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.
Show more