John Lennon on the Myth of the Beatles

"You see, we believed the Beatles myth too. I don't know whether the others still believe it, but we were four guys that--I met Paul and said, "Do you want to join me band?" and then George joined and then Ringo joined. We were just a band who made it very, very big--that's all. Our best work was never recorded.

"Because we were performers in spite of what Mick [Jagger] says about us, in Liverpool, Hamburg and around the dance halls. What we generated was fantastic when we played straight rock, and there was nobody to touch us in Britain. But as soon as we made it, the edges were knocked off. Brian Epstein put us in suits and all that, and we made it very, very big. We sold out. The music was dead before we even went on the theatre tour of Britain. We were feeling shit already, because we had to reduce an hour or two hours' play--and which we were glad [to do] in one way--to twenty minutes, and go on and repeat the same twenty minutes every night. The Beatles' music died then, as musicians. That's why we never improved as musicians. We killed ourselves then to make it--and that was the end of it. George and I are more inclined to say that. We always missed the club dates 'cause that's when we were playing music. Then later on we became technically efficient recording artists, which was another thing. Because we were competent people, whatever media you put us in, we can produce something worthwhile."
-1970