Suzy Connolly’s Dorothy, The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby, and Avril Lavigne’s Nobody’s Home

Here is a new song (new to me) from an extraordinary singer, instrumentalist and songwriter named Suzy Connolly.  I give credit to Martha Plimpton, because I think she played this song on her MySpace page and that is how I was introduced to the song. 

“Dorothy” Lyrics by Suzy Connolly:

Dorothy Levine
Always on the street for company . . . for company

I watch her from afar
She is barely holding up the wall . . . in her violet lingerie

In the shopping window she stops and stares and greets her own reflection
Though she doesn’t know it, she’s not alone
She strikes a chord inside of me

Downtown, always out on the street
It’s the only thing that ever makes her feel . . . she’s not alone in the world

He meets her at the corner at a quarter to three
Greets her with a ceremony, like he’s going to save her
From the pain she’s running from

In the shopping window she stops and stares and greets her own reflection
Though she doesn’t know it, she’s not alone
She strikes a chord

Maybe it’s not a bad thing to be alone, Dorothy
Sometimes it’s not a bad thing to feel the pain . . . the pain you hide
And I know it’s nothing new
But I know what’s good for you . . . Dorothy

Dorothy Levine, always on the street for company . . . for company

© All rights reserved by Suzy Connolly.

You can hear the above song, along with 3 other Suzy Connolly songs, here:

http://www.myspace.com/suzyconnolly

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“Eleanor Rigby” Lyrics by The Beatles:

I look at all the lonely people
I look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window
Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working
Darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there
What does he care?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie
Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Artwork “Eleanor Rigby” by Mary Ann Farley.

http://www.maryannfarley.com

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“Nobody’s Home” Lyrics by Avril Lavigne:

I couldn’t tell you why she felt that way
She felt it everyday
But I couldn’t help her
I just watched her make the same mistakes again

What’s wrong, what’s wrong now?
Too many, too many problems
Don’t know where she belongs
Where she belongs

She wants to go home, but nobody’s home
It’s where she lies, broke down inside
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes.
Broke down inside

Open your eyes and look outside, find the reasons why
You’ve been rejected, and now you can’t find what you’ve left behind
Be strong, be strong now
Too many, too many problems
Don’t know where she belongs
Where she belongs

She wants to go home, but nobody’s home
It’s where she lies, broke down inside
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes
Broke down inside

Her feelings she hides
Her dreams she can’t find
She’s losing her mind
She’s fallen behind
She can’t find her place
She’s losing her faith
She’s fallen from grace
She’s all over the place
Yeah-ah

She wants to go home, but nobody’s home
It’s where she lies, broke down inside
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes
Broke down inside

She’s lost inside, lost inside . . . oh oh
She’s lost inside, lost inside . . . oh oh . . . oh

© All rights reserved by the respective artists.

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Commentary

I’ve been working on a “Dorothy” lyrics post for a couple weeks.  I’ve not been quite able to figure out when and how to post those lyrics, but I wanted to because I like the song very much and wanted to promote it.  As I’m writing this post, it has less than 1,000 plays on MySpace, an undeservedly low number of plays for a song on MySpace. 

It wasn’t until I awoke from a nightmare this morning that the shape of this post came together.

An aside:  Does anyone else out there ever wake up from nightmares and concede that even though you’ve not had a full night’s sleep, you get up, because there’s little chance of returning to good sleep?  No?  Well, that’s what I do.  I got up this morning and went for a walk.

Returning to topic:  As I was waking up, two other songs from my favorite’s iPod list came to mind.  The 3 songs have many beautiful attributes in common.  The first word of the similar titles is 3 syllables.  Dorothy (Levine), Eleanor Rigby, and Nobody’s Home. 

They are all songs focused not only on loneliness or social isolation, but more specifically they focus on lonely women whose loneliness is likely due in large part to errored cognitive constructs.

We don’t know the sources of Dorothy Levine’s disorders (if they can even accurately be called ‘disorders’) as she never stops walking the public streets.  We can speculate that Eleanor Rigby, and Father McKenzie, are cycling mentally through powerful, often overriding, and redundant religious and social concerns, both feeling they lack some attribute they’ve been told they should have.  Their perceptions of their shortcomings possibly tragically persuade them to be more insular and less social.  And Avril Lavigne’s female character appears to feel she is searching for a home, always feeling “away from home,” but not able to define one singular home she clearly feels right in pursuing.

I think some people, who are considered “crazy” or who exhibit “crazy” behaviors, are extremely intelligent.  But sometimes, multi-layered ideologies that promote conflicting and daunting levels of false guilt can disarm extremely bright, well-intentioned, and good-hearted people who genuinely try to meet others’ ideals.  But sometimes those “ideals” are either inherently conflicting for anyone, or specifically unfit for a particular individual.  Women tend to be especially vulnerable to unnecessarily self-sacrificial behaviors, but men can also make the same self-harming reasoning errors.

I’m not real familiar with much of Suzy Connolly’s work, but I recommend her song highly.  McCartney & Lennon did not just lament about loneliness.  In songs like The Beatles’ “Help!,” Lennon’s “Instant Karma,” and McCartney’s recent “See Your Sunshine,” and other songs, they outlined positive responses to lonely or redundant negative patterns.  And Avril Lavigne’s songs “Take Me Away” & “Anything But Ordinary” are extraordinarily positive responses to feelings of loneliness, isolation, and stagnation.

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