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
