The Spirit of Radio by Rush

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 8

Form: Instrumental → Verse → Verse → Verse → Verse → Interlude → Instrumental → 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

Instrumental 1

• E – B – G♯m7 – A – B (×2)
  I – V – iii7 – IV – V

Verse 1

• E – B – G♯m7 – A – B (×3)
  I – V – iii7 – IV – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 3

• E – B – G♯m7 – A – B (×2)
  I – V – iii7 – IV – V

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Interlude

• D/F♯ – E/G♯ (×2)
  bVII⁶ – I⁶
• D/F♯
  bVII⁶

Instrumental 2

Same chords as Instrumental 1.

Outro

• E – A – B (×2)
  I – IV – V
• E – A (×2)
  I – IV
• B – E – A – B
  V – I – IV – V

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D/F♯ (bVII⁶) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0105, 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.