Angie | Chords + Lyrics
Intro (0:00)
| Am Am7 | E7 E/G# | Gsus4 Fsus4 F | F Csus4 C Gsus4/B |
Verse 1 (0:19)
| Am Amadd4 | E7 |
Angie, Angie,
| Gsus4 Fsus4 F | Csus4 C G/B |
when will those clouds all disappear?
| Am Amadd4 | E7 |
Angie, Angie,
| Gsus4 Fsus4 F | Csus4 C |
where will it lead us from here?
Chorus 1 (0:45)
| G5 | Dm Am |
With no loving in our souls, and no money in our coats.
| C F | G5 |
You can’t say we’re satisfied.
Chorus tag 1 (0:59)
| Am Amadd4 E7 | E7 Eb E |
but Angie, Angie,
| Gsus4 G Fsus4 F | Csus4 C G/B |
you can’t say we never tried.
Verse 2 (1:14)
| Am Amadd4 | E7 |
Angie, you’re beautiful, yeah.
| Gsus4 G Fsus4 F | Csus4 C G/B |
But ain’t it time we said goodbye.
| Am Amadd4 | E7 |
Angie, I still love you,
| G5 Fsus4 F | Csus4 C |
remember all those nights we cried
Chorus 2 (1:40)
| G5 | Dm Am |
All the dreams we held so close, seemed to all go up in smoke.
| C F | G G5 |
Let me whisper in your ear,
Chorus tag 2 (1:55)
| Am Amadd4 E7 | E7omit3 |
Angie, Angie,
| Gsus4 Fsus4 F | Csus4 C G/B |
where will it lead us from here?
Instrumental 1 (2:08)
| Am Amadd4 | E Eb E7 | Gsus4 Fsus4 F | Csus4 C G/B |
| Am Amadd4 E7 | E7omit3 | Gsus4 Fsus4 F | F C/E G5 C |
Chorus 3 (2:35)
| G5 | Dm Am |
Oh Angie, don’t you weep, all your kisses still taste sweet.
| C F | G G5 |
I hate that sadness in your eyes.
Chorus tag 3 (2:55)
| Am Amadd4 | E7omit3 E5 |
But Angie, Angie,
| G5 Fsus4 F | F C/E G5 C G/B |
ain’t it time we said goodbye?
Instrumental 2 (3:04)
| Am Amadd4 | E7omit3 | Gsus4 Fsus4 F | F C/E G5 C |
Chorus 4 (3:18)
| G5 | Dm Am |
With no loving in our souls, and no money in our coats.
| C F | G |
You can’t say we’re satisfied.
M8 (3:32)
| Dm | Am Amadd4 |
But Angie I still love you baby,
| Dm | Am Asus4 Am Asus2 |
everywhere I look I see your eyes.
| Dm | Am |
There ain’t a woman that comes close to you,
| C F | G G5 |
come on baby dry your eyes.
Chorus tag 4 (4:00)
| Am Amadd4 | E7omit3 |
Angie, Angie,
| Gsus4 Fsus4 F | Csus4 C G/B |
ain’t it good to be alive?
Outro (4:14)
| Am11 | E7 |
Angie, Angie,
| Gsus4 G Fsus4 F | F C/E G5 C |
you can’t say we never tried.
You can learn how to play Angie!
Angie’s chords clearly point to Am as the home chord, making it in the key of Am. Two chords wander outside the key, an E7, and the Fsus4.
E7 is chord IIIx and its job is to point towards Am more clearly than an Em (chord III) would have. Funnily enough, in Angie, we go to E7 after the Am, so backward.
The Fsus4 is chord IV, a chord derived from the Lydian mode. Lydian doesn’t have a 4, it has a #4. Clearly, The Rolling Stones are rock n roll even when it comes to their chord movements!
Another interesting detail about Angie’s chords is how the verse ends on a C chord, this briefly resolves to the relative major of Am, the key of C.
The chorus uses common chords but just like with Am to E7 in the verse, it’s all backward. C – Am – Dm – G, or I – VI – II – V, is one of the most common progressions around. In Angie, we play this backward, like this: G – Dm – Am – C.
The chorus tag’s chords are similar to the verse, although the E7 arrives earlier. The M8 goes somewhere new by starting on a Dm chord. Another chord is present here, the Asus2.
What’s so cool about Angie is how Keith doesn’t just play all these chords but also incorporates little bluesy licks. In fact, these little chord licks are so cool that learning Keith’s part note for note is a great idea.
Below, you find the first guitar lesson from the course where I break down the verse and instrumental sections into 7 examples using TAB and practice loops, enjoy!
Angie guitar lesson | Verse chords, strumming, and TAB
Let’s learn how to play Angie by the Rolling Stones. Use the TAB loops in the playlist above until you can play along perfectly.
Remember to first focus on the rhythm and make the switch from one chord to another smooth. As the TAB show, you may want to use open strings to achieve this.
When you can play it, focus on the fine details of the TAB and aim to hit the same amount of strings as it shows.
Here’s example 1 (first part of the verse).

When you can play the first part of the verse to the TAB loop, move on to the second half, here’s example 2.

Again, first focus on the rhythm of each bar, piecing it together one bar after another. Ensure your transitions sound smooth using the open strings to help you.
Next, we have example 3.

When you can play it, move on to example 4.

Next up, example 5.

Only a few more to go, here’s example 6.

Finally, here’s example 7.

In the next couple of steps, we work our way through the chorus, chorus tag, m8, and of course, the intro and outro of Angie.
Just like you’ve seen above, we break those sections down into smaller chunks and practice the fine details as there is so much to learn from the original recording when you study what Keith actually played note-for-note!
This is then followed by playing the complete song, you’ll get full TAB so you can play along with me and the singer, but we don’t stop there!
Once you can play Angie’s chords as I do in the video at the top of the page, we start working on how to play the vocal melody.
There is so much in the way Mick Jagger phrases using the minor pentatonic over these open-position chords that we can learn from.
Angie really is a masterclass in how to pair minor pentatonic blues melody phrasing, with singer-songwriter, “folk-style” chord movements.
To access all 8 step-by-step guitar lessons, sign up here.
Angie was written three years before Hotel California
Angie is a single by The Rolling Stones, from their 1973 album Goats Head Soup.
Not the most obvious choice for the setlist from the Rolling Stones catalog, Angie is one of those tracks that everybody knows without knowing it! This makes it an excellent choice for the solo or duo acoustic lineup.
If you think it sounds a bit like Hotel California by The Eagles, think again. Hotel California was released three years after Angie.
Reaching #1 in America and #5 in the UK, Angie was the biggest success of the Goats Head Soup album.
So, who is Angie? Some say Angie is a reference to Mick Jagger’s affair with David Bowie‘s girlfriend Angela but Mick has denied this on several occasions.
Mick instead refers to Keith, who actually wrote the song. Keith says he can clearly remember that it had something to do with his daughter who’s named Angela.
Many children of the 70s have been named after this classic Rolling Stones ballad.
Angie chords | Related pages
Angie – 8 guitar lessons
The intro, verse, instrumental, tag, and outro of Angie all use the same chords but vary in rhythm and note choices.
The chorus and m8 have been created using the whole band as inspiration. Once you can play it on one guitar, we move on and play the vocal melody.
Intermediate Acoustic Songs
The intermediate songs can not be played using just basic open-position chords. We have to move up the fretboard and play CAGED barre chords as well.
We incorporate bass lines, licks, extend chords, and even play vocal melodies. Most importantly, we invent 2nd guitar parts and play these songs together.
Angie – 5 similar tunes
- Babylon chords
- Come Together chords
- The Drugs Don’t Work chords
- Tears In Heaven chords
- Wish You Were Here chords
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones is an English band that became popular in the early 60s. Incredibly, the band has stuck together ever since.
They’ve had great success with tunes like Start Me Up, Satisfaction, Wild Horses, Angie, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, and Honky Tonk Women.