Eleanor Rigby, Anywhere and Everywhere, England

Stories get told; tales are concocted; yarns are spun.  So I thought this post should be about the endlessly told and embellished tale of how our Paul wrote the 1966 song, "Eleanor Rigby" and how:  1.) he could have had different references in putting together the song; or 2.) how any other Beatle--including the REAL Paul McCartney--or any other person, for that matter, who kicked around Liverpool in the 1950's and '60's could have written the song.

First we have many so-called first-hand accounts from supposedly the man himself--our Paul--on how he composed the lyrics.

The first account comes from a Sunday London Times interview of September 18, 1966 by Hunter Davies, who two years' later wrote the authorized biography of The Beatles.

In that interview, Paul or "Paul" said he thought of using the name Daisy Hawkins for the main character and decided, instead, on the last name Rigby when he saw a sign for a business in Bristol, England.  The business's name was Rigby & Evens, Ltd., a wine and spirits shipping company.

The published date of the London Times interview was September 18, 1966.  In trying to figure out if this is our Paul that Davies is talking to, let's go forward to the 1996 edition of The Beatles' biography and the updated introduction to the book.

On Page xix of the introduction, Davies says:  "The Beatle I first met was Paul, in September, 1966."  On Page xxi, Davies says:  "I went to see Paul at his house in Cavendish Avenue, St. John's Wood.  It was pure self-indulgence.  I wanted to meet him, but I also wanted to hear the background to 'Eleanor Rigby'."

It is my firm opinion that our Paul never made it to The Beatles' U.S. tour of August, 1966.  I have not been able to find any credible photos of our Paul past late June or very early July of 1966.  If our Paul was, by September, 1966:  1.) dead; or 2.) missing in action (willingly or otherwise); or 3.) being held against his will by the English government and Hunter Davies' interview of "Paul" was at Paul's house in September, 1966, then Davies' interview was with the NEW Paul, called Faul by Paul researchers.

Faul has talked about the song in numerous interviews throughout his 50-year stint as Paul.  A lot of other people have weighed in with claims of contributing to the lyrics of the song including:  Pete Shotton, real John's friend and bandmate in The Quarrymen;  the English musical playwright, Lionel Bart; either our John or Yoko Ono's pinched-nosed John, in a 1980 interview with David Sheff in the book, All We Are Saying; and--most interestingly-- Paul's subconscious mind.

Let's start with the subconscious mind train of thought.  In the 1980's someone found a gravestone with the name Eleanor Rigby on it in the St. Peter's Church cemetery, located in the Liverpool district of Woolton, where the real John and the real Paul met for the first time at a church fete on July 6, 1957.  (See photo right.)  So, subconsciously, the real Paul could have remembered that name and plugged it into a song he was writing, right?  Except that it was OUR Paul who wrote Eleanor Rigby.  Could our Paul have gotten that name from a gravestone?  According to the British birth-marriage-death record site, FreeBMD, there were 38 death listings for Eleanor Rigby between 1842 and January, 1965.  [From the years 1843 to 1943 there were also 63 birth listings.]  Eleanor Rigby-inscribed gravestones are all over England.

Let's go to the sometimes-quoted assertion that Paul was walking along with Jane Asher down King Street in Bristol, England in January, 1966 and across the street from the theatre Jane was performing in, Paul saw the Rigby & Evens' business sign I mentioned earlier.  I took a look at the 1966 British telephone book for Bristol and found something really interesting.  Say Paul was leafing through that directory and found Page 339.  Immediately above the business's listing is a listing for a Miss E. Rigby. (See image below.)  But the listing is for an E. Rigby and not Eleanor, you say.  Well, in 2008 an English non-profit called the Sunbeams Music Trust auctioned off a page from a pay ledger at a Liverpool hospital that Faul had sent then in 1990 in answer to a request for a donation to the trust.  The name on the ledger is E. Rigby.  (See image below directory page. E. Rigby is on the 8th. line down.)





 

This is the same Eleanor Rigby whose name was inscribed in the Woolton church

cemetery.

Which brings us to yet another possible scenario for references for the title's name.

The earlier mentioned Rigby & Evens had an outlet in Liverpool.  (See label on bottle, below.)
For years the business was located on Silk House Lane.  Silk House Lane (now reduced to Silk House Court) is within a short walking distance of the Cavern Club--where the early, real Beatles often played. (See image below.)  [Courtesy, Bing maps]
Sometime around 1966, Rigby & Evens moved the business to 5 Cook St., which is also within walking distance of the Cavern Club. (See second map image below.)  [Courtesy, Google maps]  So any Beatle or combination, from 1961-April, 1966 could have used that as a reference.

My own personal opinion is that our Paul and our John wrote the song--lyrics and verse--and who knows how they decided on the names.

But it shows you how stories get started, perpetuated, and built on.  In my next post, I'll tell you about another ~1965-1966 detail in The Beatles' life and some of the interesting things I found out about it.


                                                 ---paulumbo