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The Dutchman

(Michael Smith)



The Dutchman's not the kind of man

Who keeps his thumb jammed in the dam

That holds his dreams in

But that's a secret that only Margaret knows



When Amsterdam is golden in the summer]

Margaret brings him breakfast

She believes him

He thinks the tulips bloom beneath the snow

He`s mad as he can be but Margaret only sees that sometimes

Sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes



CHO: Let us go to the banks of the ocean

Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee

Long ago, I used to be a young man

And dear Margaret remembers that for me



The Dutchman still wears wooden shoes

His cap and coat are patched with the love

That Margaret sewed in

Sometimes he thinks he's still in Rotterdam

He watches tug boats down canals

And calls out to them when he thinks he knows the Captain

'Til Margaret comes to take him home again

Through unforgiving streets

That trick him though she holds his arm

Sometimes he thinks that he's alone and calls her name



The windmills whirl the winter in

She winds his muffler tighter,

They sit in the kitchen

Some tea with whiskey keeps away the dew

He sees her for a moment, calls her name

She makes the bed up humming some old love song

A song Margaret learned when the tune was very new

He hums a line or two, they hum together in the night

The Dutchman falls asleep and Margaret blows the candle out.

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Steve Goodman - My Old Man Lyrics



I miss my old man tonite

And i wish he was here with me

With his corny jokes and his cheap cigars

He could look you in the eye and sell you a car.

That's not an easy thing to do,

But no one ever knew a more charming creature

On this earth than my old man.



He was a pilot in the big war in the u.s. army air corps

In a c - 47 with a heavy load

Full of combat cargo for the burma road.

And after they dropped the bomb

He came home and married mom

And not long after that

He was my old man.



And oh the fights we had

When my brother and i got him mad;

He'd get all boiled up and he'd start to shout

And i knew what was coming so i tuned him out.

And now the old man's gone, and i'd give all i own

To hear what he said when i wasn't listening

To my old man'



I miss my old man tonite

And i can almost see his face

He was always trying to watch his weight

And his heart only made it to fifty-eight.

For the first time since he died

Late last night i cried.

I wondered when i was gonna do that

For my old man.

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