Come On Eileen
(Rowland,
Kevin/Paterson, James/Adams, Kevin)
Performed
By Dexys Midnight Runners
Poor old Johnny Ray
Sounded sad upon the radio
He moved a million hearts in Mono
Our mothers cried
Sang along, who'd blame them
Now you're grown,
(You're grown up)
So grown
Now I must say more than ever, come on Eileen
Toora loora toora loo rye ay
And we can sing just like our fathers
Come on Eileen, oh I swear what he means
At this moment, you mean everything
With you in that dress, my thoughts I confess
"Verge on dirty",
Ah come on Eileen
Come on Eileen
These people round here
Wear beaten down eyes sunk in smoke dried faces;
So resigned to what their fate is
But not us, no never, no not us, no never
We are far too young and clever
(Remember)
Toora loora toora loo rye ay
Eileen, I'll hum this tune forever
Come on Eileen, oh I swear what he means
Ah come on let's, take off everything
Pretty red dress, Eileen tell him yes
Ah come on let's, ah come on Eileen
That pretty red dress, Eileen tell him yes
Ah come on let's, ah come on Eileen, please
(Come on Eileen, too loo rye ay)
(Come on Eileen, too loo rye ay)
(Now you have grown, now you have shown)
Toora toora, too loora
(Oh Eileen)
(Said come on)
Come on Eileen, too loo rye ay
(These things that are real so, how you feel)
Come on Eileen, too loo rye ay
(Now I must say more than ever)
Toora toora, too loora
(Things round here change)
(I said toora loora)
Come on Eileen, too loo rye ay
(Toora loo rye ay)
Come on Eileen, too loo rye ay
Toora toora, too loora
Come on Eileen, oh I swear what he means
At this moment, you mean everything
With you in that dress my thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty, ah come on Eileen
Come on Eileen, oh I swear what he means
At this moment, you mean everything
In that dress oh my thoughts I confess
Well they're dirty, on Eileen
Come on Eileen, whoa what he means
Oh, ah come on, everything
This is a pretty literal choice for talking about my childhood friend Eileen, sure, but I always liked the song, it's from more or less the right time, and although I don't think I ever deciphered the lyrics before, they pretty much suit what I remember of her. I haven't obsessed about my childhood in a few weeks (lol), so here's to another of my bestest friends from Stouffville.
Eileen was lovely: Irish pale with blonde feathered hair and a perpetual smile; I chose the Betty picture to represent Eileen's chummy personality, but in every way, Eileen was a total Betty (do the kids still say that? No? Hmph.) She was smart and creative and the kind of person everyone liked being around. While she and I were always friendly, we went through closer and more distant periods, and over the years that we knew each other, there were many sleepovers (and when I think about it, Eileen may have been the friend most likely to come to my house). Sleeping at my house, Eileen frequently suggested that we stay up all night -- for no other reason than to say we did it -- and I remember more than once my Dad coming downstairs to go to work (this must be summer holidays for us kids) and asking why we were up so early, and when we'd confess that we hadn't yet been to sleep, he'd waver between angry and mystified.
I remember once when she was in town with me, we were walking around and ended up at the big ball diamond, and somehow, we "discovered" a secret room under the grandstands that had a filthy mattress and garbage strewn around the dirt floor. We were pretty proud of this discovery, and although we were cautious enough to avoid that mattress -- we were 11 or 12 -- it never occurred to either one of us that someone -- a homeless person? sex-crazed teenagers? -- might show up and 1) kick us out, or 2) do us harm. So, we hung out there for quite a long time, and it was in this secret space that Eileen tried to teach me the "Up Jumped the Monkey" song. Like the Eileen of the song, my Eileen could "verge on dirty", but I was such a goody-two-shoes that I agreed to sing along with her only if I could hum the bad words:
Up jumped the monkey from the coconut grove
He's a real hmmmm, you can tell by his clothes
He wears a one button beanie and a three button vest
He's a hmmmm, hmmmm, hmmmm
Lined a hundred women up against the wall
Said, "Stand back, Jack, I'll hmmmm them all"
He hmmmm 98 til his hmmmm turned blue
Took a shot of whisky and he hmmmm the other two
When he died, he went straight to hmmmm
Hmmmm the devil's wife and his daughter as well
So now on his tombstone written in green
It says "Here's lies the body of the hmmmm machine"
Yeah, I think I even hummed over "hell", but I remember Eileen saying it was all cool. She lived out in the country, in a ramshackle farmhouse (that I loved), and I think I remember that her family rented the house, and the barn and fields were pretty much off limits. Did I once jump into the hay and have her Dad freak out about hidden pitchforks that could paralyze a kid? I think that was there.
Eileen's parents were a bit weird: They were the only people I knew with a Marriage Encounter sticker on their car (it's some kind of Catholic marriage workshopping thing) and they would often go off on couples retreats and they were really -- uncomfortably -- affectionate with each other. The SNL lovahs always remind me of them:
When I was sleeping over there one night, I remember that I was on the floor between Eileen's and her sister's beds, and we were talking and laughing and suddenly, we could hear her Mom at the bottom of the stairs yelling, "Are you still awake up there?"
I dove for the light to turn it off at the same moment that Eileen panic-whispered, "Nooooooo", and the second it was dark, her Mom came pounding up the stairs, threw open the door and was screaming, "Who's the sneak that turned off that light? Did you not think that I would see what you were doing?" I was terrified but I confessed that it was me, and after staring down first one and then the other of her daughters to check if I was covering for one of them, she relaxed and gave me a talk about the consequences of not taking responsibility for our actions and the importance of honesty, etc. I could have cried, but mostly because she was totally nailing my biggest flaw: whenever I thought I might get in trouble, I was always more likely to deny and cover up than bravely face the consequences.
Another thing about Eileen was that her parents took in foster children and they had a photo album of all of these kids, every one of whom Eileen would refer to as her brother or sister. And you have to admire that: looking back, I don't think that Eileen's family had much money but they were likely the most generous people I ever knew; people who totally practised what they preached.
This is the same Eileen that I wrote about here when I was complaining about our grade 8 teacher (oh, how I love to obsess about those years), so I'm going to copy/paste that story:
Eileen had an autograph book -- which a lot of the kids had since we didn't have yearbooks for our friends to sign -- and she encouraged people to write naughty things in it. I don't think I had got around to writing in it (I know I didn't write anything bad in it anyway) when Mr. P, who wasn't asked to write in it and shouldn't have had any right to look through it when it wasn't passed around in class, somehow got his hands on the book, and as a lesson to all of us, started reading from it. With anger and disgust he spat out swear words and dirty poems at us from the front of the class, being sure to attach the name of whatever perverted child sitting next to us had penned it. Eileen was horrified, as much for the kids who wrote in the book as she was for herself, and she sat through the whole thing with her hands wrapped around her head on her desk.
And the part that I didn't add at the time was that I feared for Eileen while this was happening -- I had seen how her Mom reacted to bad behaviour and I had no idea what would happen to Eileen over this book. (I remember that Eileen herself had written something like, "Stick your hand down his pants and then you'll know; the more the hair, the more to blow", and while I was overwhelmed by the sophistication that this displayed at the time -- I was such a dork -- it looks pretty juvenile and clueless to me now; but what did her Mom think??) This was at a time when we were less chummy, so I have no memory of what the consequences were for Eileen; but I do hope she kept her verging on dirty side: she was such a beautiful and free spirit that I hate to think she might have been tamed or broken.
Every time I've ever heard Come On Eileen I've thought of my own Eileen and it's made me smile. In some ways, moving away from Stouffville and having these childhood friends frozen in time can be a bit of a blessing; we were just so young and clever back then.
These people round here
Wear beaten down eyes sunk in smoke dried faces;
So resigned to what their fate is
But not us, no never, no not us, no never
We are far too young and clever
