Eleanor Rigby
By Michael Farrell
The Forevers had two undaunted children: Strawberry
and Fields
Red and green was a perfect
mania for the whole family
The children bounced a ball against a
shed; they called the game Ringo
When they were older, they played another game
they called Eleanor Rigby
The game consisted of
proposing a cover
version, naming both
band and song, the
name of the game came
from the practice of
beginning the game
with a proposed cover
of Eleanor
Rigby
The second player would then
announce a link between the
Eleanor Rigby cover and a
new cover: options included songs
with two word titles; songs titled with
women’s names; songs whose titles
began with E
After each turn, there would be a pause to
imagine the cover, while the next player
followed the established link, which changed as the
game progressed
If a player
wished to pass, they
would say switch, and
the next player would
announce a new
rule that their proposed
cover followed, and
while, theoretically
this could be any song
a Beatles song
was favoured; cheeky
participants had been
known however to
pervert this rule by
restarting with a song
by the Rolling Stones
John Lennon, or even
Bob Dylan
Hypothetical game: Eleanor Rigby by
Cheap Trick
Two word song: Master Blaster, ELO
Night Fever, Little
River Band
Hot Stuff, Rihanna
Cheap Thrills, M.I.A.
Paper Planes, Usher
Lucy Forever watches her children
and friends play; she’s a little
deaf, and not so interested in the game
anyway, or at least, she’s
interested in her children
rather than the answers, and notices
how Strawberry and Fields have their
own game within a game of
indicating which colour vinyl
each record would be if it
existed: green or red?
Switch
Songs with women’s
names: Veronica, Paul
Simon
Angie Baby, Carly Simon
Layla, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Desirée, Kings of Leon
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Architecture in Helsinki
That was Strawberry’s turn, saying hello to her mum
who was reading about loneliness, hoping she could
prevent it in her children
Okay, says
Fields, let’s sing the
songs in the styles of
who’s covering them
The others didn’t know that this new
game was not Eleanor Rigby at all
but a game called Taylor Swift
conventionally begun with a song
sung in imitation of Taylor Swift, then
moving on, inevitably they ended up
singing Beatles’ songs, or at least the
words, like Yellow Submarine to the
tune of We Are Never Getting Back
Together
I think we just invented Flaming Lips they
cried, looking around the room to find Maxwell the
cat absorbed in watching his hammer float out of
Lucy’s reach; she, meanwhile, has dropped her book
and is playing cards on the ceiling, and
looking down at a green-haired, Sinead
O’Connoresque Strawberry, and Fields, who
resembled a red and white boiled radiohead
Or was it her
that said, I think we need a bit more air in here