Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 13

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Pre-Chorus → Interlude → Bridge → Chorus → Tag → Outro → Outro ×2

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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

• F – Dm – F – B♭ – F – Am – B♭ – C
  I – vi – I – IV – I – iii – IV – V

Verse 1

• F – B♭ – F – C – B♭ – C – F – B♭ – F – C
  I – IV – I – V – IV – V – I – IV – I – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 1

• F – Dm – F – B♭ – F – Am – B♭ – C (×2)
  I – vi – I – IV – I – iii – IV – V

Chorus 1

• F – B♭ – F – Am – B♭ – C – F – B♭ – F – C
  I – IV – I – iii – IV – V – I – IV – I – V

Pre-Chorus 2

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Interlude

• F
  I

Bridge

• B♭ – C – F – Dm
  IV – V – I – vi
• B♭ – C (×2)
  IV – V
• Am – Dm – B♭ – C
  iii – vi – IV – V

Chorus 2

• F – B♭ – F – Am – B♭ – C – F – B♭ – Am – B♭ – Gm – C – B♭
  I – IV – I – iii – IV – V – I – IV – iii – IV – ii – V – IV

Tag

• Gm – B♭ – C – F
  ii – IV – V – I

Outro 1

• F – C – F – B♭ – F – C – B♭ – C
  I – V – I – IV – I – V – IV – V

Outro 2

Same chords as Outro 1.

Outro 3

Same chords as Outro 1.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
F	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Interlude, Bridge, Tag, Outro
Dm	vi	In the key	Intro, Pre-Chorus, Bridge
B♭	IV	In the key	Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Tag, Outro
Am	iii	In the key	Intro, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge
C	V	In the key	Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Tag, Outro
Gm	ii	In the key	Chorus, Tag

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 98% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.