Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 4 · Sections: 10

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Interlude → Verse → Verse → Interlude → Verse → Verse → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. This page shows that transcription as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Intro

• E – Bm7 – Dmaj9 – A (×8)
  I – v7 – bVIImaj9 – IV
• E – Bm7 – A (×4)
  I – v7 – IV

Verse 1

• E – Bm7 – A (×8)
  I – v7 – IV

Verse 2

• E – Bm7 – A (×4)
  I – v7 – IV

Interlude 1

• E – Bm7 – A (×2)
  I – v7 – IV

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 2.

Interlude 2

Same chords as Interlude 1.

Verse 5

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 6

Same chords as Verse 2.

Outro

• E – Bm7 – A (×11)
  I – v7 – IV

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Interlude, Outro
Bm7	v7	Borrowed from E minor	Intro, Verse, Interlude, Outro
Dmaj9	bVIImaj9	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro
A	IV	In the key	Intro, Verse, Interlude, Outro

Harmonic highlights

• Bm7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 97% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.