This song was first released on the take me to tomorrow album. it is the only album it has been released on.
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 sweeps to the old willow tree
In the port of amsterdam there’s a sailor who dies
Full of beer, full of cries in a drunkin’ down fight
But in the port of amsterdam there’s a sailor who’s bom
On a muggy, hot mom 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 will show you his teeth that have rotted too soon
That can swallow the moon that can haul up the i sails
And he asks to the cook with his amms 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 he laughs, and he zips up his fty
In the port of amsterdam you can see sailors dance
Haunches bursting their pants, binding women to paunch
They’ve forgotten the tune that their whiskey voice croaks
And their splitting the night with the roar of their jokes
And they tum and they dance and they laugh and they lust
To the rats it sounds of the accordion burst
Then he’s out into the night with their pride in their pants
With a slut that they tow undemeath 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
And they darken their bodies, and their virtue long gone
For a few dirty coins
And then when he can’t go on
He plants his nose in the sky
And he wipes it up above
And he spits like to cry for an unfaithful love
In the port of amsterdam, in the port of amsterdam
In the port of amsterdam
Words and music by brel – shuman