The stronger lyrics on “Help!” (1964), the fifth album by The Beatles

There are still some flat lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney on "Help!" (1964), The Beatles' fifth album, but more songs have clear strengths. Lennon's title song has strong thematic development, while his "Ticket to Ride" has another striking title, and both "I've Just Seen a Face" and "Yesterday", by McCartney, explore the effects of the passage of time. The album's strongest original lyric is Lennon's "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", with its vividly developed image ("gather around all you clowns"), but again a cover song has the best lyric: the comic story of Johnny Russell's "Act Naturally", originally released in 1963 by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 26 June 2024)