Yesterday When I Was Young

Am7            D7
Yesterday when I was young

                      Gmaj7                Cmaj7
The taste of love was sweet as rain upon my tongue;

                   F#m7                  B7
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game

                      Em         B+             E7
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame.


                       Am7                             D7
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned--

                  Gmaj7                      Cmaj7
I always built to last on weak and shifting sand;

                     F#m7                      B7
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day,

               Em           B+        E7
And only now I see how the years ran away.


       Am7            D7
Yesterday when I was young,

               Gmaj7                   Cmaj7
So many happy songs were waiting to be sung,

                Am7                        B7
So many wayward pleasures lay in store for me,

                    Em             B+        E7
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see.


                   Am7                           D7
I ran so fast that time and youth, at last, ran out,

                    Gmaj7                   Cmaj7
I never stopped to think what life was all about;

                Am7                 B7
And ev'ry conversation I can now recall

                      Em      B+               E7
Concerned itself with me, and nothing else at all.


      Am7               D7
Yesterday the moon was blue,

                Gmaj7                       Cmaj7
And ev'ry crazy day brought something new to do,

                F#m7                 B7
I used my magic age as if it were a wand,

                  Em         B+          E7
And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond.


                    Am7                       D7
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride,

         Gmaj7   Cmaj7
And ev'ry flame I lit too quickly, quickly died;

                        F#m7                    B7
The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away

               Em       B+               E7
And only I am left on stage to end the play.


                    Am7                      D7
There are so many songs in me that won't be sung,

                   G                      Cmaj7
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue;

                          Am7              B7
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday

(N.C.)       Em   Am   Em
When I was young.