In the port of Amsterdam There's a sailor who sings Of the dreams that he brings From the wide open sea In the port of Amsterdam There's a sailor who sleeps While the river bank weeps To the old willow tree
In the port of Amsterdam There's a sailor who dies Full of beer, full of cries In a drunken town fight In the port of Amsterdam There's a sailor who's born On a hot muggy morn By the dawn's early light
In the port of Amsterdam Where the sailors all meet There's a sailor who eats Only fish heads and tails And he'll show you his teeth That have rotted too soon That can haul up the sails That can swallow the moon
And he yells to the cook With his arms open wide 'Hey, bring me more fish Throw it 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 to porch They've forgotten the tune That their whiskey voice croaked 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 accordion bursts And then out of the night With their pride in their pants And the sluts that they tow Underneath 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 He'll drink to the health Of the whores of Amsterdam Who've given their bodies To a thousand other men Yeah, they've bargained their virtue Their goodness all gone For a few dirty coins Well he just can't go on Throws his nose to the sky And he aims it up above And he pisses like I cry On the unfaithful love