Beatles forums > Songs
Eleanor Rigby
7 of 13:
the bubblegum pop cliche is totally useless here.
Paul McCartney himself makes an oblique reference to civil rights.
--- Quote ---from: Zen and The Beatles' REVOLVER
Brian Wilson's comment "Did you hear the Beatles' album? Religious, right?" is often pointed to as a sure sign of craziness. However, if we give REVOLVER the Zen treatment, Brian's comment makes sense(the touring Beatles cabled EMI from Japan with the album title, REVOLVER, a pun.)
"It might surprise a lot of people to think of the Beatles as religious, especially after John Lennon's supposedy anti-religious statement which caused so much furor....after the furor died down you could interpret Lennon's quote as just a mild rebuke of organized religion. Their song Eleanor Rigby is a similar criticism. And since the Beatles are writing songs along that line, and since George Harrison is going to India to study music (which is intimately connected with Indian philosophy and religion), and since..."
~Tom Nolan, "The Frenzied Frontier of Pop Music,"
Los Angeles Times WEST magazine, Nov.1966.
"Eleanor Rigby" is an unfavorable comment on traditional Western religion.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---from : http://www.thehypertexts.com/Best%20Songs%20Ever.htm
"Eleanor Rigby" is yet another haunting ghost story. In this ghost story, the ghosts were both dead while they were still alive, then one of the ghosts (Father McKenzie) buried the other ghost (Eleanor Rigby). This song contains powerful, moving commentary on the inadequacy of love and religion to make some people happy.
--- End quote ---
nyfan(41):
i have to agree (and many people have) that this song contains commentaries on organized religion aka the church
specifically:
"writing the words to a sermon that no one will hear"
- i'd read several places that that was taken as a double meaning - the priest's lonliness- but also the declining membership / attendance of the church
this goes along with the bigger than jesus comment and was kind of a talked about issue in the mid 60s as the church started to lose social influence.
also, "no one was saved" was taken by some as an organized religion dig
-
there are so many conflicting stories about the origins of eleanor rigby's lyrics . .
paul has said he was inspired by visiting old age homes as a child and seeing lonely elderly people....
john had claimed to write 70% of the lyrics.... paul and john's friend pete shotton refuted that... then there are accounts that george and ringo had a part in the lyrics....
ringo is accredited with "sermon that no one will hear" and "darning his socks"
george is accredited with "all the lonely people"
- the idea of the priest and eleanor both being in the last verse at eleanor's funeral was suggested by pete shotton, (according to paul)
supposedly paul's original concept had eleanor and the preist linking up romantically in the last verse
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kind of weird that there was a grave with the name but E.R. - with a grave marked mckenzie nearby and it was claimed to be a random combination of help actress eleanor brauns first name and a wine store named rigby . .with mckenzie being a name at random from a phone book etc etc etc
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awesome song
Hello Goodbye:
Give My Regards to Broadstreet- Eleanor Rigby
tkitna:
One of my favorite versions, but I love Kansas.
Kansas - Eleanor Rigby (with lyrics)
Dcazz:
--- Quote from: HeyJude18 on February 23, 2011, 03:29:25 AM ---I don't see how that's a slam against religion... :\
--- End quote ---
I don't see it either.
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