Streets of New York - The Wolfe Tones

I was 18 years old when

I went down to Dublin with a fistful

Of money and a cartload of dreams

"Take your time" said me father

Stop rushing like hell

And remember all is not

What it seems to be

For there's fellas

Would cut ye for the coat on yer back

Or the watch that you got from your mother

So take care me old bucko

And mind yourself well

And will ya give this wee note to me brother

At the time Uncle Benjy

Was a policeman in Brooklyn

And me father the youngest

Looked after the farm

When a phonecall from America said

'Send the lad over'

And the oul fella said

Sure wouldn't do any harm' for

I've spent me life

Working this dirty old ground

For a few pints of porter

And the smell of a pound

And sure maybe there's something

You'll learn or you'll see

And you can bring it back home

Make it easy on me

So I landed in Kennedy

And a big yellow taxi

Carried me and me bags through

The streets and the rain

Well me poor heart was thumpin

Around with excitement

And I hardly even heard

What the driver was sayin

We came in the Shore Parkway

To the faltlands of Brooklyn

To me Uncle's apartment on East 53rd

I was feeling so happy

I was humming a song

And I sang "You're as free as a bird"

Well to shorten the story

What I foiund out that day was

That Benjy got shot down in an uptown foray

And while I was flying my way to New York

Poor Benjy was lying in a cold city morgue

Well I phoned up the old fella told him the news

I could tell he could

Hardly stand up in his shoes

And he wept as he told me

'Go ahead with the plans

And not to forget be a proud Irish man'

So I went to Nellies beside Fordham road

And i started to learn about lifting the load

But the heaviest thing that I carried that year

Was the bittersweet

Though of my hometown so dear

I went home

That December cause the oul fella died

Had to borrow the money

From Phil on the side

And all the brught flowers

And brass couldn't hide

The poor wasted face of me father

I sold up the oul farmyard for

What it was worth and into my bag stuck

A handful of earth

Then I boarded a train

And I caught me a plane

And I found meself back in the US again

It's been 22yrs since

I've set foot in Dublin

Me kids know to use the correct knife and fork

But I'll never forget the green grass

And the rivers

As I keep law and order in the streets of New York