Originally in D, I play in A
Sparse
| A | E | A | E |
| A |
| I got my first real six-string |
| E |
| Bought it at the five-and-dime |
| A |
| Played it till my fingers bled |
| E |
| Was the summer of ‘69 |
Band enters
| A |
| Me and some guys from school |
| E |
| Had a band and we tried real hard |
| A |
| Jimmy quit, Jody got married |
| E |
| I shoulda known we’d never get far |
| F#m | E |
| Oh when I | look back now |
| A | D |
| The summer seemed to | last forever |
| F#m | E |
| And if I | had the choice |
| A | D |
| Yeah I’d always | wanna be there |
Hang on “best” (every time)
| F#m | E |
| Those were the | best days of my life |
| A | E |
| A |
| Ain’t no use in complainin’ |
| E |
| When you got a job to do |
| A |
| Spent my evenings down at the drive-in |
| E |
| And that’s when I met you, yeah |
| F#m | E |
| Standin’ on your | mama’s porch |
| A | D |
| You told me that you’d | wait forever |
| F#m | E |
| Oh, and when you | held my hand |
| A | D |
| I knew that it was | now or never |
| F#m | E |
| Those were the | best days of my life |
| A | E |
| Oh | yeah |
| A | E | |
| Back in the summer of | ’69, o | h |
| C | F |
| Man we were | killing time |
| G | F | |
| We were | young and restless, we | needed to unwind |
| C | F | G |
| I guess | nothin’ can last for | ever, forever, no |
Sparse again
| A | E | A | E |
Band enters
| A |
| And now the times are changin’ |
| E |
| Look at everything that’s come and gone |
| A |
| Sometimes when I play that old six-string |
| E |
| I think about you and what went wrong |
| F#m | E |
| Standin’ on your | mama’s porch |
| A | D |
| You told me that it’d | last forever |
| F#m | E |
| Oh, and when you | held my hand |
| A | D |
| I knew that it was | now or never |
| F#m | E |
| Those were the | best days of my life |
| A | E |
| Oh | yeah |
| A | E | |
| Back in the summer of | ’69 | , oh |
| A | E | |
| It was the summer of | ’69, oh | yeah |
| A | E | |
| Me and my baby in | ’69, | oh |