‘Lonely People’: America’s trite response to The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’
If there’s one single that The Beatles released that stands out more than any other for how dramatically different it is from the rest, then ‘Eleanor Rigby’ has to be the prime candidate.
Its bleak story of the titular character, her loneliness and isolation from the rest of society, and her eventual death in complete solitude is a far cry from the usually vibrant and uplifting tone of their single releases, and while they would also release other tracks on albums that took this approach, it was brave of the band to choose to release this as a single in 1966 when they were predominantly still famous for their buoyant pop anthems.
Not only was it tonally different, but the fact that it marked the first time the band had released a song without any of the members playing instruments, instead backed by a string quartet, was even more bold of them to do, considering how popular they had become for their adoption of the classic rock band setup. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is a black sheep in the band’s catalogue, but that doesn’t mean that its differences are detrimental to its reputation, and in fact, The Beatles were lauded for this daring baroque pop experiment.
Of course, its popularity has also led to it inspiring many other acts to release songs in a similar style, but no other song pays a more direct homage to the original than America’s 1974 track, ‘Lonely People’. Borrowing its title from the infamous refrain of “I look at all the lonely people,” the track unabashedly makes reference to Paul McCartney’s lyrics that ruminate on the themes of isolation, but instead tries to put a more positive spin on things rather than letting itself rankle in despair.
Where ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is about a character who dies alone, America’s ‘Lonely People’ attempts to reach out to the lonely to assure them that they won’t be lonely forever, with lines like “This is for all the lonely people / Thinkin’ that life has passed them by / Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup / And ride that highway in the sky” making a concerted effort to raise the spirits of those who feel lost in life. The trouble is, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ didn’t need a response that delivers an overwhelming message of hope.
America’s songwriter and lead vocalist, Dan Peek, claimed that he’d always seen himself as an outcast and was moved by ‘Eleanor Rigby’ when he first heard it in his youth. However, after meeting his wife and the song’s co-writer, Catherine Maberry, these despondent feelings became null and void, and he was suddenly reminded that loneliness is never permanent. “I always felt like a melancholy, lonely person,” Peek later claimed about finding love. “I felt like I’d won.”
He may have triumphed in the face of his past struggles, but feeling the need to counteract a song like ‘Eleanor Rigby’ with a song of hope misses the point of the original entirely, regardless of how well it stands up as a song in its own right. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is a work of fiction written to entertain, and isn’t designed to sap the hope out of listeners who may also feel lonely, so for ‘Lonely People’ to feel the need to balance it with a song of slogans and forced positivity feels insincere, unnecessary, and disrespectful to a masterpiece.
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