Eleanor Rigby

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"Eleanor Rigby" is a song by The Beatles, originally released on the 1966 album Revolver. The song was primarily written by Paul McCartney, although John Lennon claimed that "the first verse was his and the rest are basically mine." Pete Shotton, a close friend of Lennon who was present at the time, said "Though John (whose memory could be extremely erratic) was to take credit, in one of his last interviews, for most of the lyrics, my own recollection is that 'Eleanor Rigby' was one 'Lennon-McCartney' classic in which John's contribution was virtually nil." McCartney also says that Lennon helped on about "half a line." It remains one of The Beatles' most recognizable and unique songs, with a double string quartet arrangement by George Martin, and striking lyrics about loneliness. The song continued the transformation of the group, started in Rubber Soul, from a mainly pop-oriented act to a more serious and experimental studio band.

Inspiration

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.

Others believe that Father McKenzie refers to 'Father' Tommy McKenzie, who was the compere at Northwich Memorial Hall

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."

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. 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. 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.

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.

Recording

"Eleanor Rigby" does not have a standard pop backing; none of the Beatles played instruments on it, though John Lennon and George Harrison did contribute harmony and backing vocals. Instead, McCartney used a string octet of studio musicians, composed of four violins, two cellos, and two violas all performing a score composed by producer George Martin. For the most part, the instruments "double up"—that is, they serve as two string quartets with two instruments playing each part in the quartet. Microphones were placed close to the instruments to produce a more vivid and raw sound. George Martin asked the musicians if they could play without vibrato and recorded two versions, one with and one without, the latter of which was used. McCartney's choice of a string backing may have been influenced by his interest in the composer Vivaldi. Lennon recalled in 1980 that "Eleanor Rigby" was:

"Paul's baby, and I helped with the education of the child ... The violin backing was Paul's idea. Jane Asher had turned him on to Vivaldi, and it was very good."

It has been widely reported that The Beatles were inspired to use violins after hearing Bernard Herrmann's string-heavy score for François Truffaut's 1966 film Fahrenheit 451. However, given the fact that Fahrenheit 451 was released in November of 1966 and the Beatles finished recording the song in June of the same year, this is highly unlikely.

The octet was recorded on 28 April, 1966 in Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios and completed in Studio 3 on 29 April and on 6 June. Take 15 was selected as the master.

George Martin in his autobiography All You Need is Ears takes credit for combining two of the vocal parts, having noticed that they would work out contrapuntally together.

The original stereo mix had Paul's voice only in the right channel during the verses, with the string octet mixed to one channel, while the mono single and mono LP featured a more balanced mix. On the Yellow Submarine Songtrack and Love versions, McCartney's voice is centered and the string octet appears in stereo in an attempt to create a more "modern" sounding mix.

Releases

"Eleanor Rigby" was released simultaneously on 5 August, 1966 on both the album Revolver and on a double A-side single with "Yellow Submarine" on Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Capitol in the United States. It spent four weeks at number one on the British charts, but in America it only reached the eleventh spot.

The song was nominated for three Grammies and won the 1966 Grammy for Best Contemporary Rock and Roll Vocal Performance, Male for McCartney. Thirty years later, George Martin's isolated string arrangement (without the vocal) was released on the Beatles' Anthology 2. A remixed version of the track was included in the 2006 album Love.

Significance

Though "Eleanor Rigby" was not the first pop song to deal with death and loneliness, it was certainly among the first to present such a serious attitude. The Shangri-Las' 1964 hit "Leader of the Pack" gave a rendition of star-crossed lovers ending in one of their deaths, but the subject matter was purely in a romantic vein and far from a serious look at loss. In fact, in the mid-1960s, the pop format hardly seemed the right vehicle for such a message, but pop music consistently had a more rosy outlook on life. Nevertheless, "Eleanor Rigby" took a message of depression and desolation, written by a famous pop band, with a sombre, almost funeral-like backing, to the number one spot of the pop charts. "Eleanor Rigby" marks a midpoint of sorts in the Beatles' evolution from a pop, live-performance band to a more experimental, studio-oriented band though the track contains no obvious studio trickery. Whereas many of the other tracks on Revolver lend themselves to a rock group, "Eleanor Rigby" in a sense is a precursor to the psychedelic tracks of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The subject matter also reflects a band in transition. The bleak lyrics were not The Beatles' first deviation from love songs, but were some of the most explicit. Eleanor Rigby's lonely existence shares more in tone with the sense of detachment of "A Day in the Life" than with "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

It is the second song to appear in the Beatles' 1969 animated film Yellow Submarine. The first is "Yellow Submarine"; it and "Eleanor Rigby" are the only songs in the film which the animated Beatles are not seen to be singing. "Eleanor Rigby" is introduced just before the Liverpool sequence of the film, and its poignancy ties in quite well with Ringo Starr (the first member of the group to encounter the submarine) who is represented as quietly bored and depressed.

In some reference books on classical music, "Eleanor Rigby" is included and considered comparable to art songs (lieder) by the great composers. Howard Goodall said that the Beatles' works are "a stunning roll-call of sublime melodies that perhaps only Mozart can match in European musical history" and that they "almost single-handedly rescued the Western musical system" from the "plague years of the avant-garde". About "Eleanor Rigby", he said it is "an urban version of a tragic ballad in the Dorian mode.

In a 1966 press conference, an American reporter asked Paul what the inspiration for "Eleanor Rigby" was, and John jumped in saying "two queers." John was making a mockery of it, because at that time it was rumoured that "Day Tripper" was about a prostitute and "Norwegian Wood" was about a lesbian.

Subsequent non-Beatles recordings

Numerous artists have recorded "Eleanor Rigby" in a variety of styles, at least 61 released on albums by one count:

Joan Baez's 1967 version, included on her Joan album, was sung to classical orchestration.

Ray Charles also released a famous version as a single and on the album A Portrait of Ray (1968). This soul cover one steers closer to the original, retaining a string section, but adds a driving drum part and a more subdued chorus.

Aretha Franklin, on the album This Girl's In Love With You (1970) and as a single, switching the song to first person and replacing the string quartet with a driving soul backing, complete with a chorus.

Jazz musicians such as The Jazz Crusaders, Wes Montgomery (on his 1967 album A Day in the Life), Stanley Jordan (on the album Magic Touch, 1985) and John Pizzarelli recorded it as an instrumental, with lead-guitar taking over the vocal line.

The Jerry Garcia Band played an instrumental version as part of a medley with After Midnight. The medley appears on nine bootleg recordings between January 20th, 1980 and March 8th, 1980.

The Nite Liters recorded a funk/soul instrumental version released in 1970.

The Post-hardcore Punk band Thrice recorded the song for the their "If We Could Only See Us Now" Compilation.

The band Acceptance has been known to play a live version of the song alongside Yellowcard's violinist Sean Mackin when Acceptance and Yellowcard toured in late 2005.

In the movie, Magnolia, Aimee Mann produces a song that uses the main background tune.

The American metal band Realm covered this song on their album Endless War.

The group Godhead also recorded this song, on their 2001 album 2000 Years of Human Error. This version is done in an Industrial sounding way, a unique track on the album.

Eleanor Rigby has also been recorded by the band Dirt Poor Robins, being the first track on their debut album "The Greatest of Earth on Show" and on the re-release entitled "The Cage" on Astonish Records.

The group The Violet Burning recorded this song. It is featured on their CD, Strength.

The Swedish Industrial metal band Pain recorded this song on their 2002 album Nothing Remains the Same.

Bobbie Gentry also recorded Eleanor Rigby. Her version can be heard on the Capitol/Cema Special Markets album Great Songs of The Beatles.

Australian band Zoot released a version in 1970. It reached #4 on the Australian charts and went gold after its 1980 re-release.

American rock band Kansas recorded this song on their 1998 album Always Never the Same.

Russian alternative rock band "Animal Jazz" also recorded "Eleanor Rigby" in 2003.

The Outside Royalty, originally from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, recorded an alternative indie rock version in 2006, featuring on their EP.

The Uruguayan rock band La Conjura recorded this song on their live album 1000 km Para Ver.

Jamaican musician, singer, songwriter and producer Harris "B.B." Seaton with the band The Gaylads recorded the reggae version of this song in 1972.

Popular Las Vegas-based "alternative" band Panic At The Disco has covered the track live, but it was never studio recorded.

UK electronic pop group Elevator Suite included a rendition in their 2007 self-titled album.

In 2008 rapper Ja Rule released a song called Father Forgive Me from album The Mirror. It contains a sample of Eleanor Rigby.

Hull-based heavy metal outfit Ethel the Frog covered this song on a single recorded for EMI in 1979.

In 2006 Brooklyn rapper, Talib Kweli, released "All the Lonely People", using "Eleanor Rigby" as the beat

In 1988, Folk Irish Band De Danann recorded a traditional-style version on their album "A Jacket of Batteries."

Chart Run

11/08/1966: 8-1-1-1-1-3-5-9-18-26-30-33-42 (UK) 30/08/1986: 63-81 (UK)

Notes

External links

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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 00:07:18 PDT (GMT -0700)
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