The Streets of New York

The Streets of New York - Irish Songs

I was 18 years old

Went down to dublin with a fistful

Of money and a cartload of dreams

Take your time said me father

Stop rushing like hell

Remember all is not what it seems to be

There's fellas what cut you for coat on you back

Watch changing I from your mother

So take care me young bucko

And mind yourself well

Give this we note to me brother

At the time uncle benjy was a policeman in brooklyn

Father the youngest looked time to the farm

And a phonecall from america said

Send the lad over

The oul fella said sure wouldn't do any harm

Spent my life working this dirty old ground

For a few pints of porter and the smell of a pound

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 at kennedy and a big yellow taxi

Carried me and my bags through the streets and the rain

Well me poor heart was thumpin around with excitement

Hardly even heard what the driver was saying

The man in the shore parkway to the faltlands of brooklyn

Uncle's apartment on the east 53

I was feeling so happy I was humming a song

Sang you're as free as a bird

To shorten the story what

I found out that day

Is benjy are 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

I phoned up the old fella told him the news

Tell he hardly stand up in his shoes

And he wept as he told me

Go ahead with the plans

Try not to forget be a proud irish man

So I went to nellies beside fordham road

Started to learn about lifting the load

But the heaviest thing that I carried that year

The bittersweet thoughts of my hometown so dear

Went home that december 'cause the old fella died

Had to borrow the money from phil on the side

All the bright flowers and brass couldn't hide

Poor wasted face of the father

Sold up the old farmyard for what it was worth

Into my bag stuck a handful of earth

I caught me a train boarded a plane

Found myself back in the us again

It's been 22 years since

I've set foot in dublin

Me kids know to use the correct knife and fork

I'll never forget the green grass and the rivers

As I keep law and order in the streets of new york