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This tune is a favorite around the camp file and especially of Eberwulf. The lyrics are an English version of Jacques Brel's Amsterdam as sung by David Bowie on 'Bowie at the Beeb - the best of the BBC sessions 68-72'.
after David Bowie
Port of Amsterdam, The
by Jacques Brel
In the port of Amsterdam, there's a sailor who sings
Of the dreams that he brings from a wide open sea
And in the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who sleeps
While the river bank weeps to the old willow tree
And in the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who dies
Full of beers full of cries in a drunken down fight
And in the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who is born
On the hot muggy morn by the dawns early light
In the port of Amsterdam where the sailors all meet
There's a sailor who eats only fish heads and tails
He'll show you his teeth that have rotted too soon
That can haul up the sails that can swallow the moon
And he'll yell to the cook with his arms open wide
Oh bring me more fish though it's down by my side
And he wants so to belch but he's too full to try
So he stands up and laughs and he zips up his fly
In the port of Amsterdam you can see sailors dance
Paunches bursting their pants grinding women's with paunch (?)
They've for- gotten the tune that their whiskey voice croaks
Splitting the night with the roar of their jokes
And they turn and they dance and they laugh and they lust
Till the rancid sound of the ac- cordion bursts
And then out of the night with their pride in their pants
And the slut that they tow under- neath the street lamps
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who drinks
And he drinks and he drinks, and he drinks once again
Oh he drinks to the health of the whores of Amsterdam
Who have given their bodies to a thousand other men
It's their worth and their goodness; their virtues all gone
For the few dirty coins when he just can't go on
Throws his nose to the sky and he aims it up above
And he pisses like I cry for an unfaithful love
In the port of Amsterdam
In the port of Am- ster- dam
Of the dreams that he brings from a wide open sea
And in the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who sleeps
While the river bank weeps to the old willow tree
And in the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who dies
Full of beers full of cries in a drunken down fight
And in the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who is born
On the hot muggy morn by the dawns early light
In the port of Amsterdam where the sailors all meet
There's a sailor who eats only fish heads and tails
He'll show you his teeth that have rotted too soon
That can haul up the sails that can swallow the moon
And he'll yell to the cook with his arms open wide
Oh bring me more fish though it's down by my side
And he wants so to belch but he's too full to try
So he stands up and laughs and he zips up his fly
In the port of Amsterdam you can see sailors dance
Paunches bursting their pants grinding women's with paunch (?)
They've for- gotten the tune that their whiskey voice croaks
Splitting the night with the roar of their jokes
And they turn and they dance and they laugh and they lust
Till the rancid sound of the ac- cordion bursts
And then out of the night with their pride in their pants
And the slut that they tow under- neath the street lamps
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who drinks
And he drinks and he drinks, and he drinks once again
Oh he drinks to the health of the whores of Amsterdam
Who have given their bodies to a thousand other men
It's their worth and their goodness; their virtues all gone
For the few dirty coins when he just can't go on
Throws his nose to the sky and he aims it up above
And he pisses like I cry for an unfaithful love
In the port of Amsterdam
In the port of Am- ster- dam