Shock the Monkey by Peter Gabriel

Overview

Key: D minor · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 10

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Instrumental → Verse → Bridge → 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

• Dm
  i

Verse 1

• Dm
  i

Chorus 1

• C – Dm
  bVII – i

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge 1

• D5 – C5 – Dm – C5 – Csus4 – Dm – C – Csus4 – B♭ – Csus4 – Dm
  I5 – bVII5 – i – bVII5 – bVIIsus4 – i – bVII – bVIIsus4 – bVI – bVIIsus4 – i

Instrumental

• Dm
  i

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 2

• D5 – C5 – Dm – Csus4 – Dm – C – B♭ – C – Dm
  I5 – bVII5 – i – bVIIsus4 – i – bVII – bVI – bVII – i

Outro

• F – Am/E – Dm7 (×2)
  bIII – v⁶₄ – i7
• Dm – F – Am/E – Dm
  i – bIII – v⁶₄ – i

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0092, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.