The Place is in the Song.


Wherever in the world I went

I never encountered such a mess as in old Amsterdam
Well situated on the IJ
They live there free and happy

Rumbling in polished tins
Strange birds with their joints
Clouds of smoke from their mouths
As if they were running on oil fuel
Chewing quickly with their teeth
No parking spaces left

And there you stand on the sidewalk
Sliding through the dog poop
Yeah, it's busy enough on the street and in the pub
Where Fat Jan gulps down his beer
And the jukebox screams merrily

His wife is having her first contraction
In a small room in the WG
The baby looks like his father
It turns out to be a caesarean section of a meter or two
Amsterdam, hurray!

[Chorus]
Big city
Big city
Big, big city
You're so pretty

Hare Krishnas on the dam
Pushing in your hand a little note on how you can live a happy life
By the looks of it, and I think they aren't that happy themselves
The herring man stands at his spot
With a pale, distorted face
Just eat it up now, sir
With those fumes from the traffic
I'm really not kidding you

Is it smoked eel?

And there stands an Arab, eating fries with great pleasure
Fried in, that's interesting, the oil from his homeland
An Englishman is shockingly stuck between the doors of the tram

A lady like a fairy in a big BMW
Do you want to race off the sidewalk?
She's probably a prostitute with her man on unemployment benefits
Amsterdam, holadié

[Chorus]
Big city
Big city
Big, big city
You're so pretty

And Thorbecke shakes his head, sees them go and sees them come
Hanging at the full bar they quench their great thirst at the barmaid's bare breast
The community center is shaking when the guitars scream there
Because the beat band from the neighborhood has rented a hall there again
Uncle Jaap is tearing his accordion in two downstairs

Aunt Jans in the bistro is eating endive out of a pot
Where the trams scream around the corner as if she's skinning cats
And you stretch your weary body otherwise you'll get cold and stiff

With all those people crammed together you sometimes think "I want out of here"
Walking shivering alone in your bare buttocks
No, that's not easy either

Amsterdam, holadié

[Chorus / Outro]
Big city
Big city
Big, big city
You're so pretty

Big city
Big city
Big, big city
You're so pretty
 
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