A significant song about aging by Clancy and Makem. WITH VIDEO.
This past week I visited a long-term-care facility. It is always a poignant experience, and I was reminded of the moving song called “The Dutchman.” Here is something many people liked, a post from May 8, 2017 featuring a song performed by Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem. You can listen to the video by clicking on the picture that appears below the lyrics.
THE DUTCHMAN Music and lyrics by Michael Peter Smith
The Dutchman is not the kind of man / who keeps his thumb jammed in the dam / that holds his dreams in, / that’s a secret that only Margaret knows.
When Amsterdam is golden in the morning / Margaret brings him breakfast, / she believes him / (he thinks the tulips bloom beneath the snow).
He’s mad as he can be, / Margaret only sees that sometimes, / sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes.
Let us go to the banks of the ocean / where the walls rise above the Zuider Zee. / 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 there / (sometimes he thinks he’s still in Rotterdam).
He watches the tug-boats down the canals / and calls out to them / when he thinks he knows the captain.
Margaret comes to take him home again / through unforgiving streets that trip him / she holds his arm / (sometimes he thinks he’s alone and he calls her name).
Let us go to the banks of the ocean / where the walls rise above the Zuider Zee. / Long ago I used to be a young man, / and dear Margaret remembers that for me.
The winters whirl the windmills ‘round, she winds his muffler tighter, / they sit in the kitchen, some tea with whiskey keeps away the dew. / He sees her for a moment , he calls her name.
She makes the bed up singing some old love song, / she learned it when the song was very new, / he hums a line or two, they hum together in the dark. / The Dutchman falls asleep / and Margaret blows the candles out.
Let us go to the banks of the ocean / where the walls rise above the Zuider Zee. / Long ago I used to be a young man, / and dear Margaret remembers that for me.
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