God Save the Queen by Sex Pistols

Overview

Key: A major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 15

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Verse ×2 → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Solo → Chorus → Tag → Tag ×2 → 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.

Key changes

• Pre-Chorus 1 moves to E major.
• Chorus 1 moves to A major.
• Pre-Chorus 2 moves to E major.
• Chorus 2 moves to A major.
• Solo moves to F♯ major.
• Chorus 3 moves to A major.

Section by section

Intro

• A – D – A/C♯ – D (×3)
  I – IV – I⁶ – IV
• A
  I

Verse 1

• A – D – A/C♯ – D (×3)
  I – IV – I⁶ – IV
• A
  I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 1

• E – B (×4)
  I – V
• E
  I

Chorus 1

• A – D – A/C♯ – D (×2)
  I – IV – I⁶ – IV
• A – E – A
  I – V – I

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 2

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo

• F♯ – B (×3)
  I – IV
• F♯ – E
  I – bVII

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Tag 1

• D – C♯m – Bm (×3)
  IV – iii – ii
• A
  I

Tag 2

Same chords as Tag 1.

Tag 3

Same chords as Tag 1.

Outro

• A
  I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
A	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Tag, Outro
D	IV	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Tag
A/C♯	I⁶	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Chorus
E	I (in E major)	Home chord (tonic)	Pre-Chorus
B	V (in E major)	In the key	Pre-Chorus
E	V	In the key	Chorus
F♯	I (in F♯ major)	Home chord (tonic)	Solo
B	IV (in F♯ major)	In the key	Solo
E	bVII (in F♯ major)	Borrowed from F♯ minor	Solo
C♯m	iii	In the key	Tag
Bm	ii	In the key	Tag

Harmonic highlights

• E (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, F♯ 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 96% 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.