Beatles: Eleanor Rigby Meaning

Song Released: 1966

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 weddng
has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by
the door
Who is...

1. anonymous

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   Apr 19th 2008 !⃝

   I think it's about getting old and useless because as you get older the less you can do and picking up rice is not very helpful to society and nobody will hear father Mackenzie sermon because he's useless

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
2. anonymous

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   Apr 7th 2008 !⃝

   According to Wikipedia:
   
   As is true of many of McCartney's songs, the melody and first line of the song came to him as he was playing around on his piano. The name that came to him, though, was not Eleanor Rigby but Miss Daisy Hawkins. 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 don't know why. I couldn't 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. Dad's a happy lad. So I went through the telephone book and I got the name McKenzie.[4] ”
   
   Others believe that Father McKenzie refers to 'Father' Tommy McKenzie, who was the compere at Northwich Memorial Hall[5][6]
   
   McCartney originally imagined Daisy as a young girl, but anyone who cleaned up in churches would probably be older. If she were older, she might have missed not only the wedding she cleans up after but also her own. Gradually, McCartney developed the theme of the loneliness of old age, morphing his song from the story of a young girl to that of an elderly woman whose loneliness is worse for having to clean up after happy couples.
   
   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, that he noticed while seeing his then-girlfriend 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."[7]
   
   In the 1980s, a grave of an Eleanor Rigby was discovered in the graveyard of St. Peter's Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool, and a few yards away from that, another tombstone with the last name McKenzie scrawled across it.[8][9] During their teenage years, McCartney and Lennon spent time "sunbathing" there; within earshot distance 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 lyric could be a product of his subconsciousness, rather than being a meaningless fluke.[8] The 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, which, because 1940 was a leap year, was exactly one year to the day before Lennon was born. Whether this Eleanor was the inspiration for the song or not, her tombstone has become a landmark to Beatles fans visiting Liverpool. A digitized version was added to the 1995 music video for the Beatles' reunion song "Free as a Bird".
   
   The Beatles finished off the song in the music room of John Lennon's 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. Someone suggested introducing a romance into the story, but this was rejected because it made the story too complicated. 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, and Harrison came up with the line "Ah, look at all the lonely people". Shotton then suggested that McCartney change the name of the priest, in case listeners mistook the fictional character in the song for McCartney's own father.[10]
   
   McCartney couldn't decide how to end the song, and Shotton finally suggested that the two lonely people come together too late as Father McKenzie conducts Eleanor Rigby's 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 Shotton's help.[10]
   
   ^ Revolver: Eleanor Rigby. The Beatles Interview Database. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.
   ^ BEATLES' TRIBUTE TO 'FATHER MCKENZIE'. Northwich Guardian (2000-06-98). Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
   ^ Item 934 - Beatles: Father McKenzie Catalog 292 (Dec 2004). rrauction.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
   ^ Goodman, Joan (December 1984). "Playboy Interview with Paul McCartney". Playboy. Playboy Press. 
   ^ a b The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 208. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8.
   ^ Gravestone of an "Eleanor Rigby" in the graveyard of St. Peter's Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.
   ^ a b Turner, Steve (1994). A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song. New York: Harper.
3. anonymous

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   Apr 5th 2008 !⃝

   I always found it strange that, though nothing particularly points to it, Father Mackenzie seems to be the evil character in the song. Well, one line, of course "wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave", makes him seem less than pure. This, especially, leads me to almost believe the priest killed a hooker interpretation.
   
   However, I also get the feeling that it could be about the sadness of aging. I can't really support that very well, it's just what it makes me think about.
4. anonymous

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   Apr 3rd 2008 !⃝

   All I know is Elanor Rigby is the name on a gravestone near where they grew up.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. gabasystem

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   Mar 20th 2008 !⃝

   I see lonely people all the time. I was born in 67 and named after "Michelle." I am a confirmed Catholic and attended Catholic schools until college. Eleanor picks up the rice in A Church, not her church. She was married and rice was thrown. Life looked at backwards is like a dream, but not a delusion. Lonely people look out windows. She has no visitors but she hopes. The face she has ready is for anyone who comes.
   
   Father Mckenzie is her priest. He has heard her confessions and she has repented. Catholics are taught that if you confess and ask God for forgiveness you are saved. Unless it is a mortal sin. Murder is not. Abortion is. Suicide is a mortal sin. Divorce is forbidden and Catholics are excommunicated. "Kicked out" for non-catholics. My parents divorced. My mother married again. My parents remarried 6 years later in the church 4 hours from our home parish with just my brother and I in attendance. The church is corrupt.
   
   The Beatles are not only questioning society and asking us to look at the lonely, they are clearly condemning the Catholic church. "Wiping the dirt as he walks from the grave." He pays her this last respect, with guilt and remorse, she is not the greater sinner. " No one was saved." This parish reeks of scandal. The priest has forsaken God. Eleanor should have been saved as she was buried in the church along with her name. She must have committed a mortal sin. FATHER KNOWS. THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO COULD BE SAVED WERE THE ONES WHO DID NOT ATTEND. My friends all lapsed Catholics are asked by non-Catholics who know our educational and family backgrounds why we stopped going to mass and left the church "We went to Catholic schools for 12 years. " laugh Eleanor may have converted when she married, so she must be a widow or her marriage was annulled. The priest darning his socks has stepped out but in what manner I won't speculate. Suicide is a possibility and Father may know and helped cover it up. Or read "saved" literally. Eleanor may have had friends, a husband, even children at one time. The final line is not about saving the soul. But being saved from loneliness.
   
   My grandmother lived in isolation and died alone and my father didn't care. I loved her. In a small town not a single friend or neighbor came to the funeral . She had lived and raised a family there from the fifties until her death in 1988. There was no scandal in her life. Snow kept her housebound and so did pride and then dementia. She was gone for days before her body was found. She had no food but ice cream.
   
   I went to visit her grave with my baby daughter and husband in 1992. My father never ordered a simple marker for her grave. At least she was buried next to her husband and son. Sounds a bit like Eleanor.
6. anonymous

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   Mar 10th 2008 !⃝

   The Beatles are showing their frustration with organized religion and the delusion of a personal God. Yes it is referencing societal isolation as well, but in the end even the one friend they both thought they had, 'God', was not there for them...'no one was saved'. They were both living a life of a lie that resulted in isolation, the Beatles were showing their frustration and utter sadness at how many people choose, or are forced by the society that surrounds them, to live in such a way: it's the only life they are going to get and it was wasted. 'Eleanor Rigby was buried along with her name'. Thats it, game over Eleanor.
   
   I also agree with the jab at the Church for FORCING priests to live a life of isolation. What a tragic dogma....

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

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   Mar 7th 2008 !⃝

   For me, every time I hear this song I think of it moving in time periods for each character. For example, in the beginning, Eleanor is picking up the rice from HER wedding, that was supposed to make her life this great, exciting happening ("lives in a dream"). However, we find that she is not as happy as everyone is supposed to think, and is actually seperated by the rest of the world with the lines "she waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in the jar by the door" The person she is waiting for is the one who is able to see past her fake smile/happiness and find how she truly feels, but she doesn't know who would care to look that deep because no one cares to pay attention to others nowadays("who is it for?"). At the same time we have Father Mackenzie who is writing a sermon that no one will hear, which I think is pretty straight forward, everyone is so worried about their own material gain that they no longer wish to pursue any spiritual gain. "What does he care?" shows how little his congregation has dwindled to since it's seemingly so small there is the question of why even bother to save souls?
   
   Then fast forward a few years and Eleanor has died in the same church her wedding was, meaning she did not travel far from her beginning years implying that the person she was waiting for was never able to see how much they needed to dig deeper into her soul to see the emptiness she felt. Her dying along with her name is obviously because she was married off, but also, I think her "name" is also a metaphor for her individuality and personal pride since she was too afraid to show herself for what/who she really was. The "nobody came" part along with the fact that she was putting on "a face" for everyone in the outside world always made me think her new husband that was supposed to be this wonderful mate and bright future for her, beat her or something and that's why she was so sad. Anyway, Father Mackenzie wiping his hands from the dirt was because that's what they do in Catholic burials, the preist and the closest relative throws a handful of dirt on the grave before it's buried. With the last line "no one was saved" I think it has two different meanings, depending on the character. For the people who never showed up to the Father's sermons, they were not spiritually saved; therefore, they will be alone eternally as Eleanor was on earth. As for Eleanor, I always pictured her being the only one in the town who would make time for confessionals, therefore she was saved, but going back to my thinking she was beaten, she wasn't saved from her violent husband, and so he ultimately killed her. The fact that no one else showed up to her funeral adds to this thought because often times, battered women seclude themselves from others, and they also act like nothing is wrong when an outside person actually does "peek through the window" for a moment.
   
   So pretty much, I think it's just a story of two different people with two different lives wondering why no one cares about anyone but themselves. We should all try and reach out to others just because that's the only way we can keep this world from becoming a dark place that it is slowly turning into. But that's just the opinionof a 17 year-old so yeah...
   
   P.S. The people who think it's about a hooker and a preist having an affair, that makes for a great dramatic storyline too!
8. anonymous

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   Feb 19th 2008 !⃝

   I personally believe that, as is obvious by the lyrics, it is about utter loneliness. Eleanor is an older woman who is depressed by the happiness of others, and she must only clean up after their fun. One could also go as far as to say she probably missed her own wedding or something like that. Father MacKenzie on the other hand seems to be a minister at a church that no one attends anymore, causing him to deliver sermons to an empty mass. At the very end of the song, the two lonely people finally come face to face with one another, sadly too late since it is at Eleanor's own funeral. Honestly, these are some of the most bleak lyrics I've heard from the Beatles.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. Wildwest814

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   Jan 28th 2008 !⃝

   No, the Beatles wouldn't write some lyrics about suicidal love. That wasn't their style. This song is about looking at the lives of lonely people, and how sad it is.
10. calsurf21

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    Dec 24th 2007 !⃝

    "I got the name Rigby from a shop in Bristol. I was wandering round Bristol one day and saw a shop called Rigby. (Rigby and Amp) And I think Eleanor was from Eleanor Bron, the actress we worked with in the film 'Help!' But I just liked the name. I was looking for a name that sounded natural. Eleanor Rigby sounded natural." Paul wrote this song originally at the piano, with input later from George, John, Ringo, and Pete Shotton, finishing it at John Lennon's house in Kenwood. The song's theme of loneliness, old age, and isolation, is similar to that of 'A Day in the Life', and marks a shift in the Beatles songwriting, toward more serious subjects. The string arrangement is George Martin's, and the classical influence is thought to be Jane Asher's. Jane had recently introduced Paul to Vivaldi, and the classical sound of the song, reflects that influence. It isn't the lyrics which are important here, it's the arrangement and sombre construction of the words in combination with the music. For a pop group, reaching number 1 with a song as serious as this was very unusual.
11. anonymous

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    Dec 17th 2007 !⃝

    I love the song because the lyrics really create a disturbing effect. 'Where do they all come from?' is what I wonder about when I'm lonely. There are so many people on Earth...we're together yet still alone. I don't want to be lonely; no one does -- it feels so bad. Poor Eleanor Rigby. This song makes me want to be around other people. A life alone is death.
12. anonymous

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    Oct 28th 2007 !⃝

    I think that Eleanor may be under pressure to do well and "wear a face that she keeps in a jar". Trying to pick up after everyone else alone because her friendships are illusions thus the different faces that she doesn't know how to distinguish anymore and the lonely funeral. Father Mckenzie is willing to embrace his loneliness and thus, is able to surpass Eleanor's threshold for loneliness. He goes on living his lonely life, but Eleanor is now dead. He may be lonely but at least he isn't dead, Eleanor tried so hard but, in the end, perished and no one noticed.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
13. anonymous

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    Sep 24th 2007 !⃝

    I think the above opinion is very accurate. I'm shock no one else realized that this song is all about suicide. I would, however, disagree that father Mackenzie killed her. She committed suicide, which is what the song is all about, the he did after losing the last of what he had.

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14. anonymous

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    Sep 17th 2007 !⃝

    My interpretation is that this song is about murder/suicide. Eleanor Rigby is in love with Father McKenzie. They cannot consummate their love, him being a priest. They decide to end it all. He writes the suicide letter (the sermon nobody will hear). They both dress up, and after he buries her he takes his own life. No one was saved...
15. anonymous

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    Sep 6th 2007 !⃝

    I've always thought the song was about the loneliness people of the cloth often lead. Elanor was a nun who ran a rural church with father McKinsey. They intentionally chose to live that way, so although we may interpret their existence as lonely or detached, their sadness (if any) is their own concern.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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