It was my first night in that rooming house   In the last room down the hall   I heard a hoarse voice and an old guitar   Coming through the paper thin walls      A crazy nonsense nursery rhyme   That did not mean a thing   But for the first of what was to be a thousand times   This is what I hear him sing      Hold that D chord on the old guitar   'Til I found the G   Drop it down to old E minor   'Til the A chord rolls back home around to D      I had to lay there listening   It seemed he was in the room   This stranger with his melody   Singing there in the gloom      And he repeated it over and over again   Such a soft and sinkin' sound   It was kind of like a music box   That was slowly winding down      You see, he sang it, he hummed it   Whistled it, and he strummed it   He laughed it and he cried it   He did everything but hide it      And he sang   Hold that D chord on the old guitar   'Til I found the G   Drop it down to old E minor   'Til the A chord rolls back home around for me      So I lay there in that lumpy bed   Countin' choruses instead of sheep   'Til I banged on the wall and out I called   "Hey bub, I need some sleep"      The sudden void of silence   Then I heard that hoarse voice say   "It weren't so long ago, boy   They paid me to play "      I said, "It's kind of late for music, sir   Two hours 'til it's daylight"   He answered, "I need my music most   In these dark hours of the night      You see I've tried gettin' high on something son   But it only brings me down   Staying dry don't work out better, boy   'Cause my eyes get wet and I drown      Won't you please let me continue   And I'll be in your debt?   You see I'm not singing to remember, son   I'm just singing to forget"      And he sang   Hold that D chord on the old guitar   'Til I found the G   Drop it down to old E minor   'Til the A chord rolls back home around for me      That's when I said   "If I'm supposed to listen to you sir   Just one quick question then   Why in the hell do you sing one song   Over and over again?"      And this is what he said   He said, "I gave her the music, son   She gave me the words   Together we'd write the kind of songs   The angels must have heard      Of course we'd fight like cats and dogs   But life ain't no rosebud dream   Still whatever we'd do everybody knew   We truly were a team      I can't remember now if I done her wrong   Or if she done wrong to me   But all I know that when I let her go   That it did not set me free''      That's when I said, "You sound like what's-his-name"   He said, "That's who I am   But you can't wrap a name around you, boy   'Cause it really don't mean a damn"      "You see, a song don't have much meaning   When it don't have nothing to say   What she could do was magic, son   All I could do was play"      He started singing again   That's when I drifted off   Maybe I dreamed what I heard   'Bout this stranger with his melody   Who'd gone and lost the words      Hold that D chord on the old guitar   'Til I found the G   Drop it down to old E minor   'Til the A chord rolls back home around to D