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9.56am
26 January 2017
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Brought over from the back up forum, I said the song sounded rather ‘grand.’ Paul’s extremely powerful vocal combined with a full and heavy string arrangement seems to represent the sheer amount of lonely folk in the world. When I listen to the beginning, the “aah, look at all the lonely people” line reminds me of Look Down from Les Miserables.
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1 May 2011
Offline BBC Article – The Beatles: What really inspired Eleanor Rigby?
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Offline Am I the only who is extremely annoyed by the panning/stereo mixing of Eleanor Rigby ? Like 90% of it is fine, but I just get so annoyed whenever the panning for the vocals switches from being on both sides and then like all of a sudden switches to the right speaker when you get into the verse. It’s just so jarring, man 
I hope it gets “fixed” if we ever get a Giles remix of Revolver (which I really hope we do just because I’m curious of what he would do and also I want deluxe content…..)
But anyhoo, does anyone else get annoyed by the sudden change in the panning in the stereo mix of ER? Does anyone even know what I’m talking about??? Am I just crazy?! 
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I prefer the Yellow Submarine Songtrack remix of ER to the Revolver mix.
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Giles remixed ‘ER’, it’s on the 2016(?) ‘1’ re-release and in my opinion is the go-to official mix. The originals are a mess with the panning and errors in the double-tracking.
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27 November 2016
Offline lovelyritametermaid said
Am I the only who is extremely annoyed by the panning/stereo mixing of Eleanor Rigby ? Like 90% of it is fine, but I just get so annoyed whenever the panning for the vocals switches from being on both sides and then like all of a sudden switches to the right speaker when you get into the verse. It’s just so jarring, manI hope it gets “fixed” if we ever get a Giles remix of Revolver (which I really hope we do just because I’m curious of what he would do and also I want deluxe content…..)
But anyhoo, does anyone else get annoyed by the sudden change in the panning in the stereo mix of ER? Does anyone even know what I’m talking about??? Am I just crazy?!
Yes, it’s totally awful. One of the worst mixes in the catalogue.
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8.41pm
8 August 2019
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I don’t dislike it.
That’s my opinion.
because if I do it means Revolver is not a perfect album in which case IS THERE A GOD ANYMORE WHAT SHOULD I DO WHERE SHOULD I GO I DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING ANYMORE I’M SO CONFUSED
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9.41pm
5 December 2019
Offline Jules said
I don’t dislike it.That’s my opinion.
It’s just so jarring and badly done– you’re allowed not to dislike it (hell I love a lot of imperfect things– including myself lmao 
) and I get where you are coming from in a sense, but like I just can’t get past that mix
because if I do it means Revolver is not a perfect album in which case IS THERE A GOD ANYMORE WHAT SHOULD I DO WHERE SHOULD I GO I DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING ANYMORE I’M SO CONFUSED
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20 August 2013
Offline Into the Sky with Diamonds said
@ahhh girl re “Daytime Nightime Suffering”: OK, “Good taste is my taste” said Voltaire. Paul’s written a number of songs featuring people down on their luck – mostly women (E Rigby, Lady Madonna , Another Day ); I see this as fitting right in.
I don’t see Eleanor Rigby as someone down on her luck. I do not know the correct PC wording to use for this thought (someone help me out if you know), but I’ve always thought of Eleanor as someone who is two clicks off of what we would consider “normal” adult mentality – maybe she has the cognitive and emotional maturity level of a young child. I think she likes her place and the activities in her life. I think she loves all the lonely people and looks at them in wonder; she’s intrigued by them. She loves simple, repetitive tasks like picking up the rice. Maybe she washes it and cooks it.
—
I wrote this story somewhere before, but I’ll put it here now.
I was tired one day, and when I heard “Ah look at all the lonely people,” I thought Paul was addressing me – Ahhh (as in Ahhh Girl) look at all the lonely people. I sat up and took notice. Shook me out of my semi-dream state.
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10.44pm
26 January 2017
Offline I definitely think the line “wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door” is a reference to mental health issues that she deals with at home.
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10 August 2011
Offline @Ahhh Girl @sir walter raleigh
Sir Paul described the song as reflecting what he saw when he was a teenager working in a home for older people.
I’ve taken the “face in a jar by the door” (an all-time great lyric) as a variation on his later (much later) “my brave face.”
She puts on an appearance of normality/happiness that doesn’t square with how she’s really feeling. Not necessarily mental illness. Perhaps. But also perhaps just a normal reaction to loneliness.
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3.56pm
26 January 2017
Offline This song shows that Pauls lyrical capabilities go way beyond mere pop hitmaking. His lyrics on this song are as good if not better than any Lennon, Dylan, or other great lyricist’s best songs. Not all Silly Love Songs for Paul.
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2.44am
10 July 2021
Offline My 1st favorite song of all time! I love the instrumental of classical style! Can’t wait to see the Statue of Eleanor Rigby ! 
12.14am
14 June 2016
Offline mccartneyfan00 said
My 1st favorite song of all time! I love the instrumental of classical style! Can’t wait to see the Statue of Eleanor Rigby !
The instrumental version from Anthology 2 is indeed glorious.
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6.57am
17 June 2021
Offline I agree, it’s wonderful.
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5.13am
25 February 2020
Offline lovelyritametermaid said
Am I the only who is extremely annoyed by the panning/stereo mixing of Eleanor Rigby ? Like 90% of it is fine, but I just get so annoyed whenever the panning for the vocals switches from being on both sides and then like all of a sudden switches to the right speaker when you get into the verse. It’s just so jarring, manBut anyhoo, does anyone else get annoyed by the sudden change in the panning in the stereo mix of ER? Does anyone even know what I’m talking about??? Am I just crazy?!
this is why the mono mixes are important!
5.56pm
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27 November 2016
Offline Vera Chuck and Dave said
lovelyritametermaid said
Am I the only who is extremely annoyed by the panning/stereo mixing of Eleanor Rigby ? Like 90% of it is fine, but I just get so annoyed whenever the panning for the vocals switches from being on both sides and then like all of a sudden switches to the right speaker when you get into the verse. It’s just so jarring, man
But anyhoo, does anyone else get annoyed by the sudden change in the panning in the stereo mix of ER? Does anyone even know what I’m talking about??? Am I just crazy?!
this is why the mono mixes are important!
And fan remixes. Took me all of 5 minutes to make a stereo mix using the stereo strings from Anthology 2 and putting the vocals in the centre.
I’m sure there are better mixes than mine out there, as well.
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5.40am
12 May 2015
Offline My understanding is the lyric was very much a group effort, but yeah its a fantastic track. It matches up to Johns peak track on ‘revolver’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows ‘ quite easily if not surpassing it. It was a very hard hitting song for the time.
As for the mix I don’t tend to mind it too much ( I think there are worse examples). But generally speaking I prefer the mono mixes of ‘Rubber Soul ‘ and ‘revolver’ anyway.
6.17pm
18 September 2016
Offline Ron Nasty said
On our Fab Four Taxi Tour on Monday, we obviously took in St. Peter’s Church, and its churchyard.And a “can’t miss” is obviously Eleanor’s gravestone.
And then our excellent driver, Ian Doyle (Dear Prudence ), asked myself, @Ahhh Girl and @fabfouremily to look closely at Eleanor’s inscription, and see if we noticed anything strange about it, about its wording, and an echo in the song. So we looked:
Ian pointed out something about it that none of us had noticed. Can you see it?
…Rigby
…wife of Thomas Woods
Why isn’t she Eleanor Woods? It’s 1939! A woman keeping her own name after marriage was… I would say unheard of, but obviously…
And then in the song:
Eleanor Rigby died…
…and was buried along with her name…
Isn’t that exactly what we see on the gravestone, an Eleanor Rigby who was buried along with her name, not her husband’s.
Thanks to Ian for this observation.
What do you think?
It was common in Scotland for women to have their maiden names on their gravestone, with wife of… recorded. Perhaps there was a connection there. Or maybe because it was a Rigby family plot? For whatever reason I’m very glad
How strange that Paul decades later, donates that document with the real Eleanor Rigby ‘s details of her, as a16yrs old in the hospital she worked,
ER is in my top 3 Beatles songs and I agree with William S Burroughs when he said to Paul, it was astonishing how much narrative he squeezed into 3 verses. One of the most praised Beatles songs, Allen Ginsberg referred to it as a poem, and I don’t disagree. Paul felt like it was a breakthrough for him lyrically—more of a serious song. The music speaks for itself – ahead of its time.
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Offline ‘Eleanor Rugby’ was finally fixed on ‘1+’ and sounds fantastic (tho I haven’t analysed the high/low ends on a computer programme whilst listening to the 3rd pressing of the Albanian vinyl).
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