Lyrics to
Amsterdam

This version of Amsterdam was released by John Denver in 1970.

Our Decade Lyrics John Denver profile has all of the Amsterdam lyrics from 1970 and many more songs from the John Denver discography that we have on file.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to John Denver or about the 1970s in general.

In the port of Amsterdam, there’s a sailor who sings
of the dreams that he brings from the wide open seas.
In the port of Amsterdam, there’s a sailor who sleeps
while the riverbank weeps through the old willow trees.
In the port of Amsterdam, there’s a sailor who dies full of beer,
full of cries in a drunken down fight.
In the port of Amsterdam, there 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 sail.
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 he laughs, and he zips up his fly.

In the port of Amsterdam, you can see sailors dance,
haunchs bursting their pants, grinding women to paunch.
They’ve forgotten the tune that their whisky voice croaked,
and they’re spitting the night with the roar of their jokes.
And they turn and they dance, and they laugh and they lust
to the rancid sound of the accordian’s burst.
then it’s out into the night with their pride in their pants
and a slut 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.
And they bargain their bodies and their virtue, long gone,
for a few dirty coins, and when he can’t go on,
he plants his nose in the sky and we wipes it up above
then he splits like I cry for an unfaithful love,
in the port of Amsterdam, in the port of Amsterdam, in the port of Amsterdam.

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John Denver has released many songs over the years besides Amsterdam. John Denver released songs from 1969 to 1998 spanning across albums like Rhymes And Reasons, Take Me To Tomorrow, Whose Garden Was This?, Poems, Prayers And Promises, Aerie, Rocky Mountain High, Farewell Andromeda, Back Home Again, Rocky Mountain Christmas, An Evening With John Denver, Windsong, Spirit, I Want To Live, A Christmas Together, John Denver, Autograph, Some Days Are Diamonds, Seasons Of The Heart, Rocky Mountain Holiday, It's About Time, Dreamland Express, One World, Higher Ground, The Flower That Shattered The Stone, Christmas, Like A Lullaby, Different Directions, All Aboard!, and Forever, John. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by John Denver.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1970 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Amsterdam by John Denver

The lyrics to Amsterdam are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that John Denver used when the song was created in 1970. The lyrics to Amsterdam have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only John Denver and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Amsterdam by John Denver. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Amsterdam" means the words set to the music of Amsterdam, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by John Denver. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Amsterdam and the lyrics to Amsterdam are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of John Denver who came here looking just for the lyrics to Amsterdam, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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