Chords + Lyrics | Don’t Look Back In Anger
Intro
| C | F/C C/F | C | F Fsus2 C/E |
Verse 1
||: C G | Am E | F G | C A5 G5 :||
Slip inside the eye of your mind, don’t you know you might find, a better place to play.
You said that you’d never been, but all the things that you’ve seen, slowly fade away.
Bridge 1
||: F Fm | C Csus2 :||
So I start a revolution from my bed.
‘Cause you said the brains I had went to my head.
Step outside, summertime’s in bloom.
| G | G6/G# |
Stand up beside the fireplace, take that look from off your face
| Am G | F (E F E F E F E) | G | G |
You ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out.
Chorus 1
| C G7 | Am E | F G | C A5 G5 |
And so Sally can wait, she knows it’s too late, as we’re walking on by.
| C G7 | Am E | F G |
Her soul slides away, but don’t look back in anger, I heard you say.
Instrumental (as verse)
| C G | Am E | F G | C A5 G5 |
Verse 2
Take me to the place where you go, where nobody knows, if it’s night or day.
But please don’t put your life in the hands, of a rock and roll band, who’ll throw it all away.
Bridge 2
I’m gonna start a revolution from my bed.
‘Cause you said the brains I had went to my head.
Step outside ’cause summertime’s in bloom.
Stand up beside the fireplace, take that look from off your face.
‘Cause you ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out.
Chorus 2
||: C G | Am E | F G | C A5 G5 :||
And so Sally can wait, she knows it’s too late, as she’s walking on by.
My soul slides away, but don’t look back in anger, I heard you say.
Solo (as bridge)
||: F Fm | C Csus2 :|| x3
| G | G6/G# | Am G |
| F (E F E F E F E) | G | N.C |
Chorus 3 (same as chorus 2)
So Sally can wait, she knows it’s too late, as we’re walking on by.
Her soul slides away, but don’t look back in anger, I heard you say.
Chorus 4 (half)
| C G | Am E | F G | C A5 G5 |
So Sally can wait, she knows it’s too late, as she’s walking on by.
Outro
| C G | Am | F | Fm | Fm |
My soul slides away, but don’t look back in anger. Don’t look back in anger.
| C G | Am E | F G | C |
I heard you say. At least not today.
Don’t Look Back In Anger Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Don’t Look Back In Anger. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, horns, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
I’ve also tuned the backing track as the original was sharp. Should you want to play to the original recording, you must tune your guitar to 451Hz, my free tuner can do this for you.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
The chords are almost perfectly diatonic to the key of C and seemingly simple as they can mostly be played using open-position chords.
However, strumming them well on just one acoustic guitar does present several problems, you could easily overdo it and end up sounding annoying.
As I was transcribing Don’t Look Back In Anger, I found several ways to make it sound nice.
As this is best described using TAB, I provide this for you further down this guitar lesson.
Adjusted to work on just one guitar, I had to make some modifications to what you see above using chords and lyrics. For example, the intro is a combination of the piano and guitar parts from the original recording.
Once you’ve checked the TAB, reading Don’t Look Back In Anger‘s intro chords will make complete sense as they outline the intervals, like this:
| C | F/C C/F | C | F Fsus2 C/E |
As you listen to this intro, you may realise it’s blatantly stolen from John Lennon‘s Imagine!
As the verse starts, we settle in on the groove and play these chords:
||: C (I) G (V) | Am (VI) E (IIIx) |
| F (IV) G (V) | C (I) A5 (VI) G5 (V) :||
The last part of that verse reminds me of David Bowie’s Starman but maybe that’s because I’m now looking out for things Noel has stolen, it’s not even the same chords…
For the bridge, we play this chord progression on repeat:
||: F (IV) Fm (IVm) | C (I) Csus2 :||
That IV chord major to minor is a classic, the Beatles used it in Something, for example, I don’t know why I keep thinking of other songs when I hear Oasis…
One extremely original chord you find in Don’t Look Back In Anger is the G6/G# – which is not stolen! Here it is with the other bridge chords:
| G (V) | G6/G# |
| Am (VI) G | F (IV) (E F E F E F E) | G | G |
Here’s the chord chart you also find in the backing track videos.
Don’t Look Back In Anger Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Should you want to download my chord chart, here’s a PDF: Don’t Look Back In Anger chord chart PDF.
This was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: Don’t Look Back In Anger iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
However, if you change the key, it won’t sound like the original, you need those open-position chords, and especially that extremely unique chord Noel came up with himself.
Don’t Look Back In Anger | TAB
Let’s go through some TABs on how to play each section of Don’t Look Back in Anger, starting with the intro.
I’ve named the third chord Fmaj7sus2 because, if you examine all the intervals, you’ll find no 3rd—only the root, 2nd, 5th, and the major 7th.
Here’s the verse. Notice how the strumming is broken up and doesn’t always play full chord shapes. Using Roman numerals, the movement is I – V – VI – IIIx, then IV – V – I. The final A5 and G5 are VI – V.
Next, let’s look at the chorus. Here, we play the full chords and even follow the melody on the G chord. Technically, you could describe it as G7 – G – G7 – G6, but that’s a lot of names for what’s essentially a melodic movement within the chord.
Most importantly, notice how the strumming changes from the verse. It now uses more strings to create a fuller sound.
We also have a bridge, which actually comes before the chorus—but since they’re so similar, I’ve grouped them together.
The bridge moves from F – Fm – C – Csus2. This is called voice leading, where individual notes move smoothly from one to the next: A – Ab – E – D. Here’s the TAB:
After the repeated part, we go to chord V (a G), followed by a unique chord I can best describe as G6/G#. Check all intervals to understand why it’s named that way.
The F to E change works well when you include the 5th in the F chord. What might seem like the least important part is actually quite significant—the final two bars.
In those final bars, notice how we avoid playing the top string. The open B string becomes the highest note. This sets up a noticeable lift when the chorus returns, as we go from B (open B string) to G (the 5th of the C chord).
This is a classic example of the millennial whoop—a melodic shift from the 5th to the 3rd of a chord. Katy Perry uses this in California Gurls, where the guitar plays an F and the vocal alternates between C and A, creating a full F triad.
We definitely can’t accuse Noel of theft here—he released Don’t Look Back in Anger years before millennial pop stars took over.
Oasis’s biggest hit
As Oasis’ 2nd most widely known song (after Wonderwall), Don’t Look Back In Anger was off their incredibly successful second album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?.
Released in 1995, it would come to define the Brit-pop era and spark a fan rivalry between Oasis and Blur, comparable to that of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in the ’60s.
It would also take Oasis from a celebrated U.K. indie band to worldwide recognition.
Even though Wonderwall is a more well-known song, Don’t Look Back In Anger charted higher at #1, with Wonderwall reaching #2.
Both songs contributed to the 22 million sales the album achieved.
Don’t Look Back In Anger Chords: Continue Learning
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