why is he so great though hint?
his latest pr thing seems to be claiming to have invented anything important for the beatles, all of which is surely bullshit, esp given all the evidence. He's the david irving of popular music
Well... I'm not sure what evidence you're reading.
Latest thing I read is Geoff Emerick's book, which puts McCartney right at the centre of the majority of the interesting stuff that the Beatles ever did in the studio. He was way more into the engineering and theory aspects of studio work. He didn't necessarily "invent" anything, but he found out what was possible, what the people at the cutting edge were doing, and brought it to everyone's attention.
Lennon is portrayed more as the type to say "I want to sound like I'm singing underwater", then leaving it up to everyone else to work out how to actually make that happen. Ringo sat in the corner reading comics until it was time to drum. George Harrisson is (perhaps unfairly) portrayed as just not being good enough to keep up, especially in the early days.
A lot of the great Beatles moments that people automatically credit to Lennon (because he's seen as being more "edgy") or Harrison (because people assume all the good guitar bits are his) are actually Paul's work. The lead guitar on "Taxman", for example. Take the lead guitar and bass out of "Taxman" and it's worth fuck all... with them, it's A BANGER. Those chord stabs!
Even if the basslines weren't so next level, just the
tone of the bass from the Beatles recordings of that period is enough to make him noteworthy. He would stay late, after everyone had clocked off, and just play and play until the bass sounded right - the rhythm, the dynamics, the tone.
On a purely musical level, he's one of the best bassists ever in rock music. Even phenomenally lame shit like "Silly Love Songs" has a bassline that far more energy, melody and invention than the vast majority out there. His bass playing in The Beatles is perhaps the secret ingredient - the element that copyists really don't "get".
He is a great singer.
He has written so many great songs. I won't bother to list them, because there is no cure for McCartney hating.