Rock and roll gave me the best years of my life (the Cats) 
 

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 
  D7                              B7              Em 
I sat by my record player playing ev'ry note they played. 
                                G     A         D 
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, 
       D7                                      B7          Em 
And we must have played the wildest stuff that we had ever played,  
                                            G          A      D 
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;  
    D7                         B7             Em 
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.