South of the Border by Robbie Williams

Overview

Key: G Mixolydian · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 20

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Robbie Williams chord annotations (Di Giorgi et al., Politecnico di Milano, 2013). 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

Part 1 (0:01)

• G – C – Em
  I – IV – vi

Part 2 (0:06)

• C – G – C – Em
  IV – I – IV – vi
• C – G (×2)
  IV – I

Part 3 (0:18)

• C – G – C – F – Am – G – C – G
  IV – I – IV – bVII – ii – I – IV – I

Part 4 (0:30)

• C – G – C – F – Am – Em – C
  IV – I – IV – bVII – ii – vi – IV

Part 5 (0:42)

• Em – C – G – C – F
  vi – IV – I – IV – bVII

Part 6 (0:54)

• C – G – C – F (×2)
  IV – I – IV – bVII

Part 7 (1:06)

• G – C – Em – C – G – C – Em
  I – IV – vi – IV – I – IV – vi

Part 8 (1:18)

• C – G (×3)
  IV – I
• C – F
  IV – bVII

Part 9 (1:30)

• Am
  ii
• G – C (×3)
  I – IV
• F
  bVII

Part 10 (1:43)

• Am
  ii
• Em – C (×2)
  vi – IV

Part 11 (1:55)

• G – C – F – C – G – C – F
  I – IV – bVII – IV – I – IV – bVII

Part 12 (2:07)

• C – G – C – F – D – C
  IV – I – IV – bVII – V – IV

Part 13 (2:19)

• D – F – B♭ – G – C – F
  V – bVII – bIII – I – IV – bVII

Part 14 (2:31)

Same chords as Part 6 (0:54).

Part 15 (2:43)

• Gm – C (×2)
  i – IV

Part 16 (2:55)

Same chords as Part 15 (2:43).

Part 17 (3:07)

Same chords as Part 15 (2:43).

Part 18 (3:19)

Same chords as Part 11 (1:55).

Part 19 (3:31)

• C – G – C – F
  IV – I – IV – bVII

Part 20 (3:43)

• F
  bVII

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Robbie Williams chord annotations (Di Giorgi et al., Politecnico di Milano, 2013). Chord annotation of the original recording (Life Thru a Lens, 1997), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Life Thru a Lens, 1997), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• 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.