I Won’t Back Down | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: E5 D5 | G5 :||
Verse 1
| E5 D5 | G5 |
Well I, won’t back down.
| E5 D5 | G5 |
No I, won’t back down.
| E5 D5 | C5 |
You could stand me up at the gates of Hell.
| E5 D5 | G5 |
But I, won’t back down.
Verse 2
No I’ll, stand my ground.
Won’t be, turned around.
And I’ll keep this world from dragging me down.
Gonna, stand my ground.
| E5 D5 | G C/G G |
And I, won’t back down.
Chorus 1
| C (G) | D5 (G) |
(I won’t back) Hey baby.
| C (G) | D5 (G) |
There ain’t no easy way out.
| C (G) | D5 | E5 D5 | G |
(I won’t back) Hey I, will stand my ground.
| E5 D5 | G5 |
And I Won’t back down.
Verse 3 (as verse 2)
Well, I know what’s right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around
But I’ll stand my ground
And I won’t back down
Chorus 2
(I won’t back) Hey baby.
There ain’t no easy way out.
(I won’t back) Hey I, will stand my ground.
(I won’t back down) And I won’t back down.
Solo
| Em D5 | G | Em D5 | G |
| Em D5 | C | Em D5 | G |
| Em D5 | G C/G G |
Outro chorus
| C (G) | D5 (G) |
(I won’t back) Hey baby.
| C (G) | D5 (G) |
There ain’t no easy way out.
| C (G) | D5 | Em D5 | G C/G G |
(I won’t back) Hey I, won’t back down
| C (G) | D5 (G) |
(I won’t back) Hey baby.
| C (G) | D5 (G) |
There ain’t no easy way out.
| C (G) | D5 | Em D5 | G |
(I won’t back) Hey I, will stand my ground.
| Em D5 | G |
(I won’t back down) And I won’t back down.
| Em D5 | G |
(I won’t back down) No, I won’t back down.
I Won’t Back Down Chords: Learn the progressions
I Won’t Back Down is from Tom Petty‘s 1989 solo album Full Moon Fever.
Cowritten with Jeff Lynne, this tune came during the time Tom had taken a break from the Heartbreakers and formed The Traveling Wilbury’s with Jeff, Roy, George, and Bob.
A master class in simplistic songwriting, this is a 4-chord masterpiece where we have no extensions, instead, we go the other way, to the power chord.
The verse chords are simple. We start on chord VI, go down to V, and end on I.
Making these power chords, we can still feel how they are VI – V – I, because of the distance between them. Our brains are wired to recognize the chords from the major scale.
The only variation is that the third time, we go to chord IV instead of I, like this:
| Em D5 | G | Em D5 | G |
| Em D5 | C | Em D5 | G |
| Em D5 | G C/G G |
The final bar has the chord riff G C/G G, which is the signature riff of this song (although used many times before, mainly by Bo Diddley).
The chorus is much more complex, mainly down to a very quick passing chord (G), I’ve written it like this with chords and lyrics above:
||: C (G) | D5 (G) :||
| C (G) | D5 | E5 D5 | G |
| E5 D5 | G5 |
There’s TAB available for how to play all this on one guitar, check out this part of the lesson here: I Won’t Back Down – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
A simple chord chart will do once you’ve got the hang of the TAB. Here’s one I made for you.
I Won’t Back Down Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Perhaps the chord chart looks unnecessarily complicated. I could have simply listed the various sections instead and then listed the order of how they appear.
Writing chord charts can be done in many ways, my aim is to show you many different ways it can be done.
Notice how the passing chord of the chorus is put at beat 4 in the chord chart but in brackets with chords and lyrics. This is another example of how there are many ways to do this.
Should you want to download my chord chart, here’s a PDF: I Won’t Back Down Chord Chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: I Won’t Back Down iReal Pro.
Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key although I wouldn’t recommend this as the sound of I Won’t Back Down is down to the actual chord shapes.
I Won’t Back Down vs. Stay With Me!
In recent years, songs have been accused of having ripped off a previous hit. Blurred Lines was Marvin Gaye‘s Got To Give It Up, Ed Sheeran‘s Thinking Out Loud was Marvin’s Let’s Get It On.
Both these cases went to court, Robin Thicke lost, but Ed won.
Tom Petty has been “borrowed from” a few times. Last Nite by The Strokes is American Girl, Dani California (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is Mary Jane’s Last Dance.
For both those tunes, Petty did let it go. For Sam Smith’s Stay With Me, they settled out of court at 12.5% to Tom. Personally, I think it should have been 12.5% for Sam. I also think Ed should have lost.
It may seem like it’s impossible to write something new these days as there are only so many chord progressions available and to have a hook you must hit the money notes, like the 3rd etc.
I know for a fact that many artists when writing songs these days start with an existing song, then start rewriting it, Robin Thicke and Pharrell even admitted that’s how they wrote Blurred Lines.
This is not a new phenomenon, Charlie Parker did it many times, it’s even got a name, It’s called a contrafact, a new melody to an old progression and form.
Instead of debating if this is OK or not, why don’t you try it, you might get better at writing tunes by doing so. Should something great emerge, you could always be honest about it!
If Sam Smith only has to send Tom Petty 12.5% for blatantly plagiarising I Won’t Back Down, it seems worth it.
You could also consider the concept of being honest and just give a % to whomever you got the idea from. Ed Sheeran did this for his biggest hit, Shape Of You which he got “inspiration” from TLC’s No Scrubs.
In a recent podcast by Song Exploder, Sam Smith tells the story of how he came up with Stay With Me in a writing session with his producer, Jimmy Napes.
There is no mention of I Won’t Back Down. The way they tell it could be 100% true, maybe no reference track was used, sometimes these things happen subconsciously.
My question to you is: does it matter?
I Won’t Back Down Chords | Related Pages
I Won’t Back Down | Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how I Won’t Back Down is arranged using power chords and triads with TAB for all sections.
| E5 D5 | G5 |
Well I, won’t back down…
Five Similar Tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- Free Fallin’ chords by Tom Petty
- The Joker chords by the Steve Miller Band
- Learning To Fly chords by Tom Petty
- Mary Jane’s Last Dance chords by Tom Petty
- Stuck In The Middle With You chords by Stealers Wheel
Tom Petty tunes
Tom Petty released most of his albums with his band The Heartbreakers although some solo material appeared as well.
His best-known tunes include American Girl, Free Fallin’, Learning To Fly, Into The Great Wide Open, Don’t Come Around Here No More, and I Won’t Back Down.
Tom Petty on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about I Won’t Back Down chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
