i love The Beatles, i would call myself a fan of them, i do get great enjoyment from listening to them and reading abouyt them and so on, plus of course i realise their influence on popular music. But their influence on modern songwriting hasn't always been benificial, in a sense it's confined a lot of songwriters into believing that the way they wrote songs and the style they wrote it in is just the way it has to be now. Which is why a lot of heavily influenced Beatles-esque songwriting becomes popular whilst people writing in diferent styles, trying to create something away from the structure and pop culture that they stood for, tend to be ignored. Even punk, for instance, only became an international musical phenomenon when The Sex Pistols came along and wrote songs in the 'rock' style the Beatles created, as much as the band at the time rallied against it. Same with BritPop - it was successful especially for Oasis because they were resting on the laurels that Britain's most famous musical export created. So despite his influence Lennon's legacy is holding rock music back.

Yoko, however, worked on the principle that art could be done by anyone - the Fluxus movement she was part of helped bring together and expose the work of artists that the established art world would not have accepted by themselves. Despite the likes of Q Magazine's best efforts to bracket her off as a Beatle's wife, she is one of the singular most important artists of the past century, whether it be music or poetry or art, and she did a lot for the band by creating the tension that broke them up.

Plus i prefer Paul's songs.