Photo: AFP
Paul McCartney launched a new podcast on Tuesday (October 3) called Life in Lyrics. The 12-part series is based on his book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, and sees Macca and poet Paul Muldoon (who wrote the book's foreword) speak about some of the singer-songwriter's most famous songs. For it's inaugural episode, McCartney breaks down the Beatles hit "Eleanor Rigby," explaining the story behind its title and meaning behind one of its most well-known lines.
“There is a grave which John [Lennon] and I wandered around endlessly talking about our future,” he recalled about the song's title. “And there is a grave there [with the name Eleanor Rigby]. I don’t remember ever seeing that gravestone but it’s been suggested to me that psychologically I would have seen it.”
As for the peculiar lyric "Wearing a Face That She Keeps in a Jar by the Door," McCartney said the idea came from his mother's love for Nivea cold cream.
“My mum’s favorite was Nivea and I love it to this day. It kind of scared me a little that women used quite so much cold cream, and it was my dread, when I got older and got married, that I would marry someone who would [wear a lot of cold cream] and put one of those big shower caps on and the curlers and have masses of things," he admitted. "So that played on my mind quite a bit, so she’s wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door."
Listen to the full podcast episode above.