Standard (EADGBE)

Yesterday when I was young,

The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue

I teased at life as if it were a foolish game

The way the evening breeze may tease the candle flame

The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned

I always built to last on weak and shifting sand

I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day

And only now I see how the time ran away

Chorus

Yesterday when I was young

So many lovely songs were waiting to be sung

So many wild pleasures lay in store for me

And so much pain my eyes refused to see

I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out

I never stopped to think what life was all about

And every conversation that I can now recall

Concerned itself with me and nothing else at all

The game of love I played with arrogance and pride

And every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died

The friends I made all somehow seemed to slip away

And only now I'm left alone to end the play, yeah

Chorus

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

I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue

The time has come for me to pay for yesterday

When I was young