{"id":6678,"date":"2016-08-25T11:20:42","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T16:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?p=6678"},"modified":"2016-08-25T11:20:42","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T16:20:42","slug":"all-the-lonely-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/all-the-lonely-people\/","title":{"rendered":"All The Lonely People"},"content":{"rendered":"

Revolver: <\/span><\/i>It<\/span> was a serious LP about solemn issues, and no song expressed the theme of this album better than \u201cEleanor Rigby.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ah, look at all the lonely people!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That formal \u201cGreek chorus\u201d opening the song boldly announced to us all the \u201cgrand motif\u201d of the songs that would follow (and repeated the theme of \u201cTaxman,\u201d which had just preceded it<\/a>). \u201cAh, look at all the lonely people!\u201d It was <\/span>Revolver\u2019<\/span><\/i>s seven-word synopsis<\/span>,<\/span><\/i> in all its intricacy and creative glory. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So why is \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d <\/span>not <\/span><\/i>the opening song on the LP, then? Why is it placed as the second track on the record?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For the listener, \u201cTaxman\u201d is the equivalent of a novel\u2019s \u201chook,\u201d that exciting chapter that draws the reader into the book at large. \u00a0But then, in Chapter Two \u2013 in \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d \u2013 the reader settles into the narrative and begins the book in earnest. He or she takes a breath, sits back, and listens\u2026begins to pay attention and absorb the theme of what is to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cTaxman\u201d immediately grabs our attention, but in \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d (to the moving, poignant sound of a string octet [1]<\/span>), we are given a quiet moment to stop, think, and preview every single issue to follow on this album: isolation, loneliness, love desired, love denied, and finally, death. In the storied lives of Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie, we get a glimpse of all this is to come: the irreparable heartbreak in \u201cFor No One,\u201d the aching need and hunger in the seemingly jaunty \u201cGot to Get You Into My Life [2],\u201d<\/span> the anger in \u201cAnd Your Bird Can Sing,\u201d and even the deep depression of \u201cShe Said She Said.\u201d It\u2019s all there.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For The Beatles, this song couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. A fissure was on its way to becoming a cleft (bass and treble), and the cleft would eventually become a split. But right now, it was only a fissure. Barely there, and yet, still a problem. But magically, this lovely song about isolation and loneliness, for a time, bridged that fragile gap and brought The Beatles close together again. If only for a short time.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They met at John\u2019s Kenwood and began tackling \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d as a team. Paul had already developed the basic melody, but many of the lyrics still eluded him. The central character (eventually Eleanor) had inadequately evolved from \u201cOla Na Tungee\u201d to \u201cMiss Daisy Hawkins\u201d without Paul\u2019s feeling that this was right [3].<\/span> And similarly, he was searching for a story about the parish priest. And so, he left London behind and went out into the night, in search of a little help from his friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to Pete Shotton, when Paul arrived at John\u2019s \u201cKenwood,\u201d John, George, Ringo, and Pete were all there [4].<\/span> John, bored with the telly, suggested they all go up to his recording studio \u201c\u2019n play a bit of music [5].\u201d<\/span> And that is when Paul offered up \u201cthis little tune here [that] keeps poppin\u2019 into me head, but I haven\u2019t got very far with it [6].\u201d<\/span> And so the lads listened\u2026and began to offer suggestions.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pete pointed out that the fans would \u201cthink that\u2019s your poor old dad\u201d in the song \u201cleft all alone in Liverpool to darn his own socks [7].\u201d<\/span> And alarmed, Paul quickly agreed: they needed a new name for the lonely cleric. So Pete, thumbing through a phone book, began to call out Mc-names to the gathered group. \u201cMcVicar?\u201d he shouted. Hilarious\u2026and so, not appropriate for the song\u2019s disposition. \u201cMcKenzie?\u201d Right. It fit the melody\u2019s patter, and besides, they\u2019d once known that Northwich Memorial Hall compere, Tommy McKenzie. \u201cGood man \u2013 Tommy!\u201d one of them said. \u201cYeah, right, give the lad a nod!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So Father McKenzie it was\u2026a holy man wholly alone, solitary, and brooding. But doing what exactly? \u201cDarnin\u2019 his socks in the night,\u201d Ringo suggested. \u201cYeah, right!\u201d \u201cThat!\u201d And it was adopted on the spot. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWritin\u2019 sermons that no one will hear,\u201d John claimed to have added later, in a room alone with Paul [8].<\/span> And that, too, became part of the song.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was George, however, who suggested the most memorable line of all: \u201cAh, look at all the lonely people [9].\u201d<\/span> A simple phrase. Perfect. It spoke eloquently of solitary Eleanor, unloved and unlovely, picking up not her bouquet, but fallen rice littering an empty church where a wedding had been. It captured the spirit of the devoted, solitary man of God whose entire life\u2019s work had (alas) saved no one. It was the quintessential line of hopelessness that hovered over this beautiful song of longing.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Beatles: each one of them added something. (Even Pete, who\u2019d once been a QuarryMan and their mate in the Jacaranda [10]).<\/span> For several hours, the lads worked together, standing close \u2013 shoulder to shoulder, as it were \u2013 and in that small bit of time, the fissure closed.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In days to come, Paul would record the song alone, with John and George only brought in to sing harmony. No other contribution needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In years to come, they would argue about who had contributed what that seminal night. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paul would say he had most of the song written before he even visited Kenwood. John would say, \u201cOf course there isn\u2019t a line of theirs [Ringo\u2019s, George\u2019s and Pete\u2019s] in the song because I finally went off into a room with Paul, and we finished the song [11].\u201d <\/span>Pete would continue to insist that McKenzie was entirely his, but others would deny it vehemently. The Beatles would forget the night they came together as the cleft widened to a split, and they would go their separate ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the summer of 1966, The Beatles lived in a dream, but it wasn\u2019t always a pleasant one. And that night, when they all said, \u201cT\u2019rah\u201d and motored away, John stood at the window, wearing a face that seemed content, yet was anything but. Dousing the light and trudging upstairs did he hum, \u201cAll the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible that he did. And the fissure ran.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1.\u00a0Rodriguez, Robert. <\/span>Revolver: How The Beatles Re-Imagined Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll<\/span><\/i>, 132.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Of course, Paul famously stated that \u201cGot to Get You Into My Life\u201d was a sly reference to his new fascination with marijuana, but like all Beatles\u2019 songs, \u201cthere\u2019s more here than meets the eye.\u201d We\u2019ll discuss the complex levels of meaning in this song soon! <\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Guesdon, Jean-Michel and Phillipe Margotin, <\/span>All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release<\/span><\/i>, 326.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Shotton, Pete, <\/span>John Lennon: In My Life<\/span><\/i>, 123. Note that Guesdon and Margotin state the Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall were also there. Pete does not include them in his account of the evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Shotton, 123.<\/span><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Shotton, 123.<\/span><\/p>\n

7.\u00a0Shotton, 123 and Rodriguez, 82. Pete says that he was the one consulting the phone book. Rodriguez tells us that Paul was the one consulting the phone book. In any event, a phone book was consulted and the group conferred on last names.<\/span><\/p>\n

8.\u00a0Guesdon, Jean-Michel and Phillipe Margotin, <\/span>All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release<\/span><\/i>, 326. This information was gleaned from David Sheff\u2019s <\/span>Playboy Interviews with John and Yoko<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

9.\u00a0Shotton, 123.<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0Pete\u2019s contribution might have been quite significant indeed. We are told in Rodriguez\u2019s book that \u201cIt was Shotton that came up with the key development of having these two lonely people cross paths, only in death.\u201d (p. 82)<\/span><\/p>\n

11.\u00a0Sheff, <\/span>The Playboy Interviews.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series:\u00a0www.johnlennonseries.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations —\u00a0@910PubRel<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter and\u00a0910 Public Relations<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revolver: It was a serious LP about solemn issues, and no song expressed the theme of this album better than \u201cEleanor Rigby.\u201d   Ah, look at all the lonely people!   That formal \u201cGreek chorus\u201d opening the song boldly announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[119,98,111,117],"class_list":["post-6678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-beatles","tag-eleanor-rigby","tag-jude-southerland-kessler","tag-revolver","tag-the-beatles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6678"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6681,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678\/revisions\/6681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}