who do you think was the greater songwriting genius??.....brian wilson or paul mccartney.....its a tough call this one.....paul wrote more great songs than brian did but brian, of course, had a mental breakdown in 1967 which he has never fully recovered from and at that time, he was writing some stunningly beautiful songs.
...
...paul is the most sucessful songwriter of the 20th century and his song catalogue speaks for itself but i feel that when brian wilson was at his peak between 65 and 67, he wrote the greatest songs of the 20th century.....god only knows, good vibrations and surfs up are better, in my opinion, than any song that mccartney wrote so, as much as i love pauls work, my vote would go to brian wilson.

Kind of agree with you there. While Beatle Paul songs like 'Penny Lane', 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Let It Be' are peerless, Brian tracks such as 'Good Vibrations', 'God Only Knows', 'Cabin Essence' and 'Wind Chimes' are just out-of-this-world. Also Paul, while at times very good, has somehow never quite reached a level of quality and consistancy he had with the Beatles.

And they're both still very much around and with us. Let's be grateful for that! I mean, 10-15 years ago if anyone had predicted we'd see an (apparently) musically fully active and regularly touring Brian Wilson, it would have been unthinkable. And he even outlived his poor brothers, who tried to help him so much.

blackbob said:

I also would have to agree with your statement that you made in support of Bryan. Afterall, he was the driving force behind the Beach Boys and help create style of Rock that goes hand and hand with the beach. His songs are timeless.

There are a lot of these genius and versus threads going around

I love Paul McCartney but genius? I dunno. Brian Wilson on the other hand was an innovator, and I don't think anybody in pop music crafted harmonies as beautifully as he did. There's no denying Paul's impact (as a solo artist and with The Beatles) on the landscape of pop and rock and I admire his work, but Wilson's music is so gorgeous it brings tears to my eyes.

In My Room
God Only Knows
Don't Worry, Baby
Good Vibrations
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
When I Grow Up

All those songs make me cry. Not necessarily because they're sad (there's nothing depressing about Good Vibrations), but because they're very moving. There were a lot of people that made music like The Beatles. They were clearly the best at what they did, but nobody even came close to recreating the sound of The Beach Boys. At least, not in my opinion

spelling edits
[Edited 6/26/05 10:52am]