Yesterday When I Was Young

Em F#7 Bm

Em                           A7
It seems the love I've known
                D                      G
Has always been the most destructive kind
Em
I guess that's why now
F#7
I feel so old
Bm
Before my time

[Chorus]

     Em              A7
Yesterday when I was young
                      D                     G
the taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue
                    Em                    F#7
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
                    Bm
the way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame

[Verse]

                      Em                             A7
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
               D                            G
I always built to last on weak and shifting sand
                     Em                            F#7
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of the day
               Bm
and only now I see how the years ran away

[Chorus]

     Em              A7
Yesterday when I was young
              D                         G
so many happy songs were waiting to be sung,
                Em                      F#7
so many wild pleasures lay in store for me
                 Bm
and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see

[Verse]

                   Em                         A7
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out
                   D                       G
I never stopped to think what life was all about
                Em               F#7
and every conversation I can now recall
                      Bm
concerned itself with me and nothing else at all

[Instrumental Break]

Em A7 D G Em F#7 Bm

[Chorus]

     Em                A7
Yesterday the moon was blue
                D                            G
and every crazy day brought something new to do
               Em                   F#7
I used my magic age as if it were a wand
                   Bm
and never saw the waste and emptiness beyond

                   Em                        A7
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
                  D                       G
and every flame I lit too quickly quickly died
                       Em                      F#7
The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away
                   Bm
and only I am left on stage to end the play

                 Em                         A7
There are so many songs in me that won't be sung
                  D                      G
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue
                     Em                 F#7                Bm
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday when I was young