Tom: Dm
C F G
I can still remember when I bought my first guitar,
C F G
Remember just how good the feeling to put it proudly in my car,
C7 A7 Dm
And my fam'ly listened fifty times to my two song repertoire.
F G
I told my mom her only son was gonna be a star.
C F G
Bought all the Beatles records, I sounded just like Paul,
C F G
I bought all the old Chuck Berry's 78's and all
C7 A7 Dm
I sat by my record player playing ev'ry note they played.
F G C
I watched them all on TV making ev'ry move they made.
C F
Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life
G F C
All the dreamy sunny Sundays, all the moonlit summer nights.
F
I was so busy in the backroom writing love songs to you
G F C
While you were changing your direction and never even knew
G F C
That I was always just one step behind you.
C F G
'66 seemed like the year I was really going somewhere;
C F G
We were living in San Francisco with flowers in our hair,
C7 A7 Dm
Singing songs of kindness so the world would understand,
F G
To the guys and me you were something more than just another band.
C F G
And then sixty-nine in L. A. came around so soon,
C F G
We were really making headway and writing lots of tunes,
C7 A7 Dm
And we must have played the wildest stuff that we had ever played,
F G C
And the way the crowds cried out for us, we thought we had it made.
C F
Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life
G F C
All the crazy, lazy, young days, all the magic moon at night.
F
I was so busy on the road singing love songs to you,
G F C
While you were changing your direction and never even knew
G F C
That I was always just one step behind you.
C F G
Seventy-one and so alone when I met Susanne,
C F G
I was trying to go it solo with someone else's band.
C7 A7 Dm
She came up to me later and I took her by the hand,
F G
And I told her all my troubles and she seemed to understand.
C F G
And she followed me through London, through a hundred hotel rooms,
C F G
Through a hundred record companies who didn't like my tunes;
C7 A7 Dm
She followed me when finally I sold my old guitar,
F G C
She tried to help me understand I'd never be a star.
C F
Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life
G F C
All the dreamy sunny Sundays, all the moonlit summer nights.
F
And though I never knew the magic, of making it with you
G F C
That I thank the lord for giving me the little bit I knew
G F C
And I was always just one step behind you.
