A Beatle Told Taylor Swift About an Unused ‘Eleanor Rigby’ Lyric
The Beatles‘ “Eleanor Rigby” doesn’t need fixing. When Paul McCartney interviewed Taylor Swift, he said the track could have had a different lyric. He also explained how “Eleanor Rigby” drew from some of his childhood experiences. Interestingly, John Lennon shared some memories about the writing of the song that contradicted Paul’s.
Paul McCartney said a lyric from The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’ could’ve been about the Bible
During a 2020 Rolling Stone article where Paul and Swift interviewed each other, Paul revealed that “Eleanor Rigby” was inspired by elderly ladies he knew when he was a kid. He said those women had great stories about World War II. Paul wasn’t sure how he met those women, because they weren’t part of his family, but he became friends with some of them.
“Back to ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ so I would think of her and think of what she’s doing and then just try to get lyrical, just try to bring poetry into it, words you love, just try to get images like ‘picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been,’ and Father McKenzie ‘is darning his socks in the night,'” he said. “You know, he’s a religious man, so I could’ve said, you know, ‘preparing his Bible,’ which would have been more obvious. But ‘darning his socks’ kind of says more about him.”
Some of Paul McCartney’s statements about ‘Eleanor Rigby’ are questionable at best
Paul then said there was something magical about writing “Eleanor Rigby” and his other songs. “So you get into this lovely fantasy,” he explained. “And that’s the magic of songs, you know. It’s a black hole, and then you start doing this process, and then there’s this beautiful little flower that you’ve just made. So it is very like embroidery, making something.”
Paul revealed that he wrote “Eleanor Rigby” because he didn’t have a songwriting formula and he wanted to write a song about a fictional character. This statement is a little dubious. Listening to The Beatles’ early songs, it’s clear that the Fab Four had a formula. “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” “Eight Days a Week,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and numerous other early Beatles tracks are upbeat rock ‘n’ roll songs with simple lyrics about love. As time went on, they incorporated more sounds into their music and released tunes that were less routine — such as “Eleanor Rigby.”
1 of the other Beatles said he penned most of the song
While Paul spoke of “Eleanor Rigby” as his baby, John saw things differently. The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John said “Eleanor Rigby” was mostly his work, even though Paul had the initial idea for the track and wrote the first verse. John also said the violins in “Eleanor Rigby” were inspired by the work of Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi.
Paul told Swift that “Eleanor Rigby” could have been different — but it’s perfect the way it is.
