Saturday, May 11, 2024

"Eleanor Rigby"

The repeated line "I look at all the lonely people" in "Eleanor Rigby" is sung to a phrase something like:


Admittedly, I'm not super confident about the last two notes in each part.

The phrase "all the lonely people" is sung to pitches spanning more than an octave (A down to G and F# down to E), and this breadth provides a musical sense of that "all."  That there's a second vocal part here (in contrast to the single vocal in the verses) also gives a sense of that multitude.