It appears the Eleanor Rigby mystery has been solved. The subject of the song's name has been found in a 97-year-old document expected to fetch £500,000 ($775,000) when it goes on sale this month.It appears the Eleanor Rigby mystery has been solved. The subject of the song's name... more
Liverpool's City Hospital scullery maid E Rigby's paycheck may have inspired The Beatles to record 'Eleanor Rigby', at least that was the story told at auction to raise money for a charity which provides music therapy for children with disabilities.
A grave to Eleanor Rigby was found in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church, Woolton, in 1980. Sir Paul sent the 97 year old pay stubs of E Rigby to charity worker Annie Mawson when he received a request to fund the charity, called the Sunbeams Music Trust. Miss Mawson believes this document may have inspired Sir Paul to write the Beatles' classic, and raised £115,000 in auction for its sale, though Sir Paul didn't necessarily back up her tale.
"I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it. The first few bars just came to me, and I got this name in my head... 'Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church'. I don't know why. I couldn't think of much more so I put it away for a day. Then the name Father McCartney came to me, and all the lonely people. But I thought that people would think it was supposed to be about my Dad sitting knitting his socks. Dad's a happy lad. So I went through the telephone book and I got the name McKenzie."
Paul McCartney, 1966
"Eleanor Rigby is a totally fictitious character that I made up. If someone wants to spend money buying a document to prove a fictitious character exists, that's fine with me."
Sir Paul McCartney, 2008
Well, its for charity.Liverpool's City Hospital scullery maid E Rigby's paycheck may have inspired The... more
A 97-year-old document that contains clues to the identity of Eleanor Rigby, the subject of one of the Beatles' best-loved songs, sold for 115,000 pounds ($177,000) at auction on Thursday.
The total fell well short of high estimates of around 500,000 pounds for the piece of Beatles memorabilia.A 97-year-old document that contains clues to the identity of Eleanor Rigby, the... more
LONDON (AFP) – Paul McCartney on Wednesday shot down suggestions that his Beatles song "Eleanor Rigby" was inspired by a hospital scullery maid after a woman claimed the star had sent her a pay slip signed with that name.
"Eleanor Rigby is a totally fictious character that I made up," McCartney said in a statement released to AFP by his publicists.
"If someone wants to spend money buying a document to prove a fictitious character exists, that's fine with me," he said, referring to a forthcoming auction of the document.
His spokeswoman added they had not been able to establish whether McCartney sent the pay slip to Annie Mawson, who is auctioning it off to raise up to 500,000 pounds for a music therapy centre.
The pay slip dates from 1911 and originally came from City Hospital in Liverpool, McCartney's home city.
Mawson, chief executive of the Sunbeams Music Trust charity, said the ex- Beatles' office sent her the document after she wrote to him asking for a donation to help children with special needs.
Explaining how she received the document in 1990, Mawson said: "One day in the post came a brown envelope with a Paul McCartney world tour stamp, nine months after I had written the letter.
"I opened it and inside was this beautiful, ancient document. It was spine-shivering really, partly because he responded in such a personal way."
"Eleanor Rigby" -- McCartney's song about a lonely woman who "died in the church and was buried along with her name/Nobody came" -- appeared on the 1966 Beatles album "Revolver" and was the B-side to the single "Yellow Submarine".
McCartney has previously said the name Eleanor was inspired by actress Eleanor Bron, who starred in the Beatles film "Help!" in 1965 and that Rigby came from the name of a wine merchant.
In the 1980s, a grave was discovered at Saint Peter's Church in Woolton, Liverpool, where McCartney and bandmate John Lennon used to sunbathe as teenagers, bearing the name Eleanor Rigby.
There was also a gravestone bearing the name "McKenzie" -- the song also features a character called Father McKenzie -- in the graveyard, which has now become a popular attraction for Beatles fans visiting Liverpool.
The document is due to be auctioned in London on November 27.
people will try and sell anythingLONDON (AFP) – Paul McCartney on Wednesday shot down suggestions that his Beatles... more
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