I can still remember when I bought my first guitar
Remember just how good the feeling, put it proudly in my car
And my family 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, sounded just like Paul
Bought all the old Chuck Berry’s, seventy-eights and all
And I sat by my record player playing every note they played
I watched them all on tv, making every move they made.
Rock’n’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
But you were changing your direction and I never even knew
That I was always just one step behind you.
Sixty-six seemed like the year I was really goin’ somewhere
We were living in San Francisco with flowers in our hair
Singing songs of kindness so the world would understand
That the guys and me were something more than just another band.
Sixty nine in Memphis came around so soon,
We were really making headway and writing lots of tunes,
And we must have played the wildest stuff that we would ever play,
The way the crowds called out for us we thought we had it made.
Rock’n’Roll I gave you all the best years of my life
All the crazy, lazy young days, all the magic moonlit nights
I was so busy on the road, singing love songs to you
But you were changing your direction and you never even knew
That I was always just one step behind you.
Seventy one in Soho was when I met Suzanne,
I was trying to go it solo with someone else’s band
When she came up to me softly and she took me by the hand
And I told her all my trouble and she seemed to understand.
And she followed me to London to a hundred hotel rooms
To a hundred record companies who didn’t like my tunes
And she followed me when finally I sold my old guitar
And she tried to help me understand I’d never be a star
Oh, Rock’n’Roll I gave you all the best years of my life
All the teeny sunny Sundays, all the moonless summer nights
Oh, I never knew the magic of making it with you
Thank the Lord for giving me the little bit I knew
When I was always just one step behind you.