I'm Waiting for the Man by The Velvet Underground

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 4 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse ×2 → Bridge → Verse → Interlude → 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

• D – G (×4)
  I – IV

Verse 1

• D – G (×4)
  I – IV
• D – F♯ – G – A
  I – III – IV – V
• D – G (×3)
  I – IV

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge

• D – G (×9)
  I – IV

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Interlude

• D – G
  I – IV

Verse 5

Same chords as Verse 1.

Outro

• D – G (×12)
  I – IV

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
D	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Bridge, Interlude, Outro
G	IV	In the key	Intro, Verse, Bridge, Interlude, Outro
F♯	III	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse
A	V	In the key	Verse

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 100% 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.