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Post by acebackwords on Jun 28, 2010 14:55:39 GMT -5
Was John Lennon an artistic genius? And is there any general consensus among Beatles fans about this? Is Lennon basically considered just a great musician and rock star or is he taken seriously on this level of artistic achievement?
(P.S. I don't think there's any right or wrong answer to this thread.)
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Joseph McCabe
Very Clean
A rebel to his last breath ...
Posts: 912
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Post by Joseph McCabe on Jun 28, 2010 17:38:30 GMT -5
Was John Lennon an artistic genius? And is there any general consensus among Beatles fans about this? Is Lennon basically considered just a great musician and rock star or is he taken seriously on this level of artistic achievement? What do you mean by "artistic genius"? This level of artistic achievment - what level is this you are referring to?
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Post by acebackwords on Jun 28, 2010 18:17:18 GMT -5
Was John Lennon an artistic genius? And is there any general consensus among Beatles fans about this? Is Lennon basically considered just a great musician and rock star or is he taken seriously on this level of artistic achievement? What do you mean by "artistic genius"? This level of artistic achievment - what level is this you are referring to? I admit "genius" is one of those loaded words. Its one of those words like "art." Everybody probably has their own spin on it, so its probably not a bad idea to lay out one's personal definition of the word. To me, Michael Jordan was a genius at basketball. A genius is somebody who is so good at something, someone where all the forces and talents come together to the highest level. Someone who is so original and innovative, they just stand apart from everyone else in the field. I dunno, "genius" is a tough one to define. Lennon often maintained -- sometimes quite stridently -- that he was a genius. I wondered if he ever elaborated exactly what he meant by that.
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Post by acebackwords on Jun 28, 2010 18:29:43 GMT -5
This level of artistic achievment - what level is this you are referring to? I'm referring to the highest levels of artistic achievement and artistic expression, which is what the term "genius" usually refers to. Wikepedia defines genius, among other things, as "unprecedented insights."
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Post by ursamajor on Jun 28, 2010 23:04:04 GMT -5
You need to take out the words artistic and art out of the equation. Art is just a guy's name. You just want to know if other people think John was a genius at what he did, you either like it or you don't, it's not art or artistic.
A genius is to create something that hasn't been done before and changes things forever.
Albert Einstein was a genius, surely he needed to think creatively or as you say "artistically" to come up with the concepts that he did. It's the same thing.
In answer to your question, yes John was a genius. He laid the blueprint for rock'n'roll and changed it forever.
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Post by acebackwords on Jun 29, 2010 15:11:59 GMT -5
You need to take out the words artistic and art out of the equation. Art is just a guy's name. . I guess I just wanted to make that distinction. Einstein may have been a scientific genius, but he may have been an idiot in other parts of his life. And I meant "art" in the broadest sense of the word. The arts. As opposed to other fields of endeavor. But yeah, in my opinion Lennon was a genius. To me its just a word that goes beyond great to something really special and rare. Thats as close as I can come to defining it.
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Post by vectisfabber on Jun 29, 2010 17:16:12 GMT -5
OK, in my opinion, neither Lennon nor McCartney were geniuses because, seperately, they could not (in my view) sustain the quality of what they produced within The Beatles.
I do, however, believe very strongly that The Beatles was/were a genius level gestalt - a group genius. And there haven't been may of those that I can recall.
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Post by Snookeroo on Jul 25, 2010 15:49:46 GMT -5
No
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Post by coachbk on Aug 16, 2010 21:57:38 GMT -5
Lennon was a creative/artistic/expressive genius with a passionate feel for rock & roll.
McCartney was a musical genius with a strong work ethic and eager to please
Put those two together (and throw in George who was inspired by both to fulfill his talents and Ringo who also loved to please) and you have a group genius for sure!
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Post by Panther on Aug 24, 2010 6:44:55 GMT -5
[John] laid the blueprint for rock'n'roll and changed it forever. This is simply not true. And certainly John wouldn't have agreed with you.
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Post by acebackwords on Aug 24, 2010 13:50:58 GMT -5
[John] laid the blueprint for rock'n'roll and changed it forever. This is simply not true. And certainly John wouldn't have agreed with you. Well yeah, John would probably say that guys like Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis laid the blueprint. But Lennon and the Beatles pretty much laid down the blueprint for everything that came out of rock'n'roll after them.
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