Great thread. Peter T., thank you for pointing out that the emperor has no clothes -- I have always felt that John Lennon's "Imagine" was an incredibly insipid piece of work. As for "Across the Universe," I agree that the version by the Beatles was weak. However, David Bowie did a duet of that (with John Lennon) on Bowie's "Young Americans" album; a complete overhaul, much more passionate than the watered-down Beatles version. It's worth checking out if you've never heard it.

Unfortunately, the task that this thread sets is an easy one, since a lot of truly brilliant people have put out their share of bad stuff. Paul McCartney is such an easy target that I won't bother with him. Dylan (who is at the top of my most-admired list generally) has done some terrible work; I happen to like the "Nashville Skyline" album, but most of "Self Portrait" was awful, as was much of his work after "Blood On The Tracks". Somebody cited a line from "Hurricane," with the disclaimer that they just disliked the line, not the whole song; for myself, I consider the whole song simplistic, forced, and patronizing (to say nothing of "Joey" off the same album). And despite my generally positive opinion of most of his recent "Time Out Of Mind," I think, the last song ("Highlands") sounds like he was making it up as he went along just to provide filler for the album.