Eleanor Rigby – The Beatles Song Meaning

The composition Eleanor Rigby by the rock band The Beatles impressed fans and critics with an unusual theme for popular music, soul-stirring lyrics, an unexpected combination of styles and an innovative arrangement. Even prim adherents of the classics consider it a masterpiece and recognize that it deserves a place on a par with the works of the greatest composers of the past and present.

The history and meaning of the song Eleanor Rigby – The Beatles

The idea for the future song came from Paul McCartney in a music practice room set up in the basement of Jane Asher’s parents’ house.

The author says:

I was sitting at the piano when the thought of her came to me. The first few bars came naturally…

1966

She just showed up. When I started composing the melody, I gradually wrote the words. They evolved from the first line.

Donovan recalled how Paul played him an early version of the song:

One day I was sitting alone at home, playing some tunes on a Uher tape recorder. The entry bell rang. It was Paul. He came himself. We improvised a little. He played me a tune about a weird guy called Ola Na Tungee.
Ola Na Tungee
Blowing his mind in the dark
With a pipe full of clay
No one can say

Many Years from Now, Barry Miles

The idea to develop the theme of loneliness in the song Eleanor Rigby arose unexpectedly. McCartney:

As I fiddled with the chord, the words came to mind: ‘Dazzie-de-da-zu picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been… “). The thought of someone harvesting rice after marriage sent her [песню] in that bitter direction, towards “lonely people”.

Anthology

McCartney has said that the main idea of the Eleanor Rigby song comes from his childhood:

When I was a kid, I was lucky to have a really cool dad, a working-class gentleman who always taught us to give up our seat on the bus to the elderly. This motivated me to go to nursing homes. It seems a little sugary, but I don’t tell people about it very often. There were two old ladies there, and I would come to them and ask, “Do you need to buy anything?” These lonely old women were what I knew about growing up. That’s what Eleanor Rigby is about: that she died and no one noticed. I knew this kind of thing happened.

Observer Music Monthly, 2008

Having sketched out a rough draft of the first verse, Paul went over to John. All four gathered at Lennon’s house. Their friend Pete Shotton joined the Beatles. Then they wrote the words to the song Eleanor Rigby together.

As usual, McCartney and Lennon had different views on their contributions to the composition. Paul stated:

John helped me with a few words, but it’s an 80/20 ratio in my favor – something like that.

Many Years from Now

Lennon called the song McCartney’s brainchild, but believed that he “wrote a good half of the lyrics, if not more” (Many Years from Now).

Although the other members of The Beatles do not appear as co-authors of the song, they also took part in the work on the text. George Harrison wrote the opening lines about lonely people (“Ah, look at all the lonely people”). Ringo Starr offered a line about Mackenzie’s father darning his socks at night (“darning his socks in the night”). Pete Shotton also helped write the composition, suggesting the idea for the final verse.

At first, Paul wanted to name the heroine Miss Daisy Hawkins, but this option seemed unrealistic to him. In the end, he chose the name Eleanor, after the actress Eleanor Bron, who played the female lead in Help! (1965). McCartney saw Rigby’s name on a sign for a Rigby & Evens Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers store in Bristol.

Paul said that in the draft version of the song, he gave the priest his last name. Lennon wanted to leave him, but McCartney was against it. So they went through the phone book and settled on McKenzie. Subsequently, the “Beatles” called and wrote to several priests, who introduced themselves as the fathers of Mackenzie.

“The Real” Eleanor Rigby

As the song became popular, it was revealed that a woman named Eleanor Rigby was buried in Wooton Cemetery near St Peter’s Church in Liverpool. She was born in 1895 and died on October 10, 1939. Nearby is the grave of a man named Mackenzie.

Paul McCantney claims he had no idea about Eleanor Rigby’s grave:

I swear I thought that was how I came up with the name Eleanor Rigby. I quite clearly remember that I had the name Eleanor, and I looked for a plausible surname, and then wandered around the docks of Bristol and saw a store there. But there seems to be Eleanor Rigby’s mobile stove in Woolton Cemetery, where John and I used to hang out. A couple of meters to the right lies someone named Mackenzie. This is either a mere coincidence, or they themselves surfaced in my subconscious.

Anthology

In 2008, McCartney put an end to the discussion on this topic:

Eleanor Rigby is a completely fictional character that I made up.

BBC News

But many researchers of the work of The Beatles and fans of the group remained unconvinced. Beatle biographer Ray Connolly does not believe in coincidences:

I am absolutely sure that this woman is the real Eleanor Rigby. Too many things add up.

Eleanor Rigby’s grave is still a place of pilgrimage for Beatles fans. Another Liverpool attraction associated with the composition was the monument to Eleanor Rigby.

Recording and release

The song was recorded in April 1966. Members of The Beatles performed only as vocalists. To perform musical parts, George Martin (George Martin) invited a string octet: four violins, two cellos and two violas. Other instruments were not involved.

On August 5, 1966, Eleanor Rigby released a single with Yellow Submarine. On the same day, the release of the album Revolver took place, in which the track occupies the second line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twFbweJfUUo

Eleanor Rigby was featured on the soundtrack of the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine.

In 1984, Paul McCartney included a new version of Eleanor Rigby on the album and film Give My Regards to Broad Street.

Achievements and covers

Eleanor Rigby topped the UK and Canadian charts. The song climbed to number eleven on the US Billboard Hot 100.

In 1966, the song was nominated for three Grammys and won Best Contemporaty (R&R) Vocal Performance, Male or Female.

Rolling Stone and NME magazines have included it in their lists of the five hundred greatest songs of all time.

The song has been recorded by several famous bands and musicians, including Joan Baez and Vanilla Fudge. Listen to Aretha Franklin perform Eleanor Rigby.

Ray Charles recorded an impressive Eleanor Rigby cover.

Interesting Facts

Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees said they wrote Melody Fair (1969) under the influence of Eleanor Rigby.
In 2008, a payroll signed by 16-year-old Eleanor Rigby was put up for auction. Paul McCartney donated it to the Sunbeams Music Trust. Dating back to 1911, the document was sold for $177,000.

Eleanor Rigby Lyrics

Ah look at all the lonely people
Ah look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice
In the church where a wedding has been
live in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face
That she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie, writing the words
Of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working, darning his socks
In the night when there’s nobody there
What does he care?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Ah look at all the lonely people
Ah look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby, died in the church
And was buried along with her name
nobody came
Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt
From his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Eleanor Rigby Lyrics

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby picking rice
In the church where the wedding took place
She lives in dreams
Waiting at the window, expression on the face,
Which she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All these lonely people
Where did they come from?
All these lonely people
Where is their place?

Mackenzie’s father writing text
A sermon that no one will hear
No one will approach him
Won’t watch him work, darn socks
At night when no one is around
What worries him?

All these lonely people
Where did they come from?
All these lonely people
Where is their place?

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby died in church
And was buried alone
No one came
Mackenzie’s father wipes the dirt
With hands, moving away from the grave
Nobody was saved

All these lonely people
Where did they come from?
All these lonely people
Where is their place?