Important Information
Key- D Major
Temp- 138 BPM
Tuning- EADGBE
Capo- No
Difficulty- Intermediate
Strumming Pattern
Intro
D
Verse 1
D
I got my first real six-string
A
Bought it at the five-and-dime
D
Played it ’til my fingers bled
A
It was the summer of ’69
Verse 2
D
Me and some guys from school
A
Had a band and we tried real hard
D
Jimmy quit, Jody got married
A
I shoulda known we’d never get far
Chorus 1
Bm A
Oh, when I look back now
D G
That summer seemed to last forever
Bm A
And if I had the choice
D G
Yeah, I’d always wanna be there
Bm A D
Those were the best days of my life
Instrumental
D A
Verse 3
D
Ain’t no use in complainin’
A
When you got a job to do
D
Spent my evenin’s down at the drive in
A
And that’s when I met you, yeah
Chorus 2
Bm A
Standin’ on your mama’s porch
D G
You told me that you’d wait forever
Bm A
Oh, and when you held my hand
D G
I knew that it was now or never
Bm A D
Those were the best days of my life
D A D A
Oh yeah Back in the summer of ’69 Ohhh
Bridge
F Bb
Man, we were killin’ time
C
We were young and restless
Bb/D
We needed to unwind
F Bb C
I guess nothin’ can last forever, forever no
Instrumental
D A x2
Verse 4
D
And now the times are changin’
A
Look at everything that’s come and gone
D
Sometimes when I play that old six-string
A
I think about you, wonder what went wrong
Chorus 3
Bm A
Standin’ on your mama’s porch
D G
You told me that it’d last forever
Bm A
Oh, and when you held my hand
D G
I knew that it was now or never
Bm A D
Those were the best days of my life
Outro
D A D A
Oh yeah Back in the summer of ’69 Uh-huh
D A
It was the summer of ’69. Oh yeah
D A
Me and my baby in ’69. Ohhhhh, oh
D A D
It was the summer, summer, summer of ’69
A D A D A
Bryan Adams Summer Of 69 Chords Analysis
Summer of 69 is the pop/rock song sung by Bryan Adams this song is in the key of D Major and he uses 8 chords in this song the 4 chords are diatonic chords which are D Major, G Major, A Major, B minor and other 4 are non-diatonic which are F Major, Bb Major, C Major, Bb/D.
In the intro, he uses only the D chord so you can play it easily.
But in the verse, 2nd Verse, Instrumental part, 3rd Verse, 2nd Instrumental, 4th Verse, and in the outro he uses only the 2 chords in the sequence of 1-5. 1st is the root chord of the scale which is D Major and 5th is the dominant chord of the scale which is A Major.
In the Chorus, 2nd Chorus, and 3rd chorus he uses the 4 Chords in the sequence of 6514.
1st Chord he uses the 6th chord of the scale which is B minor (Sub-dominant)then he moves to the 5th chord A Major because it is the dominant chord of the scale and near the 6th chord then he goes to the first chord which is the root chord of the scale D Major you know 5th chord always resolve to the 1st chord beautifully that’s why he moves to the first chord and later he uses the 4th chord which is the subdominant chord of the scale, G Major. He could use the 6th chord again but he doesn’t use it because he had the choice to use another sub-dominant chord of the scale to make it more unique.
When we listen to the bridge it sounds different than the whole song. A bridge is the most creative part of the song that they create. Let’s break down the chords of the bridge.
At the start of the bridge, they use the F Major chord which is a non-diatonic chord.
Question- Why does he use only F Major why not other
Answer- F Major chord is the diatonic chord and the 3rd chord of the parallel minor key of the D Major.
| Original Key -D E F# G A B C# D | Parallel Minor Key- D E F G A Bb C D |
| Chords | Chords |
| D Major- D+F+A | D minor- D+F+A |
| E minor- E+G+B | E Diminished- E+G+Bb |
| F# minor- F#+A+C# | F Major- F+A+C |
| G Major- G+B+D | G minor- G+B+D |
| A Major- A+C#+ E | A minor- A+C+E |
| B minor- B+D+F# | Bb Major- Bb+D+F |
| C# Diminished- C#+E+G | C Major- C+E+G |
And then he used the Bb Chord which is also the borrowed chord from the parallel minor key. In this key Bb is the 6th chord of the scale. And after that, he uses the c chord which is picked from the parallel minor key to resolving this progression, and to move to the original key he uses the Bb/D chord in the last. because the Bb/D chord contains the D note as the base note which is the root note of the D Major key and moves the song towards the original key.
The Chord Progression of the parallel minor key that they used in bridge becomes-
I hope this article will help you to understand the chords of these songs easily. If you want to learn more songs you then should read our other posts.
