Eric’s Retired Numbers

Burlap To Cashmere - “Eileen’s Song”

If I’m not mistaken, I purchased the album Anybody Out There? by Burlap To Cashmere while I was in Washington D.C. on a 10th grade class trip. That would place the first time I heard “Eileen’s Song” in early 1999-ish. I don’t specifically remember what I thought about this song the first time I heard it. All I know that at some point this song began to impact me in a big way.

I used to write quite a bit when I was a young man, and I remember being particularly inspired by “Eileen’s Song”. I remember using the “roses in your eyes” line from this song in one of my own writings. Yes, I was lacking in originality, but the point is that I was so impacted by the lyrics of this song that I literally wished I had written them.

This is more than just a song with inspiring lyrics about two people trying to make it in this crazy world, though. The atmosphere that the keyboard sets at the very beginning of this song is breathtaking. The guitar solo two and a half minutes in is one of my favorite guitar parts in all of music. Honestly, everything about this song is perfect to me.

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