Randoms by Rach

Eleanor Rigby

Eleanor Rigby
Album: Revolver, 1966
Lead vocalist: Paul




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,
Lives 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?

This song … Ahh, this song. When I was young, this was my favourite Beatles song. And that was because of my Dad. He had a Beatles compilation cassette that he often played in the car whenever we went places. This song was his favourite, and the two of us would sing at the tops of our voices, then rewind and do it all over again. But, you know? Even then, when I was probably eight or nine, I understood just how sad the song is. I felt bad for the lonely people, and I understood their loneliness in some ways. But I’ve gone off on a tangent.

The simple string arrangement works well as an accompaniment to the darker lyrics. When The Beatles wrote this song, how common was it for a band of four young lads to release a song about loneliness and old age? I think it was a pretty brave thing to do. But it worked. And it gave me some wonderful memories that I hold dear.

Just a quick note about the name. According to Paul, he took the name Eleanor from the actress Eleanor Bron, who was in The Beatles’ film Help!. It took him a little longer to decide on her surname, but he claims it came to him when he was in Bristol and saw a shop with the name ‘Rigby & Evens’ above the door, and he thought how Rigby would fit perfectly. However, I have also read that there is a gravestone in a churchyard in Woolton in Liverpool (Woolton being where John & Paul first met) that is for an Eleanor Rigby, who died in 1939, aged 44. There is also a gravestone nearby of a ‘MacKenzie.’ Paul later said they could have sub-consciously influenced his name choices.