Written by: Neil Young
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He came dancing across the water With his galleons and guns Looking for the new world And that palace in the sun On the shore lay Montezuma With his coca leaves and pearls In his halls he often wandered With the secrets of the worlds And his subjects gathered 'round him Like the leaves around a tree In their clothes of many colors For the angry gods to see And the women all were beautiful And the men stood straight and strong They offered life in sacrifice So that others could go on Hate was just a legend And war was never known The people worked together And they lifted many stones And they carried them to the flatlands But they died along the way And they built up with their bare hands What we still can't do today And I know she's living there And she loves me to this day I still can't remember when Or how I lost my way He came dancing across the water Cortez, Cortez What a killer [additional two verses played 2003-04-29, Congress Centrum Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany] The ship is breaking up on the rocks With a sandy beach so close The ship is breaking up on the rocks With a sandy beach so close Dancing across the water Dancing across the water Breaking up on the rocks Sandy beach so close [Original missing verses from the Archives Vol. 2 book] But I floated on the water And I ate that ocean wave Two weeks after the slaughter I was livin’ in a cave If I came too late to get one But there’s no one here to set me free From this rocky grave To the snow-capped ocean wave

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