This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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 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
I sounded just like Paul
I bought all the old Chuck Berry's - 78's and all
I sat by my record player
Playing every note they played
I watched them all on TV
Making every 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
When I bought my first guitar
Remember just how good the feeling
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
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 every note they played
I watched them all on TV
Making every 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
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Rock and Roll Lyrics as written by Robert Plant Jimmy Page
Lyrics © Edition JA, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Royalty Network, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave, Peermusic Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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