Photo: Wenn
Paul McCartney has spoken out about the personal knock-on effect of Lennon’s death for him and rest of The Beatles’ careers - adding that he was frustrated to see him become 'a martyr'.
In a recent interview with Esquire, Macca voiced his frustrations surrounding the aftermath and imbalance that occurred post-Lennon.
"Post-Beatles George did his record, John did his, I did mine, Ringo did his. We were equal," he said. "When John got shot, aside from the pure horror of it, the lingering thing was, OK, well now John's a martyr. A JFK."
He continued: "So what happened was, I started to get frustrated because people started to say, 'Well, he was The Beatles'. And me, George and Ringo would go, 'Er, hang on. It's only a year ago we were all equal-ish”. The spotlight was back on John as the Beatle even after a decade of their breaking up in 1970. Lennon was murdered in the winter of 1980.
Watch the video for 'Get Back' by The Beatles below
Macca emphasised the traits of his former bandmates and The Beatles as a system greater than their constituent parts: "We knew we were different. We knew we were something other groups weren't: Lennon's skill, intelligence, acerbic wit, McCartney's melody, whatever he's got, Harrison's spirituality, Ringo's spirit of fun, great drumming. We all played, which is pretty hard."
"Yeah, John was the witty one, sure. John did a lot of great work, yeah. And post-Beatles he did more great work, but he also did a lot of not-great work."
Considering the scope of the murder, McCartney admitted that it wasn’t an unexpected result: "I understood that now there was going to be revisionism. It was going to be: John was the one."
Later in the interview, Paul gave some insight into the idea of hanging up his guitar strap and settling into retirement: "Sit at home and watch telly? Gardening, golf... no thanks. Occasionally, I do think, 'You should have got fed up by now, you should be jaded'.” "But then I still enjoy writing, I still enjoy singing. What am I gonna do? You see so many people who retire and then immediately expire."
Paul McCartney having an expiration date? We doubt it.
