It can reasonably be argued that Sir Paul McCartney has had the best career of any of the Beatles. Since the group's fabled breakup w-a-a-y back in 1970, he has been the most prolific of all the ex-Beatles and has had the most success as a touring artist, first as the front man for Wings, then, later, as a solo artist. Although John Lennon got the most respect as a writer and as a pop culture figure, his later years were blighted by reclusiveness, heavy drug use, and after the album Rock and Roll Music, in which he covered a string of rock n' roll chestnuts with production by Phil Spector, his later output was almost nil until his final album. Then his comeback was cut tragically short by an assassin's bullet as he was going home to his apartment in 1980. George Harrison made some beautiful music with the Beatles, and as a solo artist, notably on All Things Must Pass and Concert for Bangladesh, and as a producer of among other things, several Monty Python comedies. But despite his success in several venues, his later career was afflicted with a heroin addiction and losing a plagiarism lawsuit over the song "My Sweet Lord." Ringo Starr was probably the most successful Beatle when it came to appearing in movies, but his later musical career was mostly marginal, despite at least one non-Beatles hit, "You're Sixteen." Ringo, too, wasted a lot of his time doing drugs and drinking heavily with buddies like Harry Nillson and the Who's Keith Moon, and little has been heard from him for years. Although McCartney did get busted for pot in Japan, drugs don't seem to have held him back much. His song, "Maybe I'm Amazed" is one of his strongest tunes, with great lyrics and a beautiful melody. And although he's had several songs that hit Top Ten positions on the U.S. and U.K. charts, like "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," and "Jet," the unanimous critical opinion is that McCartney's later work is saccharine and rather bloated. After working with Lennon, McCartney seemed to have lost his edge, and each succeeding album has seemed more like pop music than hard-driving rock and roll. What does it say about McCartney that his hardest-rocking post-Beatles tune was "Live and Let Die," done as the theme song for a James Bond movie? Still, McCartney is still out there and still producing new albums, punctuated with periodic tours. It will be possible to see him live in 2008, though it is unknown at this point how many U.S. cities he'll be hitting. Despite the shortcoming of his later music, Paul McCartney paid his dues with all of the great music he created for the Beatles' albums and deserves our respect as a consummate musician.Click Here!