Annie Mawson
Headline:
Eleanor Rigby worked as a maid on a ward where she slowly grew old, mystery solved
Synopsis:
Was the song's tragic heroine based on a real person? Andy McSmith reveals a new clue to her identity.
Who was the lonely person who picked up the rice in a church where a wedding had been? It is a subject that has intrigued music fans for 42 years: did someone called Eleanor Rigby ever live, or was she non-existent, like the supposed lover for whom she was, "wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door"?
In the summer of 1966, after the England team beat West Germany to win the World Cup, the Beatles scored yet another No 1 with a double A-side single. On one side was the amiably meaningless "Yellow Submarine", and on the other there was "Eleanor Rigby", a sombre song with string backing about lonely people. It featured Eleanor Rigby, who sat by the window, and Father McKenzie, who may or may not have been the priest who officiated at her funeral, to which nobody came. ...
- Publish date:
- 12 November 2008
- Source:
- The Independent
- Media:
