#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------# #This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the # #song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. # #------------------------------------------------------------------------------# The Gift by Jerry Jeff Walker In a boarding house, I'd lay upstairs, And dream of how I'd live someday Downstairs there sat, a man who had A guitar he never learned to play For my thirteenth birthday, grandma bought the guitar Told me I should learn how to play And the gift she gave me changed me 'Cause the music is the main thing, That got me to this point here today Chorus: And I was lucky, 'cause I used her gift To get in touch with how to live And looking back I now realize, music changed my life Just out of school, I had no clue Of what it was I'd like to do I only know, the open road Was the way I chose to pass on through I took that guitar with me, down the lonesome highway And I began my search for a song And somewhere in the distance, the music and the mystery Of how I would live come along Chorus (Last line different) (That music saved my life, music became my life) As time went by, I found that I Could climb up on the stage and sing But when I sang, the songs I wrote It became a very special thing But songs to me were personal And the business side just killed me And I withdrew inside my shell With the contracts and the lawsuits I started heavy drinking, 'Til I finally lost touch with myself Bridge: I guess playing music for money brought problems That I didn't face very well Being self-taught gave me nothing to lean on I had to look in myself I took a year off and did some fasting Just to clean the cobwebs out And I went back to Grandma's guitar Just to hear a simple sound When I look around me, I saw my loving family And a home we had built on a hill I discoverd the music had led me to the one place Where my heart and soul are re-filled Chorus: (Different last lines) Music saved my life, yeah, music really saved my life Yes, music really saved my life