ROCK AND ROLL (I Gave You the Best Years Of My Life) (Kevin Johnson)
Kevin Johnson, Mac Davis, Johnny Devlin
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
Sixty-six 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 LA 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 to 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