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Paul McCartney said he consciously wanted to “evoke the subject of loneliness” in The Beatles‘ “Eleanor Rigby.” However, his intentions were honorable.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon performing with The Beatles on tour in 1966.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon performing with The Beatles | Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images

Paul McCartney said he based The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’ on an old lady he used to visit as a boy

In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul explained he knew many old ladies growing up partially through Bob-a-Job Week, “when Scouts did chores for a shilling.”

However, one old lady made a lasting impact on Paul. Years later, during his time with The Beatles, he wanted to write a song that would pay homage to the older women in his neighborhood, specifically one who remained nameless. He doesn’t remember how they first met, but he’d go to her house often.

“I found out that she lived on her own, so I would go around there and just chat, which is sort of crazy if you think about me being some young Liverpool guy,” Paul wrote. “Later, I would offer to go and get her shopping. She’d give me a list and I’d bring the stuff back, and we’d sit in her kitchen.

“I still vividly remember the kitchen because she had a little crystal radio set… So I would visit, and just hearing her stories enriched my soul and influenced the songs I would later write.”

Paul said he wanted to ‘evoke’ loneliness on The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’

In The Lyrics, Paul explained that he consciously wrote The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” to “evoke the subject of loneliness.” However, his intentions were honorable.

“The song itself was consciously written to evoke the subject of loneliness, with the hope that we could get listeners to empathise,” Paul wrote. “Those opening lines – ‘Eleanor Rigby / Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been / Lives in a dream.’ It’s a little strange to be picking up rice after a wedding.

“Does that mean she was a cleaner, someone not invited to the wedding, and only viewing the celebrations from afar? Why would she be doing that? I wanted to make it more poignant than her just cleaning up afterwards, so it became more about someone who was lonely. Someone not likely to have her own wedding, but only the dream of one.”

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Paul made one less old lady lonely

The old lady from Paul’s childhood helped to form the main character in The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” later on. Paul also made the woman lonely, which wasn’t too different from her real-life counterpart. The old lady Paul used to visit was a lot like Eleanor Rigby.

If Paul wanted to make his character lonely, he must have been thinking of how lonely the old lady seemed. However, Paul made his friend less alone by going around her house often, talking to her, and hearing her many enriching stories. That’s what he wanted to accomplish in his song. In “Eleanor Rigby,” Paul wanted to tell all the lonely people in the world that they weren’t alone.

Paul’s friend has been immortalized in one of the most famous rock ‘n’ roll songs.

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