Rock And Roll I Gave The Best Years Of My Life

I can still remember

When I bought my first guitar,

Remember just how good the feeling

To put it proudly in my car,

And my fam'ly listened fifty times

To my two song repertoire.

I told my mom

Her only son was gonna be a star.

Bought all the Beatles records,

I sounded just like Paul,

I bought all the old Chuck Berry's 78's and all

I sat by my record player

Playing ev'ry note they played.

I watched them all on TV

Making ev'ry move they made.

Rock and roll, I gave you all

The best years of my life

All the dreamy sunny Sundays,

All the moonlit summer nights.

I was so busy in the backroom

Writing love songs to you

While you were changing your direction

And you never even knew

That I was always just one step behind you.

'66 seemed like the year

I was really going somewhere;

We were living in San Francisco

With flowers in our hair,

Singing songs of kindness

So the world would understand,

To the guys and me you were something more

Than just another band.

And then sixty-nine in L. A.

Came around so soon,

We were really making headway

And writing lots of tunes,

And we must have played

The wildest stuff that we had ever played,

And the way the crowds cried out for us,

We thought we had it made.

Rock and roll, I gave you all

The best years of my life,

All the crazy, lazy, young days,

All the magic moon at night.

I was so busy on the road

Singing love songs to you,

while you were changing your direction

And you never even knew

That I was always just one step behind you.

Seventy-one and so alone

When I met Susanne,

I was trying to go it solo

With someone else's band.

She came up to me later

And I took her by the hand,

And I told her all my troubles

And she seemed to understand.

And she followed me through London

Through a hundred hotel rooms,

Through a hundred record companies

Who didn't like my tunes;

She followed me when finally

I sold my old guitar,

She tried to help me

Understand I'd never be a star.

Rock and roll, I gave you

All the best years of my life,

All the dreamy, sunny Sundays,

All the moonlit summer nights,

And though I never knew

The magic of making it with you,

That I thank the Lord for giving me

The little bit I knew,

And I was always just one step behind you