Chained and Bound by Otis Redding

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 9

Form: Verse → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Verse → Verse → Verse → Verse

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). 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

Verse 1

• B♭ – E♭
  I – IV
• B♭ – F (×2)
  I – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 3

• B♭ – B♭7 – E♭ – B♭ – F7 – B♭ – F
  I – I7 – IV – I – V7 – I – V

Bridge

• Gm – B♭ (×2)
  vi – I
• F7
  V7

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 5

• B♭ – B♭7 – E♭
  I – I7 – IV
• B♭ – F (×2)
  I – V

Verse 6

• B♭ – E♭ (×2)
  I – IV

Verse 7

Same chords as Verse 6.

Verse 8

• B♭ – E♭
  I – IV

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to E♭.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0678, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.