Eleanor Rigby is a song by the Beatles, released on the 1966 album Revolver and as a 45 rpm single. It was written primarily by Paul McCartney, and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song continued the transformation of the Beatles from a mainly rock and roll / pop-oriented act to a more experimental, studio-based band. With a double string quartet arrangement by George Martin and striking lyrics about loneliness, Eleanor Rigby broke sharply with popular music conventions, both musically and lyrically. Richie Unterberger of Allmusic cites the bands singing about the neglected concerns and fates of the elderly on the song as just one example of why the Beatles appeal reached so far beyond the traditional rock audience. Paul McCartney came up with the melody of Eleanor Rigby as he experimented with his piano. However, the original name of the protagonist that he chose was not Eleanor Rigby but Miss Daisy Hawkins. The singer-composer Donovan reported that he heard McCartney play it to him before it was finished, with completely different lyrics. In 1966, McCartney recalled how he got the idea for his song: I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it. The first few bars just came to me, and I got this name in my head ... Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church. I dont know why. I couldnt think of much more so I put it away for a day. Then the name Father McCartney came to me, and all the lonely people. But I thought that people would think it was supposed to be about my Dad sitting knitting his socks. Dads a happy lad. So I went through the telephone book and I got the name McKenzie. Others believe that Father McKenzie refers to Father Tommy McKenzie, who was the compere at Northwich Memorial Hall.[8][9] McCartney said he came up with the name Eleanor from actress Eleanor Bron, who had starred with the Beatles in the film Help!. Rigby came from the name of a store in Bristol, Rigby & Evens Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers, which he noticed while seeing his girlfriend of the time, Jane Asher, act in The Happiest Days of Your Life. He recalled in 1984, I just liked the name. I was looking for a name that sounded natural. Eleanor Rigby sounded natural. However, it has been pointed out that the graveyard of St Peters Church in Liverpool, where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met at the Woolton Village garden fete in the afternoon of 6 July 1957, contains the gravestone of an individual called Eleanor Rigby. Paul McCartney has conceded he may have been subconsciously influenced by the name on the gravestone.[10] The real Eleanor Rigby lived a lonely life similar to that of the person in the song. McCartney wrote the first verse by himself, and the Beatles finished the song in the music room of John Lennons home at Kenwood. John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and their friend Pete Shotton all listened to McCartney play his song through and contributed ideas. Harrison came up with the Ah, look at all the lonely people hook. Starr contributed the line writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear and suggested making Father McCartney darn his socks, which McCartney liked. It was then that Shotton suggested that McCartney change the name of the priest, in case listeners mistook the fictional character in the song for McCartneys own father. The song is often described as a lament for lonely people or a commentary on post-war life in Britain. McCartney could not decide how to end the song, and Shotton finally suggested that the two lonely people come together too late as Father McKenzie conducts Eleanor Rigbys funeral. At the time, Lennon rejected the idea out of hand, but McCartney said nothing and used the idea to finish off the song, later acknowledging Shottons help. The Rolling Stones song Paint It Black with its oblique reference to a funeral a line of cars ... all painted black was in the charts when the recording of Eleanor Rigby was being completed. Lennon was quoted in 1971 as having said that he wrote a good half of the lyrics or more and in 1980 claimed that he wrote all but the first verse, but Pete Shotton, Lennons childhood friend, remembered Lennons contribution as being absolutely nil. McCartney said that John helped me on a few words but Id put it down 80–20 to me, something like that. In the 1980s, a grave of an Eleanor Rigby was discovered in the graveyard of St. Peters Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool, and a few yards away from that, another tombstone with the last name McKenzie scrawled across it. During their teenage years, McCartney and Lennon spent time sunbathing there, within earshot of where the two had met for the first time during a fete in 1957. Many years later, McCartney stated that the strange coincidence between reality and the lyrics could be a product of his subconscious, rather than being a meaningless fluke. An actual Eleanor Rigby was born in 1895 and lived in Liverpool, possibly in the suburb of Woolton, where she married a man named Thomas Woods. She died on 10 October 1939 at age 44. Regardless of whether this Eleanor was the inspiration for the song or not, her tombstone has become a landmark to Beatles fans visiting Liverpool. A digitised version was added to the 1995 music video for the Beatles reunion song Free as a Bird. In June 1990, McCartney donated to Sunbeams Music Trust[25] a document dating from 1911 which had been signed by the 16-year-old Eleanor Rigby; this instantly attracted significant international interest from collectors because of the coincidental significance and provenance of the document. The nearly 100-year-old document was sold at auction in November 2008 for £115,000 ($250,000). The Daily Telegraph reported that the uncovered document is a 97-year-old salary register from Liverpool City Hospital. The name E. Rigby is printed on the register, and she is identified as a scullery maid.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 04:21:21 +0000
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