Amsterdam

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 riverbank 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

And in the port of Amsterdam

There's a sailor who's born

On a muggy hot 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

He will show you his teeth

That have rotted too soon

That can swallow the moon

That can haul up the sails

And he yells to the cook

With his arms open wide

"Bring me more fish

Put it down by my side"

And he wants so to belch

But he's too full to try

So he gets 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

Then, out of the night

With their pride in their pants

With 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 drinks to the health

Of the whores of Amsterdam

Who have promised their love

To a thousand other men

They've promised their bodies

And their virtues all gone

For a few dirty coins

Well, he can't go on

He pressed his nose in the sky

Points it up above

And he pisses like I cry

For an unfaithful love

In the port of Amsterdam

In the port of Amsterdam

• Artist:Mort Shuman
• Album:Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording)