Well, I wouldn't be so harsh and describe the ex-Beatles solo works as "crappy and boring". This would be unfair since all four had some interesting stuff (Band on the Run, Imagine, Material world), even if the level isn't above average. Still, do find a separated group in which their members all had some success on their own.
Interesting, that you call George's stuff "preachy self-obsessed", is that really so ? I'm not so into his solo-stuff, so I can't judge it. I'm more used to hear that John was self-obsessed...
Snoopy
On the whole (imo of course) it is in the main crappy and boring , theres the odd good song of course, but I never play any of it, I never thought Imagine or Band On The Run were great albums, however, if you like the solo stuff then good for you, its all subjective, Im just giving my opinion on it, Ive said it before, Im a huge Beatle fan but not a fan of their solo stuff, there was much much better music on offer in the 70's ...........Its my opinion also, and has been for years, that Johns persona was wrecked by acid/dope/heroin/booze, as was Hendrix, Brian Jones, Syd Barrett and Peter Green, he lost interest really in the later Beatle years and became lazy and yes, self obsessed, he turned from an ambitious rocker to a self obsessed loner living in the countryside....Paul was of course a workaholic of sorts and mostly had to coax John to do the next project, Paul took over the band as we all know and became bossy (maybe he had too)
I think George became the classic singer-songwriter. Which is practically synonymous with preachy and self-obsessed.
George was by all accounts a funny and engaging guy. It's probably his greatest deficiency as a songwriter that he so rarely showed that side in his music.
that's a great point moog, Im not and never will be interested in mantras, hare Krishna, or any form of Indian music, tbh it bores me to death, that's what I meant by preachy, in that way George became self obsessed, even a bit cranky, growing very long hair and long beard, resembling a garden gnome, banging on about religion - materialism and the concreting over of the planet, meanwhile living like a Lord in a huge 70 room mansion complete with state of the art recording studio on 120 acres with other houses in LA, Australia (that I know of) and a collection of Ferraris, and exotic supercars etc etc
John was similarly going nuts with yuko, singing Imagine no possessions whilst sitting in his very own countryside mansion.
I don't have a problem with people living in mansions if they've earned the money, but I do object when they start preaching about how materialism is bad at the same time, and that we shouldn't want to live like that, in other words its ok for them but not the world as a whole.
Anyway, I digress, George actually made the best solo album, but most of its material was written whilst he was a Beatle so it doesn't really count
Paul just concentrated on Fluffy pop music that couldn't be taken seriously by 70's rock fans, compare his wings/solo albums to the likes of Blood On The Tracks or After The Goldrush or Tumbleweed Connection or Tea For The Tillerman, all very successful albums by serious singer songwriters, albums that were taken in a serious way as works that had something to say but also with great melodies.......Paul just went more banal and twee, with his silly seemingly meaningless lyrics and having his obviously non musical wife in the band.
Unfortunately none of the 3 of them had what it takes to carve out a career as a singer songwriting solo artist that is taken seriously like a Neil Young or a Bob Dylan, Roger Waters thought he didn't need the other Pink Floyd Guys but he has produced nothing of note since Floyd split.
The fabs needed each other, without each other they weren't fab.