The Streets Of New York chords by Brier

SimplifiedG · C · Em · D · Am

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Intro 1

Verse 1
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I was
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eighteen years old
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C 
when I went out to Dublin
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Em 
With a fistful of money
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and a cartload of dreams
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C 
Take your time, said me father,
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stop rushing like hell
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And remember,
Em 
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all's not what it seems to be
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For those fellas would cut you
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for the cones on your back
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Or the watch that you got from your mother
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So take care, my young bucko,
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and mind yourself well
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D 
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Will you give this sweet note to me, brother?
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At the time Uncle Benji
Am 
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was a policeman in Brooklyn
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And my father, the youngest,
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D 
looked after the farm
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C 
Then a phone call from America
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C 
said send the lad over
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Em 
And the old fella said sure it
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wouldn't do any harm
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For I spent my life working
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this dirty old ground
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For a few pints of porter
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and a spell off a pound
And sure baby there's
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something you'll learn
or you'll see
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G 
Em 
And you can bring it back home,
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make it easy on me
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C 
So I landed at Kennedy
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and a big yellow taxi
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Carried me and me bags
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D 
through the streets and the rain
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Well me poor heart was pumping
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around with excitement
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Em 
And I hardly even heard
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what the driver was saying
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We came in the short parkway
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to the flatlands
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to my uncle's apartment on East 53rd,
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I was feeling so happy, I was humming a song,
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and I sang you this Brie Elsie Bird.
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Well, it's short in the story,
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what I found out that day,
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was that Benji got shot
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in a downtown parade.
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Am 
C 
And while I was flyin'
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my way to New York
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Em 
For revenge he was lyin'
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in a cold city morgue
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Well I phoned up the old fella,
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told him the news
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I could tell he could hardly
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stand up in his shoes
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And he wept as he told me
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go ahead with the plan
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And sure not to forget,
Em 
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C 
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D 
be a proud Irish man
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Am 
So I went up to Nelly's
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beside Fordham Road
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Em 
And I started to learn
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about lifting the load
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Am 
But the healthiest thing
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that I carried that year
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Em 
Was the bittersweet thoughts
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of my hometown so dear
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I went home that December
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cause the old fella died
Had to borrow the money
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from fella on the side
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C 
And all the bright flowers
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and grass couldn't hide
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The poor wasted face of me father
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I sold off the old farmyard
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for what it was worth
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C 
D 
And into my bag stuck a handful of herb
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Then I boarded a train
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and I caught me a plane
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And I found myself back
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in the U  .S. again
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It's been 22 years since
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I set foot in Dublin
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The kids know to use the
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D 
correct knife and fork
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But I'll never forget
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C 
the green grass and the rivers
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Em 
As I keep law and order
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in the streets of New York
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Am 
la -la -la, la -la -la
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la -la -la
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la -la la -la...