I can still remember when I bought my first guitar. 
Remember walking from the shop 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. 

Well, I bought all the Beatle records, I sounded just like Paul. 
I bought all the old Chuck Berry's, seventy eights and all. 
And I sat by my record player, playing ev'ry note they played. 
I watched them all on T.V., I copied ev'ry more they made. 

Oh 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 back room 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. 

Well, sixtysix seemed like the year I was really going somewhere, 
I was living in San Francisco wearin' flowers in my hair, 
singing songs of kindness so the world would understand, 
the guys and me thought we were more than just another band. 

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. 

Seventyone I was all alone when I met Sarah Jane, 
I was trying to go it solo with someone else's band. 
And she came up to me softly and she took me by the hand, 
she listened to my problems and she seemed to understand. 

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. 
I thank the Lord with my country songs, doin' what I'm gonna do 
when I was always just one step behind you. 

And she followed me to London to a hundred hotel rooms, 
to a hundred [bad word] who didn't like my tunes. 
She followed me back to Tennessee, where she finally made me see, 
I'm just a plain old country boy, and that's all I'll ever be.