Rock and roll (I gave you the best years of my life) (1974)

 

    C - Am - Dm - G - C

 

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1.   I can still remember when I      bought my first guitar,

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    remember       just how good the feeling was, put it proudly in my car.

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    And my family listened fifty times to my two song repertoire,

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    and I told my mum her only son was      gonna be a star.

 

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2. Bought all the Beatle records,      sounded just like Paul,

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    bought all the old Chuck Berry’s,      78’s and all.

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    And I sat by my record player, playin’ every note they played,

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    and I watched them all on TV, makin every move they made.

 

C                                                      F

    Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life,

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all the dreamy sunny Sundays, all the moon-lit summer nights.

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I was so busy in the back room writin’ love songs to you,

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while you were changin’ your direction, and you never even knew,

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that I was always, just one step behind you.

 

   C                                                     F               G

3.    ‘66 seemed like the year I was really goin’ somewhere,

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   we were living in San Francisco, with flowers in our hair,

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    singing songs of kindness so the world would understand,

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    that the guys and me were something more than just another band.

 

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4.   And then ’69 in LA,        came around so soon,

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    we were really making headway and writing lots of tunes.

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    And we must have played the wildest stuff we had ever played,

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    the way the crowds cried out for us, we thought we had it made.

 

+ CHORUS

 

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5.    ’71 in Soho,      when I saw Suzanne,

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    I was trying to go it solo,     with someone else’s band.

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    And she came up to me later and I took her by the hand,

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    and I told her all my troubles and she seemed to understand.

 

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6. And she followed me through London, through a hundred hotel rooms,

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    through a hundred record companies who didn’t like my tunes,

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    and she followed me when, finally, I sold my old guitar,

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    and she tried to help me understand, I’d never be a star.

 

+ CHORUS

 

       C                                                F

    Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life,

     G                                                  F                       C

    singing out my love songs in the brightly flashing lights.

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    And though I never knew the magic of makin’ it with you,

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    thank the Lord for giving me the little bit I knew. + CHORUS ....

 

(orig. = capo 1st)    (Kevin Johnson)