Rock and roll gave me the best years of my life

D G A
I can still remember when I bought my first guitar,
D G A
Remember just how good the feeling to put it proudly in my car,
D7 B7 Em
And my fam'ly listened fifty times to my two song repertoire.
G A
I told my mom her only son was gonna be a star.
D G A
Bought all the Beatles records, I sounded just like Paul,
D G A
I bought all the old Chuck Berry's 78's and all
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I sat by my record player playing ev'ry note they played.
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I watched them all on TV making ev'ry move they made.

D G
Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life
A G D
All the dreamy sunny Sundays, all the moonlit summer nights.
G
I was so busy in the backroom writing love songs to you
A G D
While you were changing your direction and never even knew
A G D
That I was always just one step behind you.

D G A
'66 seemed like the year I was really going somewhere;
D G A
We were living in San Francisco with flowers in our hair,
D7 B7 Em
Singing songs of kindness so the world would understand,
G A
To the guys and me you were something more than just another band.
D G A
And then sixty-nine in L. A. came around so soon,
D G A
We were really making headway and writing lots of tunes,
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And we must have played the wildest stuff that we had ever played,
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And the way the crowds cried out for us, we thought we had it made.

D G
Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life
A G D
All the crazy, lazy, young days, all the magic moon at night.
G
I was so busy on the road singing love songs to you,
A G D
While you were changing your direction and never even knew
A G D
That I was always just one step behind you.

D G A
Seventy-one and so alone when I met Susanne,
D G A
I was trying to go it solo with someone else's band.
D7 B7 Em
She came up to me later and I took her by the hand,
G A
And I told her all my troubles and she seemed to understand.
D G A
And she followed me through London, through a hundred hotel rooms,
D G A
Through a hundred record companies who didn't like my tunes;
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She followed me when finally I sold my old guitar,
G A D
She tried to help me understand I'd never be a star.

D G
Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life
A G D
All the dreamy sunny Sundays, all the moonlit summer nights.
G
And though I never knew the magic, of making it with you
A G D
That I thank the lord for giving me the little bit I knew
A G D
And I was always just one step behind you.