And he argues that the perception that Lennon led the band is usually supported by offsetting his best work against McCartney's worst. The 73-year-old tells Esquire: "The Beatles split up and we were all sort of equal. George did his record, John did his, I did mine, Ringo did his. It was as we were during the Beatles' time.

"When John got shot, aside from the pure horror of it, the lingering thing was, 'Now John's a martyr, a JFK.' I started to get frustrated because people started to say, 'Well, he was the Beatles.' Me, George and Ringo would go, 'Hang on - it's only a year ago we were all equal-ish."

McCartney emphasizes that he's not trying to put down his late colleague's achievements. "John was the witty one," he says. "John did a lot of great work and post-Beatles he did more great work. But he also did a lot of not-great work.

"The fact that he's now martyred has elevated him to a James Dean and beyond. I didn't mind that - I agreed with it. I understood there was going to be revisionism. It was going to be, 'John was the one.'