anonymous October 31st, 2006 11:35PM  

I see this song as a reference to the inability of the church to ease the suffering of its people. Father Mackenzie is so far removed that "no one comes near." even as Eleanor is suffering in her loneliness, the church (personified in father Mackenzie) does nothing to help, and she dies as she lived-alone, unreached by anyone- even god. "no one was saved" is the bitterest line in the whole song, because not only was Eleanor "unsaved" one can assume that the isolated priest is just as alone, without a sense of belonging. This song hurts in that god is so near, but man still finds a way to tangle himself up, and miss his creator in the confusion. And we live lonely, hopeless lives, wondering "where do [we] all belong?"

anonymous January 26th, 2007 10:50AM  

Lonliness is the result of having a place in society that is ignored or goes unseen by society. The Beatles considered themselves socialists, in their Utopian society neither Father McKenzie or Eleanor Rigby would go unnoticed because their particular stations in society could never be unseen. It is the exploitation of Eleanor and McKenzie's involuntary detachment from the modern capitalistic society that the Beatles are commenting on. They felt that everyone got so into their own social standings that they unconsciously forgot or never noticed those whose lives appeared to be of less worth. Lonliness is what the Beatles used to evoke a cathartic reaction from their listeners. Everyone understands lonliness. Maybe through exploiting others lonely lives people will see that everyone should have worth in society.

anonymous September 6th, 2007 12:56AM  

The song is about being lonely but more what happens when you have no one. It's about Eleanor's suicide. The last line gives it away.

anonymous December 17th, 2007 12:37AM  

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.

calsurf21 December 24th, 2007 12:13PM  

"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.

Wildwest814 January 28th, 2008 07:57PM  

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.

anonymous April 7th, 2008 06:32PM  

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.

pomegranate17 May 2nd, 2008 10:56PM  

Everyone is alone in the world, but we all put on happy faces to pretend we feel accepted. Eleanor represents the emotions of isolation that everyone feels sometimes. And if we don't make everyone feel welcome in this world, it will eventually end to their demise.

Perfect16 July 25th, 2008 11:56PM  

Ok a couple points a want to make first:
- It’s in A church not HER church

-she picks up the rice in a church where A wedding has been, again not HER wedding (ok I had to check over the lyrics, I thought it was her wedding for a while)

-A sermon is something written then said in a church service. (Kind of like in an assembly at a school.)

-darning is sewing up the holes or rips in a piece of material


Ahhh look at all the lonely people
(Pretty straight forward)

Ahhh look at all the lonely people
(Again pretty straight forward)

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been, lives in a dream.
(After a wedding when all the guests are leaving Eleanor picks up some rice that was thrown and dreams of having her own wedding because she is lonely.

Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door, who is it for?
(She stands by the window watching and waving at all the guests that are leaving. The "face that she keeps in a jar" is a fake face she put on to make people think she is happy and joyful but she keeps all her real emotions of depression and sorrow "bottled up inside her" so to speak.)

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?
(Where do all these lonely people come from?)

All the lonely people, where do they all belong?
(Where should all these lonely people go?)

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear. No one comes near.
(He probably expects that Eleanor will kill herself because of her depression, maybe Eleanor told him so he could prepare. no one bothers him while he is working.)

Look at him working. Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there. What does he care?
(Assuming Eleanor told him that she would commit suicide he is darning his socks so that he looks good for the funeral even though he doesn’t really care that Eleanor will die and knows that no one will come to the funeral)

All the lonely people. Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people. Where do they all belong?

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name. Nobody came
(She committed suicide in the church and Father McKenzie buried her. Her name being buried with her means that her name was forgotten and was never mentioned again. Like Father assumed no one came to the funeral service.)


Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave. No one was saved.
(Wiping the dirt from his hands means he wants to forget, about burying Eleanor cause he didn’t care therefore there is no reason to remember it. He walks away. No one was saved is implying that in the Christian/catholic religion God/Jesus will save people from death or give them another chance, however they did not with Eleanor.)

All the lonely people. Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people. Where do they all belong?

FREETBT September 3rd, 2008 11:36AM  

Eleanor Rigby is a song about wanting to reach out to people. These people are all lost. I don't know who they are. You don't know them. Do we even care? All these lost people in the world are voiceless. Forget about them, RIGHT?
Ah look at all the lonely people.
WHERE DO THEY ALL COME FROM?
Eleanor is forgotten, nobody cares about her. She disguises her sadness and her longing with the face by her window. She doesn't literally put on a mask or someone elses face, but she puts on a face to fit society. We don't care to see sad people, to be bothered by their problems. We have our own problems. Father McKenzie doesn't care that he buried Rigby. I mean, she's dead right. Nobody came for her, nobody cared. She is just another dead body.
How many people do we see out on the street that will just become "another dead body?" No one comes near? Why is it that we don't care? Have we really forgotten how to care for those that we don't know? Eleanor Rigby really puts this into perspective that there are the lonely people, and they are lonely indeed. She wears this mask, but it is only a cover. Eleanor is waiting for someone, but she is scarred in her heart by her lonely life. And sadly enough, she is an afterthought in her death. Fr. McKenzie writes her sermon in his socks, late at night. She was buried alng with her name, no one will remember her.

LOOK AT ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE!!
KNOW THAT SOMEONE YOU IGNORE, A FELLOW STUDENT, A COWORKER, THE HOMELESS, KNOW THAT THEY ARE LONGING FOR LOVE. LONELINESS IN ITS TRUEST FORM IS SO PAINFUL, AND IT IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE IGNORED, ONLY MASKED WITH A FACE KEPT BY THE DOOR!!

FREETBT September 4th, 2008 10:33AM  

Paul McCartney is quoted as saying: "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"

He had an image as Daisy Hawkins being a young woman, but he thought it more symbolic to have her picking up the rice as an old woman, not only missing the wedding she is picking up rice from, but her own as well.

The name Eleanor came from the actress Eleanor Bron, who had filmed Help! with the Beatles, and the Rigby part came from a store name in Bristol.

This song isn't only described as a lamentation for lonely people, but also the Second World War, as the women were left without husbands.

anonymous September 12th, 2008 01:36AM  

According to George Harrison he wrote some lyrics According to John Lennon Playboy interview when George H was talking to Paul M they came up with line "all the lonely people" which in my opinion is the best line from a Beatles song. John L claims to have written 50% or more of lyrics Paul M says John L wrote about two lines.

Interpretation song is about all the lonely people and that the whole of their life can be sad

swaybaby January 31st, 2009 07:02PM  

I remember riding in the car with my mom all the time growing up and hearing this son occasionally on the radio. One day I asked her what it was about and what she told me was that it was about a woman who lived a lonely, socially awkward life where she stayed at home waiting for a knight in shining armor to come and rescue her. She did work for the church but kept to herself all the time as a social barrier. Father McKenzie was an ignored, lonely person as well, even being the head of the church. No one cared about either one of them. Thats just what I was told and I listen to the song and hear it myself. It is scary to think of living life that way to the point of where you die no one even cares and no one comes to your funeral except the priest who is obligated to be there.

Effthesystem February 11th, 2009 10:19AM  

'Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave. No one is saved.' means exactly what it says, he was anxious to get on with his life and didn't bother to save someone who had been ignored his/her own life.

adastra July 20th, 2009 07:17PM  

"wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door"
ok...
simple answer..
FACE CREAM.... Makeup!..

anonymous July 28th, 2009 09:07PM  

To VampGirl, It's about loneliness and sadness, and frankly, Father McKenzie doesn't care for Eleanor.

goosegirl1 August 3rd, 2009 08:54AM  

I always thought the face she keeps by the jar in the door was makeup, but as some say it could be interpretated as a false smile, to hide the sorrow. All that can really be said about this song is that it is, quite ssimply, about lonlyness

ALT September 18th, 2009 02:47PM  

Wow, there are some really interesting and unique interpretations of this some. It really strikes a chord with people on many levels. I disagree with some of the interpretations, but that doesn't make them wrong. So I thought I'd jump in with what (and why) I perceive is as being the meaning of Eleanor Rigby, one of the saddest and most beautiful songs ever.

Opening abbreviated chorus prompts you to stop and consider all the lonely people of the world, such as...

Eleanor is picking up the rice at the church AFTER the wedding is over and the guests have left. Narration purposely says that a wedding HAS recently taken place, it's not presently taking place, this is to clarify to the listener to visualize the scene with only Eleanor in the picture - otherwise you'd see the wedding gatherers and know it was a wedding, or you'd see only Eleanor and wonder what rice was doing in the church. Therefore, Eleanor came to the church to either tidy it up, or, as I believe, she came expressly to collect the rice to take home with her, because in her mind it symbolized marriage, the greatest treasure on earth (to her as a lonely woman). This also tells you how she's living in a dream world and not facing reality. She is now firmly in her own self created isolation, so she is mostly to blame for her loneliness.

WAITS at the window... I think that she's watching the world go by and is putting up a facade that she's not lonely, but really - who is it for? No one is fooled by this, and yet know one is there to care.

The Father writes the words of a sermon that no one will hear, as no one comes around. (Btw, notice it's a sermon and NOT a eulogy as some have misunderstood). It would seem that he also suffers from loneliness and depression. He either has no congregation or his words are wasted on them.
Likely, his own isolation has allowed his work (and faith as we find out later) to suffer, and now his congregation has left him. A classic, unfortunate vicious cycle.

He keeps to himself and fights his loneliness by working on his clothes, for instance, in the middle of the night. He has nothing better to do, and he really doesn't care that he's lonely. At least that's what he keeps telling himself!

The full chorus asks us again where do these lonely people come from, and where do they belong. But this time, something interesting happens. The song suddenly and unexpectedly transposes upward and we again hear the brief opening chorus. This, to me, gives the feeling that a great deal of time has passed as the song "falls" back into its original feel in the final verse, where we learn...

Eleanor has died in the church, she had lost her faith in God and given up her fight with depression, caused by her own self-induced/propagated loneliness. Her name was all she had in life, it'd never changed, and now is gone and forgotten - just like her.

Father McKenzie wipes his hands as he walks from the grave, as many others have interpreted, is wiping his hands clean and dismissing from his guilt another life he could have helped save. However, we learn in the last line that he also was not saved.

If the good Father would not have been so self-absorbed, by clinging to his position in the church after losing his faith and not steping down, and if Eleanor hadn't also been so lost in her own self-created delusions, perhaps the two of them would have met, thus saving each other.

That's just one opinion though.

Another point to consider is to take into account The Seven Deadly Sins (several of which are in the above interpretation).

Regardless, it's one of my favorite songs ever.

anonymous October 6th, 2009 05:06PM  

Eleanor Rigby: "Picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been." She's terribly lonely, and has definitely not found true love, but wants to bitterly. She wears a face at the window, showing that she pretends to be fine and happy when she's miserable and alone. Father McKenzie spends time writing a sermon, and no one will really listen or care. He sews his socks and prepares, even though there isn't anything to prepare for. Eleanor dies and is buried, no one comes to her funeral, and even Father McKenzie doesn't care. She's buried "along with her name", which shows that she died without marrying, and her family name dies. Pretty bitter song. No one was saved.

Winnipegger October 7th, 2009 11:51AM  

One must pay attention to the time frame in which the song was written, a time in which organized religion was falling into a decline. As Lennon would say at around the same time, "We're bigger than Jesus now", meaning that the Beatles were more important to the latest generation than religion was, which he felt only showed the decline of organized religion.

As well, the song notes the inadequacy of religion in addressing basic fundamental human emotions, such as loneliness, in that it doesn't fill all of everyone's needs. If it did, there wouldn't be any lonliness in the world ("Ah, look at all the lonely people", which is repeated twice in order to emphasize the fact that there are many of them).

The main character of the song is Eleanor Rigby, a lonely charwoman who works cleaning a church ("picks up the rice in a Church where a wedding has been"). She is very much on "the outside looking in"; while other people are celebrating their love, she is left with only the cleanup and nothing else. She "lives in a dream", probably the dream that she could have a significant other to share her life with, but the reality is the opposite. Despite this reality, she lets on to others that she is happy ("Waits at the window/wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door/Who is it for?").

The question is, what can be done for people like Eleanor, and how did they get that way ("All the lonely people, where do they all come from?/All the lonely people, where do they all belong?")?

Father McKenzie is also a lonely person who, while realizing that organized religion is no longer as important as it had been ("Father McKenzie, writing the words of a serman that no one will hear/no one comes near"), also resigns himself to the menial chores of life ("Look at him working/Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there"), and he has further resigned himself to the fact that there's no answer for his loneliness ("What does he care?"), even in religion, and as a result he adopts a nonchalant attitude about it all.

Eleanor actually dies twice ("Eleanor Rigby died in the church"), both figuratively (the spiritual/religious Eleanor, who no longer looked to religion to help solve her problems) and literally (on the job, while cleaning the church). She left no relatives and was the last of the Rigbys ("was buried along with her name"). She had no real friends because no one showed up at her funeral ("Nobody came").

Both of these lonely people were brought together by Eleanor's death, but not in a way that was really beneficial to either. Father McKenzie was forced by reality to be both clergy and mourner at Eleanor's funeral ("wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave" -- he had to be the one to throw a handful of dirt on Eleanor's casket, because no one else was there to do so). McKenzie realizes that organized religion failed Eleanor ("No one was saved") because it didn't address what her life had become, nor did it give her any answers as to how to live her life in a way that was anything but lonely. By extension, he also failed Eleanor, by not understanding her reality.