said; "Guitar bands are on their way out." That was around 1963. (I think that guy was fired the following year, 1964).