Need some help!

[TJE]

Need some help! I believe this is the first time I've ever seen this! Chord progression is
G C D A Am F G! The F sounds good....but can someone explain what and why this is working?

Thanks!

[DupleMeter]

Looks like the key of G Major to me. So it's the bVII. It can be realized through the Aeolean mode (natural minor) or from the pentatonic minor scale. It's what's known as modal interchange, which is a fancy name for borrowing a chord from another scale.

Not strange at all. In fact, along with the bVI, it's pretty common.

HTH

[rick-slo]

Does not sound great to me. A little better with a Fm6.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by TJE

Need some help! I believe this is the first time I've ever seen this! Chord progression is
G C D A Am F G! The F sounds good....but can someone explain what and why this is working?

Thanks!

Assuming the key is G (i.e., that G "sounds like home") the F is the bVII.

It sounds good because you've heard it countless times before. You can't have learned many rock songs yet if you've never seen a bVII chord! bVII chords are standard in rock music, and pretty common in folk and country too (also in jazz, but they're used a little differently there).
IOW, no rule is being broken here; a rule is being followed.

In a G major context, F is said to be "borrowed from the parallel minor", or from parallel mixolydian. (I.e., it makes sense supposedly because it comes from G minor or G mixolydian.)

You have another out of key chord in that sequence: A major. This is more unusual (in the way it's used) than F.
IOW, a common occurrence of A major in key of G is to lead to D, in which case it's called a "secondary dominant". In this case it's leading away from D, which is a little unusual. However, there is a voice-leading line which helps link the D-A-Am sequence: D-C#-C (running down the 2nd string in the normal cowboy chord shapes).

What's the song?

[TJE]

https://youtu.be/vAS5sbt-8yE

Link to the song....thanks for the help! I'm mainly an old country or old gospel player.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by TJE

https://youtu.be/vAS5sbt-8yE

Link to the song....thanks for the help! I'm mainly an old country or old gospel player.

Thanks - nice song!

The actual order of the chords is more revealing (although still a little strange).

The main part of the song is simply G and D (key obviously G, btw).
In the bridge it goes to C and back to G, and then - in a conventional country (and jazz) move - it goes to A.
So far, so traditional, and we're expecting the A to go to D eventually and lead us back to G. (That's the normal role of a secondary dominant - to lead on to a diatonic chord (D) in this case.)
Instead we get that F thrown in after just a bar or two of A. Then G follows the F before it gets to the D that the bridge (back with tradition) ends on.

But it's obviously not a case of a songwriter not knowing what he's doing! It may be that on that line ("stayin out late") he wanted a chord to make you prick your ears up, and he certainly wanted to break the cheesy old tradition of leading the A directly into the D.

The interesting element which might explain it is the melody. He sings (mostly) a G note - the keynote - over the C chord in the bridge, and then the same note over both the A and F chords. It makes the 7th on the A, and the 9th on the D. It's as if he's thinking "what other chords can I play against that G note?" (other than G and C). He could have gone for a less interesting (diatonic) Em, or Am7, or an even more surprising Eb major, but that would have really derailed the sequence. A works well, as the usual chord at that point in the bridge - and then F is just quirky enough to catch your ear without being too disturbing.

Main melody note: G    G    G    D    B
                 |C---|C---|C---|G---|G---|

                  G     G    B    A    C
                 |A7---|F---|G---|D---|D7---|

The second line mirrors the first nicely, in that the first descends, from G to D and on down to B, while the second goes all the way down from A to C. It would have been a standard cliche to hold that high A across both D chords, as a peak of tension (even to rise up to the C), but that melodic descent to the 7th is a characteristically laconic deflation. He's a laid-back dude, that's what he's telling us here, just as he is by adding an unnecessary bar of G in that first line: that's the kind of guy Willie is: takes his time, no rush.

[TJE]

Jon, thanks! I was hoping for an explanation like you gave !

Tony

[Dryfly]

Thanks for providing me with a new song.
It's very clever and I'm already working on it although in a different key.

[TJE]

Always liked the song! It was one of Willie's last number one hits!....if memory serves me correctly ☺️