...But Martin, being a consummate professional, went ahead and conducted the orchestra using Leander's arrangement. Fahrenheit 451 wasn't released until September 1966, after Revolver was already on the shelves. In the absence of persuasive evidence that Martin had advance access to the soundtrack recording in April 1966, the parsimonious conclusion is that Martin simply misremembered, years after the fact. Judging from random spot samples from the video below, the Fahrenheit 451 soundtrack doesn't have the staccato string stabs that feature so prevalently in Psycho. There's some rhythmic playing, but there are other instruments underneath. The Psycho score is a better fit for a Rigby template. They were still working well together, but they were starting to go in different directions. This wasn't yet causing major friction, but the end of the touring years (after the unexpected three-month vacation at the beginning of 1966) meant they were free to each go their own way instead of constantly living every moment together Hard Day's Night-style in "a train and a room and a car and a room and a room and a room."
I'm definitely not taking a side on this, as I haven no idea who is right, but I do want to point out that artists, writers, and producers lie, mislead, and forget things all the time. Funny that this is coming up with this song and its relationship with Fahrenheit 451, but Ray Bradbury is a perfect example. Back when he wrote it, he railed against censorship, and said his book was about that. But then he turned into an old man, and changed his tune. He no longer said it was about censorship, but about the dumbing down of media consumption. Fortunately, in Bradbury's case, we can catch his "changing views" (to put it charitably) because it's documented. All this is to say, don't trust George Martin at his word. He might be misremembering something. He might be leaving something unsaid. He might not be allowed to tell the truth (for legal reasons). It's certainly a piece of the evidence, but it can never be the entire argument. (Edit: And now that I'm seeing SJB above mention the anachronism, I think it's an even better chance that Martin is pulling a Bradbury here. In short: artists are people, and people have faulty memories. Ergo, never trust the artist to tell you what they were actually thinking.)
What about arguing against the words of a living man? Paul in talking about the string arrangement mentioned Bernard Herrman and Psycho. No Fahrenheit 451. Hmmmm.
Duh, the last I heard, George Martin was dead. And mentioned Fahrenheit 451 exclusively before he expired.
Although the Beatles' music was all-pervasive in my teenage years, they were just this band that was always there in the background, not someone whose music I felt the urge to buy. The song "Eleanor Rigby" was the first Beatles song that made me think "Yes, I wouldn't mind owning that". It is unlike any other song in their catalogue. I couldn't care less whether or not it's "baroque pop", which more and more these days seems to mean "pop that actually has a tune behind it".
Last I heard Paul was alive, despite the conspiracy theories in 1969-1970. And mentioned Psycho exclusively.
This of course, is both absurd and anti-intellectual. As a society we debate the words of dead men every day--philosophers, politicians, artists...all of the great thinkers and other leaders before us. I only wish I was smart enough and prominent enough to have people dissecting and critiquing my words after I'm gone
As I recall, Paul mentioned that he wrote it on the piano, presented it to his (at the time) piano teacher who thought it wasn’t that great. “I had taken lessons twice before, but never went very far with it,” Paul continued. “Around the same time, I wrote the melody for ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and played it for the teacher, but he just blanked it (went right past it). But I liked the tune and later wrote the words.”
Martin sometimes said Fahrenheit 451 was the inspiration, but that score apparently wasn't recorded until after "Eleanor Rigby" was finished. The film Fahrenheit 451 was released in September 1966, more than a month after Revolver. Martin is unlikely to have heard the score before he arranged the strings for "Eleanor Rigby."
Of course. George Martin was famously and provably wrong about a lot of things he said in interviews. Anyone who wants to get indignant about that should be taken into consideration as a non-source.
It is zee great song!! "wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door, who is it for?" Great line!
Wow, this reminds me of the story that Paul lost a talent contest when he was young to a lady that played the spoons.
I recall reading a John Lennon interview where he said that the 'Eleanor Rigby' string arrangement were inspired by Paul's love of Vivaldi's music.
Martin had a recording session booked when McCartney reached out. I think it was with Cilla Black, but don't trust me on this. You can't cancel a recording session just because another, "more important" artist feels in a rather childish hurry. That would be very unprofessional. And disrespectful to Cilla (if it was indeed her). It's not that George Martin played the busy man just he could make Macca wait.
