[Verse] I had twenty more summers Before I knew your name Twenty years of photographs Before I found my frame I knew roads You'd never traveled Songs you never heard before But the night you took my hand None of that mattered anymore People counted all the distance Like love could be measured out But you looked at me across that room And there was never any doubt [Chorus] I don't care who got here first Or how many years went by Before your road crossed into mine Underneath that August sky We can't choose when love arrives We only choose what happens next So give me every morning Give me whatever years we get (Whatever years we get) [Instrumental interlude] [String quartet gently expands around the fingerpicked guitar] [Verse] Maybe I'll remember records That were old before your time Maybe I tell you all my stories And you smile at different lines You tease me when I call you stubborn You laugh when I forget the keys Then we sit outside till midnight With your hand resting on my knee And someday I'll walk beside you A little slower than today If twenty years comes calling It won't scare my heart away [Chorus] I don't care who got here first Or how many years went by Before your road crossed into mine Underneath that August sky We can't choose when love arrives We only choose what happens next So give me every morning Give me whatever years we get (Whatever years we get) [Bridge] [Arrangement drops to exposed guitar and cello; gritty lead vocal moves close and intimate] I know what you're afraid of Though you hardly say the words That someday you'll still be standing When my voice can no longer be heard But don't spend tomorrow grieving For a goodbye that hasn't come Tonight you're here beside me Tonight we're still two becoming one And if our clocks were started Twenty pages far apart I'd still choose this shorter story If every page held your heart [String quartet rises into a sweeping cinematic crescendo] [Chorus] I don't care who got here first I don't care who leaves someday I'd rather have one life beside you Than a hundred years another way We can't bargain with forever We can't know what waits ahead So give me every sunrise Give me whatever years we get (Whatever years we get) [Final Chorus] [Full string quartet blooms; warm acoustic guitar and restrained drums support a raw, breaking vocal] And when our hair has changed its color And my steps don't match your pace Please slow down and walk beside me Like there's nowhere else to race No, love never asked our ages Love just asked us both for yes So take my hand and grow old with me For whatever years we get (Whatever years we get) (I'll take every one) [Outro] [Percussion disappears; solo violin answers the fingerpicked guitar as the quartet slowly fades] I had twenty years before you I hope we have Twenty more And if we don't I'll still be grateful You were mine [Soft cello resolution] [end]
