Eleanor Rigby

by Joan-Violet Stretch

Title

Eleanor Rigby

Artist

Joan-Violet Stretch

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

As I was strolling along the Met Quarter between Whitechapel and Mathew Street at Stanley Street in Liverpool I came across this statue of Eleanor Rigby sitting alone on a bench feeding a bird, a sculpture by Tommy Steele the famous entertainer to thank Liverpool, taken from the famous Beatle song penned by Lennon and McCartney that has a poignancy in its content of this supposingly lonely woman feeding a sparrow perched on a newspaper.
Notes added: When Tommy Steele was performing in a show in Liverpool in 1981, he made an offer to Liverpool City Council to create a sculpture as a tribute to the Beatles. His fee for the commission would be three pence. Relating to Half a Sixpence. The offer was accepted by the Council, as it would be expected to increase the tourist trade of the city, and they made a donation of �4,000 towards its cost. The statue took nine months to make, and it was unveiled by Tommy Steele on 3 December 1982. The inscription on the plaque behind the statue reads:

ELEANOR RIGBY
"ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE..."
(This statue was sculpted and donated to the City of Liverpool)
Sculptured by Tommy Steele (as a tribute to the Beatles,)
as a thankyou to the people of Liverpool.
(The casting was sponsored by the Liverpool Echo.)
DECEMBER 1982
From the album
Revolver-August 1966
Bracketed words were included in the original plaque
that was in black rather than brass

The poignancy and lack of Empathy are here in the lyrics of Eleanor Rigby as the Beatles focused on loneliness as a protest maybe:

Lyrics
Ah look at all the lonely people
Ah look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice
In the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face
That she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
Father McKenzie, writing the words
Of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working, darning his socks
In the night when there's nobody there
What does he care
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
Ah look at all the lonely people
Ah look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby, died in the church
And was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt
From his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
Lennon McCartney

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March 25th, 2017

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