Riders on the Storm by The Doors

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Chorus → Verse → Solo → Verse → Solo → Interlude → Chorus → Outro

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

Intro

• Em – D/E (×4)
  i – bVII (bass E)

Chorus 1

• Em – D/E (×3)
  i – bVII (bass E)
• Em – Am – Bm/A – C/A – D/A
  i – iv – v (bass A) – bVI (bass A) – bVII⁶₄
• Em – D/E (×2)
  i – bVII (bass E)
• Gmaj7/D – D – C – Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E
  bIIImaj⁴₃ – bVII – bVI – i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E)

Verse 1

• Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E (×2)
  i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E)
• Am – Bm/A – C/A – D/A
  iv – v (bass A) – bVI (bass A) – bVII⁶₄
• Em – D/E (×2)
  i – bVII (bass E)
• Gmaj7/D – D – C
  bIIImaj⁴₃ – bVII – bVI
• Em – D/E (×2)
  i – bVII (bass E)

Solo 1

• Em – Am – Bm/A – C/A – D/A
  i – iv – v (bass A) – bVI (bass A) – bVII⁶₄
• Em – D/E (×2)
  i – bVII (bass E)
• Gmaj7/D – D – C
  bIIImaj⁴₃ – bVII – bVI
• Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E (×2)
  i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E)

Verse 2

• Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E (×2)
  i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E)
• Am – Bm/A – C/A – D/A – Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E – Gmaj7/D – D – C – Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E
  iv – v (bass A) – bVI (bass A) – bVII⁶₄ – i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E) – bIIImaj⁴₃ – bVII – bVI – i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E)

Solo 2

• Em – D/E (×3)
  i – bVII (bass E)
• Em
  i

Interlude

• Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E (×4)
  i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E)

Chorus 2

• Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E (×2)
  i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E)
• Am – Bm/A – C/A – D/A – Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E – Gmaj7/D – D – C – Em – F♯m/E – G/E – F♯m/E
  iv – v (bass A) – bVI (bass A) – bVII⁶₄ – i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E) – bIIImaj⁴₃ – bVII – bVI – i – ii (bass E) – bIII (bass E) – ii (bass E)

Outro

• Em
  i

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F♯m/E (ii (bass E)) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0945, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Not verified: another expert transcription (the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University)) differs in places from this one, so this page isn't marked verified.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.