(This is a post that has been in my draft since July 2017.)
A few years ago I loved The Beatles, I still do but you know. As the years have gone by I’ve moved away from them, turning to other genres and artists, and I’ve never really gone back. The Beatles’s place in my “favorite band of all time” slot has been replaced with Nirvana and The Smiths
Regardless, while talking to a friend of mine who happens to be a fellow music lover, The Beatles were brought up in our conversation. He happened to be a huge Beatles fan, going so far as to say that Sgt. Pepper’s is one of the best albums of all time.
(Just a side note, I do believe that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is a good album. A great one actually, but I don’t believe it is one of the best. Its not even the best The Beatles album for me (Revolver) …Sorry.)
I had a special love for some of their songs, namely Eleanor Rigby, All You Need is Love, Good Morning, Hey Jude and Paperback Writer. Of all the songs the Beatles ever produced, Eleanor Rigby still stands as one of my favorites…. I guess it can be because of the amazing orchestra play in the back because I never understood the lyrics for a very long ….
When I chose to write this piece, I decided to pick a song I hadn’t listened to in a very long time and write about it. Write about how it made me feel, what it meant to me, or how it affected me. The Beatles immediately came to mind, and I quickly decided on Eleanor Rigby as my song of choice. That got me wondering what it was about this song that resonated with me so much that I knew I had to write about it without any hesitation.
To be honest, it was the lyrics. When I first heard the song I was 15, the lyrics always confused and intrigued me. I didn’t understand what half of them were portraying, but they always fascinated me. I couldn’t stop thinking about them. The slice of life, vignette style portrayal of “all the lonely people” was captivating.
A lot of the metaphors of the song were lost on me. Eleanor “wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door” wasn’t symbolic of anything: I thought it was a mask of some kind. Regardless, that became one of my favorite lines in the entire song. It was poetic and strange. The wonderful mixture of strange people, euphemisms, and symbolism had me listening to the song on repeat (I am listening to it on repeat right now as I write this..), totally pulled into the drab, gray, and lonely world that had been created.
The sad, almost longing tone of the song pulled me in as well. Up to that point in my life, most of the songs I had listened to had been happy, I wasn’t exposed to the harsh reality of life as yet. Eleanor Rigby was different. It painted a picture of lonely, sad people whose lives were intertwined. The whole song felt gray to me, as if the world I was hearing was perpetually cloudy.
That’s why it really stayed with me, even though I didn’t know it. It showed me that all songs didn’t have to be happy or joyous. They didn’t even have to use conventional “rock and roll” instruments. (Eleanor Rigby consists of nothing but The Beatles’ voices, and a small orchestra). It showed me that songs could be used as storytelling devices, and could portray characters and situations, real or fictitious. It really broadened my idea of what music can be, and what it can portray.
While I may not be as crazy about The Beatles as I used to, I still have a love for this song many years later. I listened to it many times while writing this, and haven’t grown tired of it yet. I really do attribute this song to broadening my view of music, and how it’s more than just fun things to play on the radio. Music is an art form: a way of expressing oneself. Music is a way to tell stories, and share the human experience. It transcends cultures and times. Truly, it is one of the most powerful forces that can be created, and that’s why it demands to be made.
Err Teenager 