Honky Tonk Women | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: N.C | N.C :||
||: G | G :||
Verse 1
| G | G | C F/A | C |
I met a gin-soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis.
| G | A (Asus4) | D G/B | D |
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride.
| G | G | C F/A | C |
She had to heave me right across shoulder.
| G | D | G | G |
‘Cause I just can’t seem to drink you off my mind.
Chorus 1
| G | D | G | G |
It’s the honky tonk women.
| G | D | G | G |
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.
Verse 2
| G | G | C F/A | C |
I laid a divorcée in New York City.
| G | A (Asus4) | D G/B | D |
I had to put up some kind of a fight.
| G | G | C F/A | C |
The lady then she covered me with roses.
| G | D | G | G |
She blew my nose and then she blew my mind.
Chorus 2
| G | D | G | G |
It’s the honky tonk women.
| G | D | G | G |
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.
Solo
| G | G | C F/A | C |
| G | A (Asus4) | D G/B | D |
| G | G | C F/A | C |
| G | D | G | G |
| G | D | G | G |
Chorus 3
| G | D | G | G |
It’s the honky tonk women.
| G | D | G | G |
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.
| G | D | G | G |
It’s the honky tonk women
| G | D | G | G |
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.
Honky Tonk Women Chords: Learn the progressions
What you see above, using chords and lyrics is simplified as perfectly naming Honky Tonk Women‘s chords would quickly get out of hand, it’s better to keep it simple.
Over a G chord, Keith plays minor and Major Pentatonic licks. Should I have named that as a chord, it would have read something like G13#9, which doesn’t feel right when playing a Rolling Stones tune!
The F/A, leading to a C is a must, and so is the D – G/B – D, as well as the Asus4. Here are all of Honky Tonk Women’s verse chords:
| G | G | C F/A | C |
| G | A (Asus4) | D G/B | D |
| G | G | C F/A | C |
| G | D | G | G |
In the chorus, you should probably honky tonk, using the 6 extensions like Chuck Berry does in Johnny B. Goode. I mean, the title clearly hints at it!
Simplified, the chorus is just this:
||: G | D | G | G :||
If you stick Honky Tonk Women on repeat and play all chords you’ll soon start working out Keith’s licks, they’re pretty awesome, so write them down, before you start inventing your own, aiming to play Honky Tonk Women a little bit differently every time.
This song is still played by indie rock cover bands the world over, it sits perfectly next to other Stones classics like Brown Sugar and Satisfaction, as well as Beatles tunes like Back In The U.S.S.R, Get Back and I Saw Here Standing There.
Remarkably, Honky Tonk Women feels right at home next to more modern material such as Last Nite and Are You Gonna Be My Girl as well.
Honky Tonk Women was inspired by Brazilian strippers!
This Rolling Stones classic was released in 1969 as a single and later included on the album Let It Bleed.
Famous cover versions include those made by Tina Turner, Humble Pie, Elton John, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Joe Cocker.
Inspired by Brazilian lap dancers which Mick and Keith encountered whilst on holiday, Honky Tonk Women hit the top 5 in the charts in fifteen countries and has gone on to become one of the band’s best-known songs.
Famously, it was the last song Brian Jones recorded with the band during the demo stage, later to be replaced by Mick Jones for the official recording. Strangely, it was released the day after Brian mysteriously died.
If you want to play along with the original recording you will need to tune your guitar sharp, to 454 Hz, rather than the standard 440.
The boys must have either sped up the tape or forgotten their tuner!
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They’ve had great success with tunes like Start Me Up, Satisfaction, Wild Horses, Angie, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, and Honky Tonk Women.
The Rolling Stones on the web
Rock n Roll & Early Pop
As popular music was starting to take shape, the earliest styles that came out of Jazz and Blues were Rock n Roll & Early Pop.
Learn tunes by The Beatles, Elvis, The Monkees, Chuck Berry, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Honky Tonk Women chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
