Reviews
 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
|
The Beatles
Charted: #11 in September 1966
With Revolver, the relevance of the Beatles’ albums surpassed the importance of their singles. The overwhelming impact of having a series of truly great songs running back-to-back made Beatles albums some of the most important collections of music ever assembled. Each song contains a unique vision whose only thematic link to its brethren is the experimental daring that they share. The double A-sided single (each side was considered side “A”) of “Yellow Submarine”/”Eleanor Rigby” was released on the same day as the album from which they were extracted. A more eclectic pairing of songs could not be imagined.
While “Yellow Submarine” is a goofy children’s fantasy, “Eleanor Rigby” is a portrait of intense loneliness. The hollow lives of the characters are spelled out with telling scenarios that depict the mundane pointlessness of their existence. Both Eleanor Rigby and Father MacKenzie seem to live their lives devoid of any human contact except for the little bit provided by the servile roles of their unrewarding jobs. The lyrics don’t attempt to give us every detail, so colorizing their bleak lives is up to the listener’s imagination, which is part of the inherent beauty of this record. In my own mind’s eye, I can easily imagine the shabby dress of the widowed Mrs. Rigby, who only halfheartedly attempts to maintain her appearance, or the dark, musty room where Father MacKenzie sits darning his socks. It is easy to assume that the church where Eleanor Rigby picks up rice, cleaning up after someone else’s wedding (which vaguely reminds her of her own), is the same place where Father MacKenzie labors for a God that he sometimes feels has abandoned him. It can also be imagined that while Eleanor Rigby moves about cleaning and sweeping around the pews, Father MacKenzie putters about on the altar, preparing a sermon (that no one will hear). Perhaps neither one ever acknowledges the other’s presence. Perhaps their paths never cross until Father MacKenzie presides over the gray, empty burial service that lays Eleanor Rigby in the ground.
The emptiness of their lives is pathetic and emotionally taxing. It is made even worse when Paul McCartney sums things up by flatly stating, “No one was saved.” There is no vent to escape the claustrophobic vacuum of their loneliness, and all the listener can do is sympathize. At best, it may inspire us to think twice before we blithely ignore someone who could easily be overlooked. With black and white paint, McCartney and the Beatles paint a picture that asks us to face the humbler side of humanity with empathy and concern. Not bad for a pop song.
 
|
Hit Network
More Music Reviews
More Movie Reviews
More Book Reviews
More Concert Reviews
Powered by Millennium Communications Inc.