Amsterdam Chords

(Port of) AMSTERDAM
Written by Jacques Brel (original lyrics in French, English by David Bowie – 1972)
As performed by David Bowie
 
[Verse 1]
Am                                 Em
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who sings
       F                              E
Of the dreams that he brings from the wide open sea
       Am                          Em
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who sleeps
          Dm         E                  Am
While the river bank weeps to the old willow tree
       C                           G          E
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who dies
        Am                      Em            E
Full of beer, full of cries in a drunken town fight
       F                           E
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who's born
     Dm        E           Am
On a hot muggy morn by the dawn's early light
 
[Instrumental]
Am
 
[Verse 2]
       Am                          Em
In the port of Amsterdam where the sailors all meet
          F                    E
There's a sailor who eats only fish heads and tails
          Am                           Em
And he'll show you his teeth that have rotted too soon
         Dm          E              Am
That can haul up the sails that can swallow the moon
       C                          G         E
And he yells to the cook with his arms open wide
     Am                           Em         E
Hey, bring me more fish, throw it down by my side
       F                          E
And he wants so to belch but he's too full to try
      Dm            E             Am
So he stands up and laughs and he zips up his fly
 
[Verse 3]
Am                                      Em
In the port of Amsterdam you can see sailors dance
         F                              E
Paunches bursting their pants, grinding women to porch
           Am                         Em
They've forgotten the tune that their whiskey voice croaked
Dm            E              Am
Splitting the night with the roar of their jokes
         C                            G              E
And they turn and they dance and they laugh and they lust
         Am                    Em      E
Till the rancid sound of the accordion bursts
         F                           E
And then out of the night with their pride in their pants
        Dm              E        Am
And the sluts that they tow underneath the street lamps
 
[Verse 4]
       Am                          Em
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who drinks
       F                           E
And he drinks and he drinks and he drinks once again
      Am                         Em
He'll drink to the health of the whores of Amsterdam
       Dm          E           Am
Who've given their bodies to a thousand other men
              C                             G            E
Yeah, they've bargained their virtue, their goodness all gone
      Am                       Em            E
For a few dirty coins, well he just can't go on
           F                      E
Throws his nose to the sky and he aims it up above
       Dm            E          Am
And he pisses like I cry on the unfaithful love
       Am                        Em
In the port of Amsterdam, in the port of Amsterdam
 
F  E  Am  E Am
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