Comments on: Eleanor Rigby

By: Teddy Boy

Teddy Boy — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 14:06:56 +0000

When I saw that “Eleanor Rigby” was the song of the day, I felt compelled to write “my first ever comment”.
The first Beatles’ record, that I bought, was the 45 rpm of “Eleanor Rigby” and “Yellow Submarine”. What amazed me about these two songs, by the same group, was just how vastly different they were. Even though I was only 14 at the time, I loved the depth of meaning, the universal feeling of loneliness, and the tightly composed narrative of “Eleanor Rigby”. Being 14, I couldn’t articulate those thoughts, but I felt them nevertheless. “Yellow Submarine” on the other hand seemed to be the polar opposite to “Eleanor Rigby”. It was whimsical and make believe, and it was fun to sing along to.
I decided that any group that could write two such diverse songs deserved to be listened to more seriously. I guess you could say that at that moment, I became a Beatles’ fan. My life (my soul and spirit) has been enriched by their music. The world has become a better place because of them. I have nothing but admiration, appreciation, love, and respect for them. I feel blessed to have grown up with their music!
Thanks (in no particular order) Paul, John, Ringo, and George. Thank you also to George Martin!
A special thank you to Joe for his creation of this wonderful site, and to all of you who share your knowledge, insights, observations, and love of The Beatles. Peace and love.

By: Mac

Mac — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 00:33:38 +0000

Good points. Again I am not a royalty lawyer and don’t play one on tv. Just saying that it’s interesting to note the band members’ uncredited contributions to songs. Just as it’s interesting to know those songs were Paul plays drums. Etc. etc. stuff like that.

By: Rry

Rry — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 20:45:14 +0000

Pessimist one? Nothing more pessimist than For No One. Who wrote it? I think it’s the most pessimist song of the bealtes. Yes in yer blues john said he wants to die, but being alive but is not in the eyes of the one that once loves you (and you still love her). kinda worse.

By: Rry

Rry — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 20:38:22 +0000

john lennon was revising history in 1980 interview.
And Paul said that ER lyrics are mostly his. It’s still true.

By: Slave

Slave — Wed, 02 May 2018 06:22:07 +0000

Lennon told Crawdaddy in 1972 and Playboy in 1980 his memory of who wrote what on which Beatles song. McCartney disagreed with Lennon on two songs out of 50 songs. How is that Lennon revising history? McCartney has insinuated he wrote the lyrics to Eleanor Rigby. Half a line from Lennon… a line from Ringo … 2 lines from Pete Shotton… the opening from Harrison… McCartney didn’t mention those contributions to Hunter Davis did he?

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 05:06:21 +0000

Perfect. Thank you. I’m glad things seem to be equalizing a bit again finally. But that rag Rolling Stone? They don’t have Paul listed as one of the greatest artists of all time.But guess who is listed? That POS mag continues it’s hard on for Lennon over Macca to this day.
I’m so sick of it. I haven’t picked one up to read it in years .

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 09:59:19 +0000

without the lamp, most probable you wrote nothing hehe…. so with the help of the lamp you did 100%…. lol

By: Mikey C

Mikey C — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 20:07:41 +0000

The Beatles were wealthy and successful enough for it not to be so much of an issue, but publishing disputes are how bands often break up.

One member gets fat royalties for writing all the hits while the others get nothing, this can lead to rather sad court cases with band members fighting over their share of the songwriting income…

“I wrote the key phrase in the chorus”
“I suggested the melody in the verse”
“My guitar riff drove the song”

By: Boudin

Boudin — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 22:03:18 +0000

I’d expect him not to sing about the virtues of having no possessions.

By: Daniel Rangel

Daniel Rangel — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 06:03:31 +0000

PS: …and please don’t say that was to Cyn or Yoko… John was deeper & placed a larger span of meaning then one instance of him. Thank you.

By: Daniel Rangel

Daniel Rangel — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 05:39:08 +0000

In an earlier post (some years back) someone posed the idea of John taking swipes at Paul due to being a jealous guy… he so admitted that he was and to extent made apology for… from the same album he asked Paul, “How Do You Sleep”. A blow at Paul & then an afterthought regret of kind? Weren’t they both on the same album?

By: macbrantley

macbrantley — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 13:43:58 +0000

Hi Martin, good points. I was specifically referring to areas where George or Ringo made musical or lyrical contributions. I wasn’t trying to straighten out legalities or proper royalty payments. As it’s interesting to note that Paul actually played the solo in Taxman or Good Morning, Good Morning or John did in Honey Pie, some might find it interesting to note the musical/lyrical contributions that Harrison/Starr made that went uncredited.

For example, Harrison’s contribution to Imagine. He was on about 50% of that album and seemed to help arrange quite a few tracks in addition to is two memorable solos…

Lennon and McCartney may have disagreed sometimes, but they were fairly consistent to give credit to each other. However, each was fairly mum on the contributions of Harrison and Starr.

By: Kirby Rasch

Kirby Rasch — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 13:54:39 +0000

The way John and Paul wrote was somewhat unique among songwriting teams. Instead of one writing lyrics and one writing melodies, they both could do both things. What makes it tricky for all of us trying to figure out percentages of writing credit is that they both invited editing from each other, and occasionally from outsiders. Taking into account all of the claims about Eleanor Rigby it seems fair to say that it was mostly Paul’s composition, with John and even George contributing a small percentage to it. It doesn’t “cheat” Paul to say that, does it? After all, he’s the primary singer in it and the one people think of as the writer.

By: Kirby Rasch

Kirby Rasch — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 13:44:56 +0000

LOL! Nice comeback.

By: Teddy Salad

Teddy Salad — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 17:34:40 +0000

As I read the article, I felt that John’s near insistence of using McCartney as a better name seemed like a subtle attempt to try to sabotage the song. Add that to his entire comment to Sheff (even in 1980 when they had supposedly mended some of the fences) about the song and you can see the rift was forming even by 1966.

By: Teddy Salad

Teddy Salad — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 17:01:13 +0000

J Neo, I agree. Eleanor Rigby had been released just days before Lennon mad that comment, so it was fresh on his mind.

By: Dan McNamara

Dan McNamara — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 16:55:23 +0000

Great points! When you watch the early videos you can really see the love they had for each other. Yoko changed everything, sadly!

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 16:38:42 +0000

I believe you’ll find Harrison did not write that. His contribution, worked out with George Martin, was the idea of taking the phrase ‘all the lonely people’ from Paul’s chorus (‘All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?’) and using this phrase as an opener in the line ‘Ah, look at all the lonely people’.

And it’s impossible to credit everybody on the label for every word or idea or half-line that gets into a song. George bounced ideas off John and Paul and got their input when trying to finish the lyric for Something in the studio, but we don’t get the lyric sheet peppered with asterisks and notes saying ‘this word copyright Paul McCartney’ or ‘this phrase John Lennon’ or ‘tom fill copyright Ringo Starr’), and Paul gets zero credit for contributing to John’s ‘solo’ Gimme Some Truth (begun at Abbey Rd in Jan 1969), but he does get a half-credit for Give Peace A Chance which he had nothing to do with, so it evens out!

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 14:30:41 +0000

Just to clarify: When Wenner referred to ‘newspaper taxis’ in 1980 John said. ‘Actually that’s Paul’s line’ (dismissing it as ‘self-conscious poetry’). And in 1972 he’d said: ‘I think Paul helped with the last verse’. The last verse is ‘Picture yourself on a train in a station etc.’ so this would imply another contribution apart from ‘cellophane flowers’ and ‘newspaper taxis’.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 14:16:16 +0000

By far the most significant of those four is LSD, and it happens we have good evidence in that case. John himself credited Paul with ‘newspaper taxis appear on the shore’ which is consistent with Paul’s account that he contributed this part and the ‘cellophane flowers’ (John was reacting specifically to a comment on ‘newspaper taxis’ and wasn’t being asked about the rest.) You can hear Paul coaching John how to sing ‘cellophane flowers’ on the Abbey Rd tapes. And if you look at John’s rough lyric sketch (i.e. in Hunter Davies book) you’ll see that these two lyric sections are added in Paul’s hand. This is good evidence. And don’t forget that that iconic keyboard figure, which instantly says ‘LSD’, is also by Paul.
I don’t know much about the others you mention.