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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   Dec 12th 2008 !⃝

   Well..
   I rele loved this song when I was little. and I still love it now...but I never thought about it metaphorically until...well..2nite..lol
   But we all know where the names came from....insignificant
   where is everyone getting the idea that she is old?!?!
   in my mind she has always been a young woman....standing outside the church collecting the rice. Who knows why?? Maybe she wants to be apart of the wedding she will never have....maybe she is waiting for her wedding with father mckenzie....
   The image of her "wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door" still scares the hell out me...but it could just be a metaphor for some facade or guise...just a happy face to cover her sadness, lonlines, and disappointment with life.
   Why does she die? How does she die?? I think that maybe, if she was old, she died of old age. And the "being buried along with her name" that is just the idea of her name and memory being lost forever along with her body.
   I don't like Father McKenzie. there is something about the way he is portrayed that makes him seem untrustworthy, and like a downright SINNER! The whole "wiping th eddirt from his hands" makes it sound like he beat her with the shovel and buried her...and he knew that she would not be missed or remebered.
   I like the idea of him masturbating every night....but it rele doesn't fit with the rest of the lyrics....but nice try bro...
   mending his socks?? I don't know what that means...except maybe that he wants to look nice...or he also is living in a dream...
   O OOO!! new idea...whole new idea
   Father McKenzie is has gona insane with his lonliness and he is totally caught up in his imaginary world in which people show up to hear his sermons. So he kills the lonly unmemorable woman in order to perform a funeral ceremony so he could feel useful.
   well...i just wasted all your time...but maybe I said something that will spark your interest and ull formalate a correct interpretaion
   lol..
   definately an oxymoron
   TEXTA MEHH
2. anonymous

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   Sep 18th 2008 !⃝

   I think this song is about the Church. And how people try so hard to live Godly lives, that they end up lonely here on earth.
   Eleanor "Lives in a dream", of being loved by God. That is why she chose to work in the Church. However she is still lonely, and covers it with a mask. "Who is it for" God knows everything; she can’t hide from him, the one entity that she is longing for.
   The Father, an example of trying so hard to live a Godly life and lead others to God, is having troubles with the corrupt world that is filled with temptation. "No one comes near". His efforts are in vain "What does he care", so not give up.
   Eleanor Died alone in her quest for God, "Eleanor Rigby died in the church". She never found love or companionship as a result of her devoted life, and longing for God, "Nobody came".
   The Father despite all his efforts, couldn’t save anyone (bring anyone to God), "No one was saved". "Wiping the dirt from his hands", He gave up trying.
   The Chorus is talking about the grave yard, wondering where all the (lonely, dead) people came from. There walk in life. How they got there “Where do they all come from”. And where they will end up, Heaven or Hell, “Where do they all belong”. I envision the Beatles Standing in a cemetery looking at all the graves, pondering.
   Or so I think...

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. anonymous

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   Sep 12th 2008 !⃝

   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
4. Commissioner

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   Sep 10th 2008 !⃝

   Eleanor Rigby, died in the church and was buried
   along with her name
   
   When I try to interpret this I just can't help
   visualising the cross with the sign
   "Jesus Christ King of the Jews"
   
   I must theorize that Eleanor Rigby and Father Mckenzie
   are in fact both nicknames for Jesus.
   
   With Jesus is where all the lonely people belong.
   
   How's that grab you Jets fans?
   
   Nobel prize may be awarded by calling 201-264-6194

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. Commissioner

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   Sep 10th 2008 !⃝

   The key line that helps me understand what is being spoken of in this song is:
   "Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave, No one was saved."
   
   'walks from the grave' is a metaphor for 'risen from death'...This is the most fundamental...and it follows that
   Father Mckenzie is therefore a reference to Jesus.
   
   'No one was saved' is a sarcastic statement and sarcasm is
   a recurring phenomena in song lyrics of many artists including
   the prolific Bob Dylan.
   
   The concept of a priest digging dirt and burying someone
   is utter camouflage to the staggering concept of THE superstar
   rising from death and yet wiping the dirt from his hands.
   It is a glimpse of the humility of Jesus Christ.
   It may also provide insight to how hard He may be to see
   (Got to be Good looking cause he's so hard to see)
   
   the message is something like this...
   Brett Favre, changing your car's oil during halftime at the Jets 2009 super bowl victory, nobody noticed him in the parking lot.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

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   Sep 8th 2008 !⃝

   It's about people in the world, who all, at times, have no one, or are sad, and it's about no one helping each other, not bothering to ease another's sadness or loneliness. the loneliness spoken of is one that is derived from everyone distancing themselves and having no compassion or love towards one another. Thus, everyone is lonely, in that, no one speaks to each other, unless necessary, and there is no love in the world between humans.
7. FREETBT

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   Sep 4th 2008 !⃝

   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.
8. FREETBT

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   Sep 3rd 2008 !⃝

   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!!
9. anonymous

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   Jul 29th 2008 !⃝

   Picking up the grains of other people's joys and promise; family, home and hearth, the hope of being surrounded by children in old age.
   
   "Ah, look at all the lonely people" mocks her. "How sad they are. It must be miserable. Poor dears. The light is green, Darling."
   
   From a dead-quiet house she prepares to receive callers. Any callers. Anyone. Looking eagerly from her window, hoping a pleasant face will make them want to come in. But she is old, and has nothing to offer them for their time. No one comes close enough to see the face she puts on.
   
   Alone with her thoughts of God, hoping for there to be something, someone, waiting. To be welcomed finally by a loving family, kind faces, she begs on her knees at the altar. No one notices she's ceased to breath until it's time to lock the door.
   
   Father McKenzie walks away from her grave to take her place in the Long Line. To needlessly mend his needless socks.
   
   But what's the point? Is there one? They're here, but from where? Why??
   
   But wait. Listen. Look closer. Eleanor is smiling as she looks at the rice in her palm. She remembers. In her simple room she is filled, she dresses up today, and puts on her freshest face- to be ready to give, for love's sake.
   
   Earnest prayers from an earnest heart go up peacefully, and at the end of the day, she is lowered into her rest by the loving hands of an old friend. Wiping the dirt away, his heart is glad for the privilege.
   
   Simple love.
   
   Our acerbic observers unknowingly take their own places in the Long Line.
10. anonymous

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    Jul 25th 2008 !⃝

    Eleanor Rigby is a song about the lonely teenage life of Paul. There are many instances in Paul's teenage life when he had lost many he had loved. When he was fourteen, his beloved pony, Frankfurt, had escaped from his pen. It is also rumored that when Paul was seventeen he had lost his left index finger. His parents said he had named his left index finger Ryan McCarthy, and that sometimes he would dress up his index finger with paint and put on plays for his own entertainment.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
11. Perfect16

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    Jul 25th 2008 !⃝

    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?
12. kaleidoscopeeyes

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    Jul 23rd 2008 !⃝

    I think this song is about a woman who works at a church and who is a hooker. She is oober slutty and Father McKenzie thinks he is doing the work of god when he kills her. nobody comes to her funeral because either everybody hated her, or were too ashamed of what they did with her to show up.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
13. anonymous

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    Jul 7th 2008 !⃝

    I heard, many years ago, that 'darning your socks' was English slang for masturbation... but I can't seem to find that on the net to back up that claim... maybe a Brit can confirm or refute that?

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. KittenStuffy

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    May 9th 2008 !⃝

    I think the song says that there are so many people out there that we know nothing about and that our person is out there somewhere, we just need to look.
    I bet you think that's really corny and I'm most likely wrong. I'mjust guessing!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. pomegranate17

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    May 2nd 2008 !⃝

    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.

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