Eileen by Jonathan Kelly
Tuning: DADGBE
Eileen, don’t you remember, don’t you remember me?
I was your secret boyfriend, when you were just seventeen
Eileen my sister was right when she said we could never be
I was all in orange, but you were all in green
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Ah but I loved you, pure and sweet as a mountain stream,
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Ah but I loved you soft as the rain on the cobbled street
You could never tell your mother about me (ba da da da dum)
Your brother would have come to sort me out (ba da da da dum)
And though you were the sweetest thing that I had ever seen
It would always come down,
it would always come down,
(no chord)
It must always come down to the orange and the green
At nights we sat by your gas fire, music on the radio
Our favourite was the Merseybeats’ ‘We’ve Got a Groovy Kind of Love.’
Then we’d lie on your bed and we’d kiss, and we’d kiss and we’d kiss some more
Clandestine lovers, with no place to go
Ah but I loved you, pure and sweet as a mountain stream,
Ah but I loved you soft as the rain on the cobbled street
The last time that we met I knew it was over (ba da da da dum)
I could see the sad resignation in your eyes (ba da da da dum)
Just made you look more beautiful, so contrite and serene
‘Cos it must always come down,
It must always come down,
It must always come down to the orange and the green
Suppose you got married, got children, grandchildren now I guess
Suppose your life’s been good to you
I hope that you’ve been blessed.
I’m sending out this message to you Eileen just to make you smile
And remember a sad-faced ragged boy, that you once loved for a while
Ah but I loved you, pure and sweet as a mountain stream,
Ah but I loved you soft as the rain on the cobbled street
It’s forty years on since we walked together
Hand in hand down O’Connell Street
The world has changed a lot since then but enough as I have seen
‘Cos still it always comes down
Still it always comes down,
It still always comes down to the orange and the green.
Eileen, don’t you remember, don’t you remember me...?
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