This Dorian-style song is known to be one of the most chilling and haunting songs with many interesting facts about the name in the song. The violins and cello create the air of the church graveyard, the hum of death around the tones, and the music of The Beatles smoothly flowing throughout the song gives a haunting and uncanny vibe that it needs.
The song is primarily about the lonely and introverted people, the old aged people who spend the last days of their lives alone, their whereabouts, their stories, their experiences, and how it all comes down to the loneliness before their death.
The song contains the name of two people, Eleanor Rigby and Father Mackenzie. The former is an old lady who lives alone in her house. There is a description of how she picks up the rice from the church at her wedding, indicating that she is a lonely woman and that her marriage might not have lasted long.
“Buried along with her name, nobody came.” Lines like these are the visible signs of the loneliness and alienation that she faces in her life.
Story of Eleanor Rigby
The song has a part that gets repeated often, “Ah, look at all the lonely people”, and “all the lonely people, where do they all come from, all the lonely people, where do they all belong?” After the death of Eleanor Rigby, where did she go, is it heaven or hell, nobody knows.
This is a strong indication of denying Christianity and its notion that Jesus saves everyone after their death. Their loneliness is not accounted for when they were still living.
“Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door.” indicates the jar of cold cream that she wears to keep her skin from looking aged. Another futile attempt to deceive the eyes that she had been aged by the time. Her loneliness takes a toll on her but she is used to it.
Story of Father Mackenzie
Another person starring in the song is Father Mackenzie, who is another lonely pastor who reads the sermons of the church.
“No one will hear” indicates how no one visits the church and he is not heard by any people.
“Father Mackenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave.” is indicating that the pastor buried the body of Eleanor Rigby when she died.
“Buried along with her name” portrays the end of her name along with her identity as it was not known by a lot of people.
The entire song is a fable of the lonely people who go unnoticed and unrecognised by people, and that they don’t belong anywhere even though they are living and dying without being heard.
Story of all the lonely people
The Beatles in this song attempt to celebrate the lonely people all over who are unnoticed and unrecognised by others. The two lonely people in the song ultimately fulfil each other’s cause in a way.
The pastor’s work to bury the dead and Eleanor Rigby giving the pastor a work because he reads sermons and no one is there to hear.
