The Streets of New York - The Wolfe Tones

I was 18yrs 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’s 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 young 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 phone-call 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 through the flatlands 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 found 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

Never forget be a proud Irishman

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 thought of my hometown so dear

I went home that December 'cause the oul' fella died,

Had to borrow some money from Phil on the side

And all the bright flowers and brass couldn’t hide

The poor wasted face of my father

I sold up the oul' farmyard for what it was worth

And into my bag stuck a handful of earth

Then I caught me a train and I boarded a plane

And I found myself 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 on the streets of New York.