Port Of Amsterdam chords by David Bowie

Chords with lyrics

(Port of) AMSTERDAM
Written by Jacques Brel (original lyrics in French, English by David Bowie ? 1972)
As performed by David Bowie

A minorAm                 E minorEm
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who sings
    FF               E MajorE
Of the dreams that he brings from the wide open sea
    A minorAm             E minorEm
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who sleeps
     DmDm     E MajorE         A minorAm
While the river bank weeps to the old willow tree
    C majorC              G+G     E MajorE
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who dies
    A minorAm           E minorEm      E MajorE
Full of beer, full of cries in a drunken town fight
    FF              E MajorE
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who's born
   DmDm    E MajorE      A minorAm
On a hot muggy morn by the dawn's early light

ACOUSTIC: A minorAm

    A minorAm             E minorEm
In the port of Amsterdam where the sailors all meet
     FF          E MajorE
There's a sailor who eats only fish heads and tails
     A minorAm              E minorEm
And he'll show you his teeth that have rotted too soon
     DmDm     E MajorE       A minorAm
That can haul up the sails that can swallow the moon
    C majorC             G+G     E MajorE
And he yells to the cook with his arms open wide
   A minorAm             E minorEm     E MajorE
Hey, bring me more fish throw it down by my side
    FF             E MajorE
And he wants so to belch but he's too full to try
   DmDm      E MajorE       A minorAm
So he stands up and laughs and he zips up his fly


A minorAm                   E minorEm
In the port of Amsterdam you can see sailors dance
     FF               E MajorE
Paunches bursting their pants grinding women to porch
      A minorAm             E minorEm
They've forgotten the tune that their whiskey voice croaked
DmDm      E MajorE       A minorAm
Splitting the night with the roar of their jokes
     C majorC              G+G       E MajorE
And they turn and they dance and they laugh and they lust
     A minorAm          E minorEm   E MajorE
Till the rancid sound of the accordion bursts
     FF              E MajorE
And then out of the night with their pride in their pants
    DmDm       E MajorE    A minorAm
And the sluts that they tow underneath the street lamps

    A minorAm             E minorEm
In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who drinks
    FF              E MajorE
And he drinks and he drinks and he drinks once again
   A minorAm             E minorEm
He'll drink to the health of the whores of Amsterdam
    DmDm     E MajorE      A minorAm
Who've given their bodies to a thousand other men
       C majorC              G+G      E MajorE
Yeah, they've bargained their virtue their goodness all gone
   A minorAm           E minorEm      E MajorE
For a few dirty coins well he just can't go on
      FF           E MajorE
Throws his nose to the sky and he aims it up above
    DmDm      E MajorE     A minorAm
And he pisses like I cry on the unfaithful love
    A minorAm            E minorEm
In the port of Amsterdam, in the port of Amsterdam

FF E MajorE A minorAm -E-Am


"Port of Amsterdam" was first released as B-side of the "Sorrow" single - 1973
Also a live version on "Bowie at the Beeb" - 2000
Original in French: ?Amsterdam? by Jacques Brel - 1961