The widening subject matter of Beatles songwriters Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s lyrics on “Revolver” (1966)

The breakthroughs in lyrics by Beatles songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney on "Rubber Soul" (1965) were formal: they involved humor, rhetoric, characterization, thematic development, scene-setting, and storytelling. Only Lennon's "Nowhere Man" and "In My Life" widened their basic subject matter beyond variations on love songs. On "Revolver" (1966), McCartney's lyrics may have mostly stuck to that subject, but he also wrote the moving character study of the impovishered old woman "Eleanor Rigby" and the surreal sing-a-long "Yellow Submarine", while Lennon contributed increasingly wild songs that culminated in the album closer "Tomorrow Never Knows", inspired by LSD trips and Timothy Leary's "The Psychedelic Experience" (and driven by Ringo Starr's thunderous drumming). (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 28 June 2024)