Night Life by Willie Nelson

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 18 · Sections: 6

Form: Lead-in → A Section → A Section → B Section → A Section → C Section

Where these chords come from: a chord chart of this song written by a musician and shared on the iReal Pro forums, archived in the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). It's one musician's reading of the song, not a transcription checked against the recording. This page shows that chart 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

Lead-in

• C – Gdim7 – Dm7 – Gaug – C – Gdim7
  I – v°7 – ii7 – V+ – I – v°7

A Section 1

• Dm7 – G9 – C6 – C7 – F – Fm7 – C – A7 – D7 – G7 – C – Gdim
  ii7 – V9 – I6 – I7 – IV – iv7 – I – VI7 – II7 – V7 – I – v°

A Section 2

• Dm7 – G7 – C6 – C7 – F – Fm7 – C – A7 – D7 – G – C6 – A♭7
  ii7 – V7 – I6 – I7 – IV – iv7 – I – VI7 – II7 – V – I6 – bVI7

B Section

• C6 – G7 – C6 – C7 – F7 – C6
  I6 – V7 – I6 – I7 – IV7 – I6

A Section 3

• C6 – G7 – C6 – C7 – F – Fm7 – C – A7 – D7 – G – C – B – B♭
  I6 – V7 – I6 – I7 – IV – iv7 – I – VI7 – II7 – V – I – VII – bVII

C Section

• A7 – D7 – G7 – C6 – F7 – C6 – G9
  VI7 – II7 – V7 – I6 – IV7 – I6 – V9

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Gaug (V+) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• Fm7 (iv7) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• B♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• C7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to F.
• D7 acts as V/V: it resolves to G7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “Night Life (INTRO EACH VERSE)” (credited “Nelson WIllie”, style Blues Ballad) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata.
• Section names: the chart has no section markings, so sections were detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases).
• Chord charts are often written in a key that suits a particular singer or band, so this may not be the key of the original recording.
• About the song: Wikipedia.
• Not verified: only one chart of this song is available, so it hasn't been cross-checked.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.