AmG
In the port of Amsterdam, there's a sailor who sings
FE
of the dreams that he brings from the wide open seas.
AmG
In the port of Amsterdam, there's a sailor who sleeps
FEAm
while the riverbank weeps through the old willow trees.
CG
In the port of Amsterdam, there's a sailor who dies
AmE
full of beer, full of cries in a drunken down fight.
FEm
In the port of Amsterdam, there a sailor who's born
FEAm
on a muggy hot morn, by the dawn's early light.
AmG
In the port of Amsterdam, where the sailors all meet,
FE
there's a sailor who eats only fish heads and tails.
AmG
He will show you his teeth that have rotted too soon
FEAm
that can swallow the moon, that can haul up the sail.
CG
And he yells to the cook with his arms open wide,
AmE
bring me more fish, put it down by my side.
FEm
And he wants so to belch, but he's too full to try
FEAm
so he gets up and he laughs, and he zips up his fly.
AmG
In the port of Amsterdam, you can see sailors dance,
FE
haunches bursting their pants, grinding women to paunch.
AmG
They've forgotten the tune that their whisky voice croaked,
FEAm
and they're spitting the night with the roar of their jokes.
CG
And they turn and they dance, and they laugh and they lust
AmE
to the rancid sound of the accordion's burst.
FEm
then it's out into the night with their pride in their pants
FEAm
and a slut that they tow underneath the street lamps.
AmG
In the port of Amsterdam, there's a sailor who drinks.
FE
and he drinks, and he drinks, and he drinks once again.
AmG
He drinks to the health of the whores of Amsterdam
FEAm
who have promised their love to a thousand other men.
CG
And they bargain their bodies and their virtue, long gone,
AmE
for a few dirty coins, and when he can't go on,
FEm
he plants his nose in the sky and we wipes it up above
FEAm
then he splits like I cry for an unfaithful love,
EmAmEm
in the port of Amsterdam, in the port of Amsterdam, in the port of Amsterdam.
This arrangement for the song is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the song. You may only use this for private study, scholarship, or research.