" how insipid most of the Beatles lyrics really are."
There is a strong maudlin Liverpool catholic element - Hey Jude, Eleanor Rigby etc. A grown-up fan thought that this was McCartney and the more arty stuff Lennon (though that opposition sounds a bit mythical to me). You have to know Liverpool a bit to get this whiny self-pitying tone. Liverpool (being on the west coast of England) boomed in the eighteenth century (trade with the Americas) declined in the twentieth century (trade with Europe). Bristol and latterly Glasgow suffered similarly. All three are haunted cities. But Liverpool has a particular mix of Irish and Welsh, along with its own development, that has created a particular sense of itself. Living in nearby Manchester, the difference between the two cities (Manchester optimistic aggressive; Liverpool melancholy, hurt) is quite marked. You can see it in the way the scousers go on about Hillsborough - not that they weren't right to be angry, but they turned it into miserable self-pity, as though it was a campaign against Liverpool, rather than one against football fans. The working class Irish symbolism is quite strong in a lot of the Beatles lyrics, and not in a positive way.
I always hated them (when I was a child, if you liked the Beatles, you were a drip, you were supposed to like 'the Stones' - then Punk released us from all of that). I was secretly thrilled when the Trotskyist 'Newsline' in excellent bad taste condemned John Lennon in an editorial when he died, saying he had investments in South Africa (which I am sure was made up).