Perhaps the most haunting song ever written.
ttucker23 writes in thecultureclub.net,
“Eleanor Rigby is perhaps the Beatles’ most shocking song.
Not simply because of the sound of it, which was an
abrupt departure for its time, but because of its theme.
It is hard to think of a more desolate statement in
any work of art, let alone popular music.
This song marked a sudden break with the optimism
that was a hallmark of The Beatles’ earlier work,
and in its place presented an almost unbearably dark cynicism.
Two lonely people, living in a church community, cannot
find a way to connect and end up living their entire lives alone
and apart. Their destiny is not that they will end up together,
but that one buries the other, a grim irony that
would be humorous if it weren’t tragic.
that was a hallmark of The Beatles’ earlier work,
and in its place presented an almost unbearably dark cynicism.
Two lonely people, living in a church community, cannot
find a way to connect and end up living their entire lives alone
and apart. Their destiny is not that they will end up together,
but that one buries the other, a grim irony that
would be humorous if it weren’t tragic.
Eleanor Rigby
(Lennon/McCartney)
Ah, look at all the lonely people.
Ah, look at all the lonely people.
gt;
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?
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?