It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World by James Brown

Overview

Key: E♭ minor · Chords used: 5 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Chorus → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → 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♭m – B♭ – D♭7
  i – V – bVII7

Chorus 1

• E♭m – B♭m (×2)
  i – v

Chorus 2

• A♭m – B♭
  iv – V
• E♭m – B♭m (×2)
  i – v

Verse 1

• E♭m – B♭m (×8)
  i – v

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 2.

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 2.

Outro

• E♭m – B♭m (×4)
  i – v

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E♭m	i	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Chorus, Verse, Outro
B♭	V	In the key	Intro, Chorus
D♭7	bVII7	In the key	Intro
B♭m	v	In the key	Chorus, Verse, Outro
A♭m	iv	In the key	Chorus

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.