"Watch for the sailor," say frightened old ladies
He's terrorizing the town
Handsome and sprightly though he's nearly ninety
He's never slowing down
The language he'll use when he's been on the booze
The stories he'd tell, well, they'd never choose to listen
But sometimes they glance at their husbands and sigh
For an old salt sea-dog who winks and gives them the eye
verse 2
When we were in dock
We'd flock where the whores go in Rotterdam
In old navy blue
We'd drink to a new love with every dram
And the blousy hostesses in short frilly dresses
The young and old___
They'd seen it before, in peace and in war
They'd been bought and sold
And the bars never close
Till they've taken your money for rotgut booze
And your head hits the ground
And the world's spinning round in a game you lose
And you cry out the pain
But you shell out again for another glass
And you pray that the morning will come
And the ache in your head will pass
verse 3
The ladies display
Every day in the windows of Amsterdam
Whatever your dream
You're the cat with the cream when the shutters slam
And the guilt that you feel when you find it's not real
Is an old, old friend
And you say, "Not again, well maybe, now and then"
Will it never end?
And the bars never close
Till they've taken your money for rotgut booze
And your head hits the ground
And the world's spinning round in a game you lose
And you cry out the pain
But you shell out again for another glass
And you pray that the morning will come
And the ache in your head will pass
verse 4
My salt sailor days are a haze
There's a red light to show the way
When you're battered and bruised
You forget who abused you, that's yesterday
Here on the land with a glass in my hand
If a wish were mine
I'd be back on a ship and I'd take me a trip
To the good old time
Where the bars never close
Till they've taken your money for rotgut booze
And your head hits the ground
And the world's spinning round in a game you lose
And you cry out the pain
But you shell out again for another glass
And you pray that the morning will come
And the ache in your head will pass
For when we were in dock
We'd flock where the whores go in Rotterdam, in Rotterdam, in Rotterdam