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

Well I bought all the Beatles records, sounded just like hall
Or Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry's, seventy-eight in all
And I sat by my record player playing every note they played
I watched them all on TV, copied every move they made.

Oh, Rock'n'Roll I gave you all the best years of my life
All the teeny sunny Sundays, all the moonless summer nights
I was so busy in the bed room, 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.

Well, sixty-six seemed like the year I was really goin' somewhere
I was living in San Francisco wearing flowers in my hair
Singing songs of kindness so the world would understand
The guys and me thought wer were more than just another band.

Oh, Rock'n'Roll I gave you all the best years of my life
All the crazy, lazy young days, all the magic moony 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 I was all alone when I met Sarah-Jane
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
She listened to my problems 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 back to Tennessee where she findly made me see
I'm just a plain old Country boy and that's all I'll ever be.

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 I'm making it with you
I'm getting along with a Country song doing what I wanna do
When I was always just one step behind you.