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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   Feb 16th 2011 !⃝

   hope all of you people know that eleanor rigby is a name john lennon got from in epitaph in the yard of saint peter's church which he went to with his aunt mimi every sunday when he was little. john being the caring person he is was releaved to find out that her epitaph said she wase asleep instead of dead bu this was also an example of ignorance because we all know shes dead. Also john always had a mysterious attachment to st. peters church yard. the lyrics he probably formed he because he was a lonley child raised by
   his aunt mimi. he never had his mother there for him when he was a youth and when he became close to her she was killed by crossing the street while not looking and was hit by a car. this has always haunted him. the lonely people is him. the people is him because he has always said he felt unwanted and alone .
2. anonymous

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   Feb 9th 2011 !⃝

   The idea that the Father knew that Eleanor was going to commit suicide, did nothing to prevent it AND wrote a sermon in preparation for her funeral is utterly ridiculous!
   
   I can't believe that someone would even suggest it!
   
   Wouldn't he have done something? As if he would stand by and let someone commit suicide. He also wouldn't be so heartless as to plan out her funeral BEFORE she has 'committed suicide.'
   
   When I read this comment I actually laughed out loud.
3. anonymous

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   Dec 23rd 2010 !⃝

   If she killed herself then remember that the sermon was being written in advance.That makes Father McKenzie a murderer. Most of you just don't have a clue.
4. m320753

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   Nov 8th 2010 !⃝

   sometimes we tend to look too deep into song meanings. Eleanor Rigby could just be an old english spinster, of which england has more than it's fair share. she may have had a job where she had little human contact, lived in a flat since WWII with everything she owned was dingy also her clothes and bad english teeth. when she died very few people knew it and even less cared. it is sad but it does happen in countries all over the world.
5. Ms.noitall

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   Nov 3rd 2010 !⃝

   i believe eleanor rigby may have been an old nun living at the parrish maybe others were there and passed on and she's left alone. She may sometimes think about a life she may have had outside of the parrish when she sees the rice reminding her of others getting married and she fanasizes what she could have had. She never made any friends outside the parrish because she sent most of her yrs. there in isolation giving her life to God!!Its only now in her old age she probably feels life is passing her by and she hadnt accomplished anything. She dies alone at the church from old age without having made any friends. Father Mckenzie also old may not be able to give sermons like he used to and then again maybe rumors had been going around about him and Eleanor and he lost his members, so No one would hear but he still writes them anyway. When Eleanoe dies alone and friendless ina lonely friend less town Father McKenzie has to do it all being no gravediggers around. he wipes the dirt off his hands because he had just single handedly dug a grave for her So his hands just had to be plain dirty!! And he's satisfied knowing that Eleanor was buried!
6. anonymous

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   Oct 8th 2010 !⃝

   I always thought the "no one was saved" meant that Eleanor would go to hell. She wasn't a Christian. Christians believe that you have to be "saved" in order to go to heaven. Father McKenzie, the church personsified, didn't care. He wrote sermons that no one would hear and darned socks that no one would see. Talk about being irrelevant and out of touch.
   
   Not only is the song about loneliness, it is also a statement about the hypocracy of Christianity.
7. anonymous

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   Oct 7th 2010 !⃝

   Has anyone ever considered that "Darning his socks" might actually mean he was having an affair. with Eleanor. It seems like the woman lives at the church. She is so lonely who would invite her to a wedding? She sounds like a sick widow who lives and helps out at church. People might be friendly to her but no one really knows her. Maybe her husband went to war.
   
   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 wedding (picking up what bits of food she can consume)
   has been
   Lives in a dream (away from her reality)
   Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by
   the door (by the door, as in she only shows it to guests, strangers)
   Who is it for? (waiting for dead husband to come home? hah I'm just writing my own story now, -_-ll)
   
   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 (Might be eleanor is already diagnosed with something and he knows. I don't believe it was suicide. It seems Eleanor was still waiting for someone)
   No one comes near.
   Look at him working. Darning his socks in the night when there's
   nobody there
   What does he care?
   (when there's nobody there, it's so specific. It might be he's having an affair with rigby. The work part might be ironic. What does he care about her anyway? He's taking compensation for letting her stay in the church)
   
   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
   (He frogets her immediately, rids himself of all that business. No one was saved because the woman came to the church seeking refuge but instead is forced to give head for refuge.)
   
   Might be far-fetched but plausible?
   All the lonely people
   Where do they all come from?
   All the lonely people
   Where do they all belong?
8. anonymous

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   Sep 14th 2010 !⃝

   How fitting a tribute to 2nd world war heroine Eileen Nearne who has died(sept 2nd 2010)aged 89 in her tiny Torqyay flat. Just like Eleanor Rigby - nobody new her name - when council workers searched her flat for names of relatives who might have wished to attend her funeral they discovered the secret she had kept from her neighbours - she had been decorated for her wartime services a member of the SOE (code named 'Rose')A truly courageous woman just like Eleanor Rigby.
9. anonymous

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   Jun 15th 2010 !⃝

   I think it's just showing that there are so many people in our lives that cross paths who we think would never be lonely but are terribly lonely. Just like Father Mackensie and Eleanor cross paths. I kind of think that they were in love also.
10. Mortalias

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    Jun 5th 2010 !⃝

    An incredible song about loneliness, Elenor Rigby should be a stark reminder to never take life too seriously. Every minute we stay an "Elenor Rigby" or "Father McKenzie" we set ourselves up for misery.
    
    Have fun, laugh a lot, and never be lonely!
11. anonymous

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    Jun 5th 2010 !⃝

    The boys saw the name Eleanor Rigby in a passage section in a newspaper and wrote a song about it.
12. anonymous

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    May 22nd 2010 !⃝

    'Elanour Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been'
    
    Though the lyrics don't state it was her wedding I've always heard it was her own mostly because the next verse is 'Lives in a dream'
    
    'Waits at the window, wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door'
    
    This could be anything, but Something has always told me she's covered in make-up so she can hide behind it; a mask that she wears to keep people thinking 'What a nice woman' not that she's lonely and waiting for the person who never comes(in the song she dies before they come).
    
    'Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear. No one comes near'
    
    Nobody cares to come to his church and listen to his sermon. That's why no one is saved in the end.
    
    'Look at him working. Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there. What does he care?'
    
    father McKenzie is alone there's nobody to care if his socks a patched and no one to care if they aren't.
    
    'Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name Nobody came'
    
    She never married and died lonely. No one came not even her family. Or maybe her family died matbe she was waiting for everyoine she cared about to come back?
    
    'Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave. No one was saved'
    
    Back to the other verse. He's just buried Eleanor Rigby she couldn't be saved (from what I'm not sure. It could be from loneliness or lack of faith...something).
    
    The chorus is to anyone's interpretation. I think it's very obvious.
    
    just my input. Everyone looks at songs differently.
13. anonymous

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    Mar 28th 2010 !⃝

    ...the lonely people, where do they all come from
    ...the lonely people, where do they all belong?
    
    I think the song's about the fact that loneliness is part of the human condition. God is a lonely God and he created humanity to love him, only to have mankind reject God.
    
    And humans can be lonely even in the midst of a crowded city, a party, at a table at lunch in a school cafeteria. The inability to first connect with ourselves: who are we, really? Why are we here? The discomfort and the perception or feeling of a lack of place in this universe or if one's religious, a displacement from God -- leaves us with the inability to engage fully with ourselves, our own resources, our own talents -- thereby, undermining our ability to fully engage with others, our families, and the rest of the outside world -- so much to the extent, that we're suspicious, we're intolerant and jump to miscleading conclusions and get offended easily -- arguments start, estrangements are never mended... intolerance for differences, squirmishes, wars, etc... to me, it's the human condition and this loneliness or disconnectedness first from self and then others is why humans have never evolved that much...
14. anonymous

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    Mar 22nd 2010 !⃝

    I think the Eleanor Rigby is someone who is kind of dumb. I'm not saying that the song is done, it is my favorite song ever! But I think maybe shes autistic
    "Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been"
    I think this means that she can't get a good job so she helps to clean up after weddings at her church
    "Lives in a dreamI think that she lives as if she is in a dream and has trouble communicating.
15. anonymous

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    Feb 26th 2010 !⃝

    Eleanor Rigby represents a woman who does not know Jesus Christ, so her spirit is trapped inside her heart, she has not seen the light yet, that´s why she is "lonely".
    
    The church represents the heart of Eleanor, that´s her temple, inside this temple inhabits her spirit. This temple is like a house, it has a door, it has a window. But clearly the door is locked, and she is inside "wearing a mask", pretending she is alive and well but in reality she is spiritually dead. She is waiting for that special someone to open the door and unlock her spirit. That´s her dream..."she lives in a dream".
    
    Father McKenzie represents JesusChrist, the Lord. McKenzie means "son of the wise ruler", in other words son of God...Father means "priest", spiritual authority.
    The sermon he writes are His words of salvation and mercy for that poor spirit inside Eleanor´s heart.
    "Working in the night" means working in the spiritual darkness she is in...working for her deliverance.
    "Eleanor Rigby died in the church" means that when the physical death came also the spiritual death came, her spirit died inside her heart (church, temple) without knowing the glorious light of JesusChrist.
    "Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave No one was saved" means that God wasn´t able to save her and soon forgets her.
    
    This song was inspired by demonic spirits to subliminally influence people hearts to deny the power and the word of God, to not believe in his salvation.
    
    Beatles music is demonic because it denies the power of the salvation through Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe, The Lord, the One and True God!
    
    No one comes near? nobody there? No one can hear? nobody came? no one was saved?
    LIES!
    This song is full of lies!
    
    Pray for the salvation of your soul and the deliverance of your spirit. There is just one way: confessing with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord, He loves you, He died for you at the cross, He shed his blood for you, to save you and to keep you safe from harm in the spiritual realm, that´s WHERE YOU BELONG!
    
    This visible world is THE FLESH.
    But there is an invisible world...the realm of THE SPIRIT...from there it comes all good and evil, but not from the same fountain.
    
    Certainly the source of this song is evil...it´s an evil "muse"...
    
    Come to Jesus, the source of Living Waters. There is no other. There are no lies in Him.
    He is the only person in history that says of himself "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me".
    
    God bless you!

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