| [Verse 1] |
| D |
| I got my first real six-string |
| A |
| Bought it at the five-and-dime |
| D |
| Played it 'til my fingers bled |
| A |
| It was the summer of '69 |
| |
| [Verse 2] |
| D |
| Me and some guys from school |
| A |
| Had a band and we tried real hard |
| D |
| Jimmy quit, Joey got married |
| A |
| I shoulda known we'd never get far |
| |
| [Chorus 1] |
| Bm A |
| Oh, when I look back now |
| D G |
| That summer seemed to last forever |
| Bm A |
| And if I had the choice |
| D G |
| Yeah, I'd always wanna be there |
| Bm A D |
| Those were the best days of my life |
| |
| [Instrumental] |
| (D) A |
| |
| [Verse 3] |
| D |
| Ain't no use in complainin' |
| A |
| When you got a job to do |
| D |
| Spent my evenin's down at the drive in |
| A |
| And that's when I met you |
| |
| [Chorus 2] |
| Bm A |
| Standin' on your mama's porch |
| D G |
| You told me that you'd wait forever |
| Bm A |
| Oh, and when you held my hand |
| D G |
| I knew that it was now or never |
| Bm A D |
| Those were the best days of my life |
| (D) A D A |
| Oh yeah Back in the summer of '69 Ohhh |
| |
| [Bridge] |
| F Bb |
| Man, we were killin' time |
| C |
| We were young and restless |
| Bb |
| We needed to unwind |
| F Bb C |
| I guess nothin' can last forever, forever no |
| |
| [Instrumental] |
| D A x2 |
| |
| [Verse 4] |
| D |
| And now the times are changin' |
| A |
| Look at everything that's come and gone |
| D |
| Sometimes when I play that old six-string |
| A |
| I think about you, wonder what went wrong |
| |
| [Chorus 3] |
| Bm A |
| Standin' on your mama's porch |
| D G |
| You told me that it'd last forever |
| Bm A |
| Oh, and when you held my hand |
| D G |
| I knew that it was now or never |
| Bm A D |
| Those were the best days of my life |
| |
| [Outro] |
| (D) A D A |
| Oh yeah Back in the summer of '69 Uh-huh |
| |
| D - A |
| (All the way to the end) |
| |