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> Of course he got it from the cemetery. The idea that he coincidentally landed on the name ‘Eleanor Rigby’ - for a song about a woman who “died in the church
by karaterobot 4y ago
> Of course he got it from the cemetery. The idea that he coincidentally landed on the name ‘Eleanor Rigby’ - for a song about a woman who “died in the church and was buried along with her name” - is wildly implausible.
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> (Note that the gravestone in question isn’t even for Eleanor Rigby herself but her grandfather; her name is further down, a detail).
So, in any case he didn't name the character after someone who died in the church, or was even buried there, but someone whose name appears there. Essentially, the connection is that the name Eleanor Rigby is engraved in a place where Paul McCartney has been before. The fact that he met Lennon there does not mean that the place is seared in his memory, it just means it's of historic importance to Beatles fans, which may be making this coincidence seem like something else.
- wingspar 4y agoI do not now the custom of that area or era, but I took that grave marker to be basically a family marker and they were all buried there.
- cryptonector 4y agoThat is clearly the case. It's almost certainly like the plot behind it and to the right -- not covered by dirt, but more like a buried mausoleum which is opened to add urns with the ashes of recently passed family members.
- cryptonector 4y agoThe names listed on the stone are the names of people buried there. Multiple people are buried in the same plot. Eleanor Rigby was buried there. The coincidence or non-coincidence is indeed of really low importance in the grand scheme of things, and says nothing about McCartney's "freakish memory".
- budgi4 4y agoIt's more likely that he felt it was inappropriate to link the song to the grave which the song title derived from for his own personal reasons.