22 February/23 February 2020 ★ FT Weekend 13
Arts
T
here is perhaps no
better individual
showcase ofThe
Beatles’ infinite variety
thanthe“Yellow
Submarine”/“Eleanor Rigby”
double A-side released on August 5- One single was a nonsensical
nursery rhyme, theother an elegiac
“ba-rock” threnody about the
forgotten elderly, which served as
an exemplar ofemotionally
profound pop songwriting.
Not that “Eleanor Rigby”isapop
record in the conventional sense —
after all, it marked thefirst time
none of thegroup had played any
instruments on a track. Instead,two
string quartets (both playing the
same melodies to “double” the
sound)create afunereal soundscape
perfectly suited to the song’s tale of
loneliness, anonymity and death.
While poignancyhadneverbe
far removed from some of The
Beatles’ best early composition
(“In My Life”,“Yesterday”,
“Help”), in “Eleanor Rigby”
the band delivered a tragedy
inmicrocosm.
Sitting at a piano one night,
Paul McCartney found that
the arrestingly sad and
evocative opener of“picks up
thericeinachurchwherea
wedding has been”came to him
almost spontaneously, a sdidth
notion that it should be part of
lonely old woman song”.
Before anything else,
McCartney needed a name
for this character.“Daisy
Hawkins”had beena
placeholder in an early
draft, but it wasn’t until
he stumbledacrossa
wine shop called “Rigby
&Evens”in Bristol that
hefound a satisfactorily
“natural” name;
“Eleanor”, meanwhile,
was derivedfrom
Eleanor Bron, a cast
member ofThe Beatles’
1965 filmHelp!Those ofa more
psychoanalytic persuasion,
have tried to make“Eleanor Rigby”
their own with their covers.
The songwas especially popular
with soul legends, who replaced the
plaintive strings with piano and
brass melodies with a bluesy groove.
Ray Charles gave a memorable
renditiononTheDickCavett Showin
1972; The Four Tops recorded a
convincingly pain-stricken version
in 1969; and Aretha Franklin, ina
strangely up-tempo iteration, sings
as Rigby in thefirst person.
Prolific covererJoan Baez took on
the song in 1967 in a version that
features some incongruously jaunty
instrumentations, althoughher
vocals arefittingly sorrowful.
Fellowfolk singer Bobbie Gentry
used her understated, husky voice
togood effect in her 1968 effort.
Elsewhere, BookerT&TheMG’s
andthe Jerry Garcia Bandboth
recorded expansive instrumental
versions thatfeel rather cold — if
technically impressive — without
the stirringlyrics. The same can
be said ofthe nine-minute
experimentalinterpretationby
contemporary jazz musician Jacob
er, whichprioritises indulgent
osity over emotionaldepth.
ore successful covers includea
bly sombrebluegrass versionby
hic country duo The Handsome
amily and an impassioned rock-
oul reinvention by rising stars
lackPumas.
Thatwellover300 artists
ave covered the track isa
estamenttothe original. But
esong’s impact extends far
yond music. Eleanor Rigby
me a kind ofmetonymyfor
solated and destitute; in
rpool, a statue was erected
er”in commemoration of“all
the lonely people”. And
n the way it immortalises
he overlooked and
downtrodden, “Eleanor
Rigby” can be seen as a pithy
counterpart to Thomas
Gray’s “Elegy Written in
a Country Churchyard” —
hough it would perhaps be
more analogous if Gray had
published that poem
alongside some cheery lines
about a yellow boat.
DanEinav
More in the series at ft.com/
life-of-a-songth
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lif fLIFE OF A SONG
ELEANOR RIGBY
[in my work] ofcontinuous evolution,
which passes from one generation to the
next. Not a break, or any sense ofcon-
flict. There is no yes and no, right and
wrong.” The laical and the divine are
freely mixed, part ofthe same complex,
human yearning to makes sense of life.
ForallofCloud Gate’ssuccessfulfor-
ays on the international stage, it is the
reception it receives athome that most
inspires the company. “In their own
country, theyare much more thana
dance company,”says Alistair Spalding,
artistic director and chief executive of
Sadler’s Wells, where Cloud Gate is due
to perform this month.
“In Taiwan, Lin is regarded as some-
thing close to a god: he is recognised eve-
rywhereonthe streets.[The com-
pany’s] vocabulary is very particular; it
is influenced by western choreography
but it has a totally different energyand
fluidity ofmovement. It is very interest-
ingthat they also travel to China, it is
one ofthe veryfew companies [from
Taiwan]to have success there.”
Cheng says proudly that Cloud Gate
gives regular,free performances infront
of crowds of up to 50,000 people back
home. I say it sounds like Woodstock.
“Yes, but without the drugs!”he
responds swiftly. He says his mentor Lin
wasgreatly influenced by the presi-dency ofJohn F Kennedy, and his
famous dictum about doing thingsfor
your country, rather than the other way
around.“He wanted to serve society and
he does it through the medium of
dance,” he says of the company’s
founder.“All ofhis work is about the
lives ofpeople in Taiwan.”
I ask Cheng how he feels about taking
on the mantle ofsuch a giant and influ-
ential culturalfigure. Did he have any
anxiety about the succession? “WhenI
am behind a closed door, yes,”he con-
fesses.“But when I am out there,”he
waves his arm around the splendid
foyer ofthe Chaillot theatre,“then, no!”The Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan is
performing‘13 Tongues’and‘Dust’at
Sadler’s Wells, London, February 26-29,
sadlerswells.comgives 1 3 Tonguesits distinctive vivacity.
“I was trying to put together all the
sounds, smells and colours that I could
remember.”
Chenghas an almost Proustian rever-
ence for the power of memory to inspire
the creative spirit. I ask him why the
dancers in 1 3 Tonguesappear inblackat
the beginning, gradually adding colour
to their outfits, until the stage isfinally
drenchedin abstract, polychromatic
patterns. “The black part is the shadows
ofmy memory,”he replies.“Memory
starts as a shadow, with a little bit of
sound, and then it begins to become
more vivid as you recall more and more.
The colours bring the memories to life
forthe audience.”
I ask about one ofthe recurring motifs
in the work, that ofa single person being
left apart from the crowd, often in
The Beatles in New York in
August 1966— Santi Visalli/Getty Imagesath.
een
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nsm
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f“aconte
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so
Bh
te
the
bey
becam
the is
Liver
of “hehowever, may argue the name was
dredged up from his subconscious.
Forin 1957, McCartney is known to
have visited St Peter’s Churchyard
inWo olton, Liverpool, site of the
“real”Eleanor Rigby’s grave.
Asforthe“fictional” Eleanor,her
story came together while the band
were staying at John Lennon’s
country home. Although it’s mainly
thought of as a McCartney effort,
each of thegroup (and their friend
Pete Shotton)contributedto the
lyrics. George Harrison came up
with the refrain of“look at all the
lonely people”; Ringo Starr is said
to have penned the hauntingline
about Father McKenzie“writing the
words ofa sermon that no one will
hear”; and Shotton pitched the idea
that the lives of the priest and
Rigby should intersect at the end,
when it’s already too late. Lennon’s
input is less clear, though it didn’t
stophim claiming yearslater that
he wrote “all but the first verse”.
While Lennon was busy tryingto
arrogate the track’s songwriting
credits to himself, a host of artistsapparent distress. Again, it isprovoked
by afigment ofCheng’s memory:“Often
when you look at a crowd of people,
there are one or two who are left out.
Andit is onlywhen you reallylookat the
individual that they stand out. I remem-
ber that clearlyfrom my childhood.”
He insists it is the integrity ofthose
memories that gives his choreography
its integrity, its power.“All I think about
ishow to represent them. I am not inter-
ested in working from books, or movies,
or even other people’s memories.”
Likehis mentor, Cheng also stresses
the importance of mixing the tradi-
tional elements ofhis artform with
moderndevelopments in contempo-
rary dance. The music in 1 3 Tongues
rangesfrom Taoist chants and popular
folk songs to electronic background
sounds. “I feel there should be a feeling‘Thereshouldbeafeeling
ofcontinuousevolution,
whichpassesfromonegenerationtothenext’