Eyes Of The Immigrant
Composer(s): Eric Andersen
Performer(s): Eric Andersen



They came by day, and they came by night
They came like cattle they were packed so tight
They rolled on the stairways and they slept on the decks
And the only thing they knew was they could not turn back
They came from Sweden and they came from France
They came from up and down along the continent 
They came in floods and they came in waves
They came for glory and they came to escape
Some held their breath in the morning light 
As New York Harbor came into sight
They leaned on the rails and the decks just to see
A statue of a lady known as "Liberty" 
Their hands gripped the rails and their eyes peered up
Some were crying with their eyes; some were crying with their hearts
They were dreaming of the future; they were crying for a chance
Maybe the son of a shipper could even be the president

Chorus: 
Eyes of the healthy and eyes of the lame 
Eyes of the free and the eyes of the chain 
Eyes of the wealthy and eyes of the poor 
Eyes of an Indian who rides nevermore 
Always remember and never forget 
Beneath all the dirt and beneath all the sweat 
Who looked to the future and knew what it meant 
But the hearts and the minds and the souls and the dreams 
In the eyes, eyes of the Immigrant 

Out of Ellis Island they poured like sheep 
Onto the land and into the streets
With their hands on their children and their coats on their backs 
They brought nothing more than they could fit in their sacks
Carpenters, steel workers, firemen, and cops 
Peddled rags full of shoes in all the neighborhood shops
They worked with their hands and they worked with their backs 
Bringin' coal from the ground and puttin' smoke up the stacks
Wave after wave the flood never stopped
Soon the ones on the bottom they rose to the top
They dreamed and they said no matter how its gotten bad
You give to your kids the things that you never had
Be doctors and lawyers and chairmen of the boards
Be the guardians of peace and protectors in the wars
You work with your knowledge and your skills and your minds
Now its everybody's future that you hold in your sights

Chorus

Some tried to settle, some couldn't out of fear
Some kept dreaming of the new frontier
Everybody was convinced they had a place in the sun
That it wasn't what you were so much as what you could become
Everybody's future wasn't everybody's dream
The land could be barren and the streets could be mean
It was a fact in the suburbs and the farms and the shacks 
That you only knew ahead there ain't no room to fall back
This is the land and the home of the free
That's what we want the whole world to believe
Not everybody makes it to the top of the heap 
Some were brought in chains from far across the sea
Some lost their way and some lost track
And some realized that you can't look back
And sometimes you hear it but you don't know where 
The sound of the waves still crashing in your ear

Chorus

Of the immigrant