The Paul McCartney Song He Says Is Like ‘Eleanor Rigby’ Meets ‘Rear Window’
Paul McCartney is a genius for telling an intriguing story in a song. Many of his tracks, like “She’s Leaving Home” and “Eleanor Rigby”, tell fictionalized stories about people he either knew or read about. One song from Paul McCartney’s solo career sounds like a stalker wrote it, and even he admits it’s almost like Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window.
‘Eleanor Rigby’ is based on an old lady Paul McCartney grew up with
In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul McCartney explained the origin behind “Eleanor Rigby”. The singer-songwriter grew up in Liverpool and knew many old ladies who lived in his neighborhood. There was one woman who he spent some time with, helping her with errands and other needs. She lived by herself, and McCartney wrote the titular character from her perspective.
“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,” McCartney 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.”
Paul McCartney said one song is like ‘Eleanor Rigby’ meets ‘Rear Window’
For younger readers, Rear Window is a 1954 thriller directed by Hitchcock. The movie stars James Stewart as an injured man who passes the time by spying on his neighbors. When he believes to have witnessed a murder, he becomes obsessed and dives deeper into his neighbor’s mysterious activities.
“Eleanor Rigby” isn’t necessarily a creepy track as it’s just narrating the lives of a lonely woman. However, Paul McCartney later wrote a song called “Another Day,” which has creepier lyrics, like “Every day, she takes a morning bath, she wets her hair, Wraps a towel around her as she’s heading for the bedroom chair.” In The Lyrics, McCartney said the song was “voyeuristic” and compared it to Hitchcock’s classic thriller.
“Think ‘Eleanor Rigby’ meets Hitchcock’s Rear Window,” he shared. “For, much as I hate to admit it, there is indeed a voyeuristic aspect to this song. Like many writers, I really am a bit of a voyeur; if there’s a lit window and there’s someone in it, I will watch them. Hands up, guilty. It’s a very, very natural thing.”
“In a strange way, I may be interested in this subject matter because I get stared at quite a lot myself. It’s because I have a recognizable face,” McCartney continued. “It happens in the underground, on the subway, which I take when I can. You don’t think people are looking at you until a little bit later, and you realize they were. Of course, I’m also looking back at them too. So I get to experience this from both sides.”
John Lennon mentioned ‘Another Day’ in one of his songs
In the early 1970s, John Lennon and Paul McCartney engaged in a small feud that saw them trading blows in various songs. The former bandmates released tracks that contained subtle jabs aimed at the other. In Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?”, from his 1971 album Imagine, Lennon included the line, “The only thing you done was ‘Yesterday’, and since you’re gone you’re just another day.”
“Another Day” was a B-side single, but Lennon still took the opportunity to throw shade at it by comparing it to “Yesterday”, one of the biggest hits McCartney wrote for The Beatles.
