A    D    A   D  A

[Verse]
                                 D               A
My name is Patrick Russell, I've led a Christian life
                  D                                 E
I speak of family history as it's transcribed by my wife
      D           A            D                E
I sit here in New Hampton, the year is nineteen ten
A                 E            D         E     A
Looking back from Iowa towards mother Ireland

[Verse]
                            D               A
I was born in Templemore in eighteen twenty-five
                 D                       E     D
Recalled a happy boyhood until my mother died
                  A                D            E
Starvation crept across the land, America's our dream
A         E        D                      E      A
Six cruel weeks on stormy seas aboard the ship Tyrene

[Chorus]
         E         D   E
American primitive man
       A       E         D    E
In an American primitive land
  A         E         A      D
I washed my face in a frying pan
 A       E         A
American primitive man

[Verse]
                                        D                    A
At last we docked in old Quebec, the English offered farming ground
                                                D                  E       D
But we'd lived too long under English rule, to United States we're bound
                     A                    D                  E     A
By train and then by cattle boat, ah, the filth down in that hold
          E     D                           E        A     E
We landed in Milwaukee, trekked two hundred miles or more

[Bridge]
                A     E                    A    E
A sack of new potatoes was carried by each man
                     A      E                     A     B7
Four spades for cultivation, we'd brought from Ireland
                       E                     B7              E    B7
We worked at splitting railroad ties, bought one old milking cow
                  E                   B7         E       A
A quarter section uncleared land, two oxen and a plough

[Verse]
                                     D                   A
At night we heard the wolves howl on our newly purchased farm
                                          D              E     D
And starving lads from the civil war took shelter in our barn
                    A            D                E     A
The Larsens and the Cooneys, the Russells, the Molloys
              E       D               E                  A
We tilled the soil of Iowa and grew a spate of girls and boys

[Chorus]
         E         D   E
American primitive man
       A       E         D    E
In an American primitive land
  A       E           A       D
A whiskey still in an oatmeal can
 A       E         A
American primitive man
                E         A
I'm an American primitive man