A   D D A
o-oh-ooohh

A   E E A
o-oh-ooohh

[verse 1]

A
Changing strings,
D
And banging on things
A                          E
A couple of girls from the school
A
Would listen to KISS
D
With rockets for fist
A           E         A
Acting like Saturdays fool

A
Learned how to smoke,
D
Told dirty jokes
A                             E
Talked about loose girls from Rome
A
I made out with most of them
D
So I raised a toast to them
A          E            A
Especially now that I'm old

[pre-chorus 1]

            D                         A          E  
And they're 45 with husbands who don't like their wives
D                 A         E
3 or 4 kids, make enough to survive
D
In their paper mill jobs
A
While their teen heartthrobs
E
Are playing in bands
E
Or they're dead

[chorus 1]

         A
Can I go back to when
D
I was the winner
A
Way before the rain came
E
And washed away the sinners
A
Everyone was something and
D                         E
Nothing was done right or wrong-ooh

[intro riff 2]
A   D D A
o-oh-ooohh

A   E E A
o-oh-ooohh

[verse 2]

A                          D
Smothering the cover of a '69 summer
A                           E
Played through a speaker of fuzz
A                 D
Nobody knew bryan adams wasn't cool
A           E          A
The TV just told me he was

A                      D                    
Always heard the sound get me out of this town
A                      E
Resonating clear on my head
A                       D
Chuck ran away with our gear and the drugs
A          E              A
I'm pretty sure that he's dead

[pre-chorus 2]

        D      
Or he's 46 and alone,
        A         E
Cast the heaviest stone,
D
Suburban cover band 
        A          E
playing bad to the bone
     D
In a bath tub of meth
        A
You can smell your own death
E
you know when you can't look the past in the eye

[chorus 2]

              A
Can I just go back to when
D
I was the winner
A
Way before the rain came
E
And washed away the sinners
A
Everyone was something
D                        E
And I could never do any wrong

[intro riff 3]
A   D D A
o-oh-ooohh

A   E E A
o-oh-ooohh

[N.C or use these chords heavily muted for verse 3]

A
Went back to the woods
D
Where I hid all my goods
A                        E
In a rusted out cadillac door
A
we all get nostalgic
D
And fall for the hat trick
A                E        A
Of thinking it'll be like before

[bridge]

A
Like the football jocks
          G
Trying to please their pops
        A                              G
And the stoners aping everything their bad uncles taught
        A
And the teachers who cared
          G
More than I ever knew,
           A
And knew I played clubs
       G
Let me sleep through school
       A
And my day job boss
             G
Who wrote it up as a loss
           A                         G
But let me leave when i wanted and I never got caught
         A
Sleeping out on the field
       G
In the back of my truck
         A
Breaking into the bars
          G
Steal the beer and getting fucked
     A                  G
By a girl twice my age, making minimum wage
        A
But the tan lines were good
        G
And she had a good face

        A
Is this what I've become
        A
Is this all I've become
        A
When do I become (x6)

[chorus 3]

A
I want to go back to when
D
I was the winner
A
Way before the rain came
E
And washed away the sinners
A
Everyone was someone and
D                        E
And I could never do any wrong

[intro riff 4]
A   D D A
o-oh-ooohh

A   E E A
o-oh-ooohh