Who was Father McKenzie in the Beatles Eleanor Rigby song ? – 21 December 2011
I photographed the unveiling of the Eleanor Rigby statue seat in Liverpool in 1982 for the Daily Telegraph. Uncle Charlie Lennon sat on the seat next to his ex army friend Tommy McKenzie who told me he was THE Father McKenzie. It was only yesterday when I sold one of my limited edition photographs that I decided to find out more about who Father McKenzie and Eleanor Rigby were. On researching I have found countless explanations. The name of the 1966 song’s character was actually Father McCartney for a while, but Paul didn’t want anyone to confuse this with his dad, so one account has Paul thumbing through a telephone directory until he came up with McKenzie. The one person who claimed to be THE real Father McKenzie was not a priest but Tommy McKenzie a friend and fellow army veteran of Uncle Charlie Lennon. He was also the compere of the Beatles five concerts at Northwich Memorial Hall between 1962-63 and a close friend of the band when he lived in Liverpool.
My photograph of Father McKenzie (left) with Uncle Charlie Lennon at the unveiling of the Eleanor Rigby statue seat in Liverpool 1982
Eleanor Rigby was originally a Miss Daisy Hawkins according to Donovan whom McCartney played the song before it was finished with completely different lyrics. Paul also claims he came up with the name Eleanor from actress Eleanor Bron, who had starred in the Beatles film Help! However, it has been pointed out that the graveyard of St Peters Church in Liverpool, where John Lennon and Paul MCartney first met, contains the gravestone of an individual called Eleanor Rigby. Paul McCartney has admitted he may have been unconsciously influenced by the name on the gravestone. In the 1980s, a grave of an Eleanor Rigby was “discovered” in the graveyard of St. Peter’s Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool, and a few yards away from that, another tombstone with the last name McKenzie scrawled across it. During their teenage years, McCartney and Lennon spent time sunbathing there, within earshot of where the two had met for the first time during a fete in 1957. Many years later McCartney stated that the strange coincidence between reality and lyric could be a product of his subconscious, rather than being a meaningless fluke. The actual Eleanor Rigby was born in 1895 and lived in Liverpool, possibly in the suburb of Woolton, where she married a man named Thomas Woods. She died on 10 October 1939 at age 44. Whether this Eleanor was the inspiration for the song or not, her tombstone has become a landmark to Beatles fans visiting Liverpool. A digitised version was added to the 1995 music video for The Beatles’ reunion song “Free as a Bird”.
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