Standard (EADGBE)
It was the year of our father nineteen hundred and seventy six in JA,
when I first met my Mary, quite contrary to what my mother did say.
She was a mountain girl come to Spanish town, I was only there for a while,
but when I think back on all the love we shared I just can't but help to smile.
We spent one whole long year together and at the end I had to go.
By my Mary's side I wept and cried, I'd never been laid so low.
She said "Boy when you first met me you were as green as a mango tree
oooo, now you are a man go back to your land, but first listen carefully"
Chorus
you can smoke two pounds of cali herb by yourself
and try to stand on your head
no matter how high you get you'll never forget
the wonders of Mary's bed.
Now my Mary's sweet smell was in my nose and vision it robbed me blind.
And as I crossed the sea it occured to me that i'd left myself behind.
She was my natural mystic sweet sugar plumb I still ask why did I go
They say your first loves your hardest love, and I'd have to say that's so.
And it's a day and another day and a way and another way
Had a family once, but they're gone
And it don't strike me as weird there's grey in my beard
but the words still linger on.
Chorus
The song continues like that, I'm not gonna bother tabbing the last verse,
you can figure it out yourself.
Except for the last line:
You never know what you've got in this cruel world
until you realize it's gone.