Bitter Sweet Symphony (The Verve)

[MartinJ]

I've been messing around with this song (The Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony) off and on for a few days, and I just can't quite hear - and figure out - the intervals or the chord progression.

 

Any hints as to the details of this song?

 

(I'm sure it's pretty simple, but I'm starting to wonder if my ear will ever be up to this sort of task! )

 

As always, thanks!

[Tom Capasso]

I always liked that song. I believe the strings were sampled from an orchestral arrangement of a Stones song (sorry I can't remember the name at the moment). I never thought about the chords....

 

Tom

[bc_dup1]

It was a version of "The Last Time". The Verve hadn't cleared the sample and Andrew Loog Oldham, who owned the Stones royalty rights, ended up with ALL of the songwriting royalties. All the more bizarre when you realise you'd never recognise the tune as being The Last Time from that sample - the real originator of that sample was really the orchestrator.

[MartinJ]

I found this chord progression on a webpage today:

 

E | Bm7 | D | A (over and over)

 

I'm really excited, because I knew that I was hearing chords separated by perfect 5ths (E/B and D/A), and I was pretty sure that the second chord was minor (Bm). I think that my ear is developing afterall!

 

Unfortunately, I had no idea what key it was actually in. ...but I guess that this will come along eventually, too.

[NickT]

I would say that the tune is in the key of A. The progression is:

 

V IIm IV I in the key of A. That makes sense in terms of diatonic harmony.