Last Nite | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: C5 | C5 :|| x4
||: F5 (C5) | F5 (C5) | G5 (C5) | G5 (C5) :|| x4
Verse 1
| C | C | C | C | Dm | Dm |
Last night she said, “Oh, baby, I feel so down”.
| G | G | Em7 | Em7/D |
“Oh, it turn me off, when I feel left out”.
| C | C | C | C | Dm | Dm |
So I, I turned around, oh, baby, I don’t care no more.
| G | G | Em7 | Em7/D |
I know this for sure, I’m walking out that door.
| C | C | C | C | Dm | Dm |
Well, I’ve been in town for just about fifteen, oh, minutes now. Oh baby, I feel so down.
| G | G | Em7 | Em7/D |
And I don’t know why. I keep walking for miles.
Bridge 1
||: F5 (C5) | F5 (C5) | G5 (C5) | G5 (C5) :||
And see, people, they don’t understand.
Your girlfriends, they can’t understand.
Your grandsons, they won’t understand.
On top of this, I ain’t ever gonna understand.
Verse 2
| C | C | C | C | Dm | Dm |
Last night she said, ”Oh, baby, don’t feel so down”.
| G | G | Em7 | Em7/D |
“Oh, it turn me off, when I feel left out”.
| C | C | C | C | Dm | Dm |
So I, I turned around, oh, baby, gonna be alright.
| G | G | Em7 | Em7/D |
It was a great big lie, ’cause I left that night, yeah.
Instrumental
||: C5 | C5 :||
||: F5 (C5) | F5 (C5) | G5 (C5) | G5 (C5) :||
Solo
| C | C | C | C |
| F | F | F | F |
| G | G | G | G |
Bridge 2
||: F5 (C5) | F5 (C5) | G5 (C5) | G5 (C5) :||
Oh, people, they don’t understand.
No, girlfriends, they don’t understand.
In spaceships, they won’t understand.
| F5 (C5) | F5 (C5) | G5 (C5) | G5 N.C |
And me, I ain’t ever gonna understand.
Verse 3
| C | C | C | C | Dm | Dm |
Last night she said, ”Oh, baby, I feel so down”.
| G | G | Em7 | Em7/D |
“See, it turn me off when I feel left out”.
| C | C | C | C | Dm | Dm |
So I, I turned around, oh little girl, I don’t care no more.
| G | G | Em7 | Em7/D |
I know this for sure, I’m walking out that door, yeah.
Outro
||: C5 | C5 :||
||: F5 (C5) | F5 (C5) | G5 (C5) | G5 (C5) :||
||: C5 | C5 :|| C5 N.C |
Last Nite’s chords and progressions
In the key of C, Last Nite’s chords use the harmonic trick to keep one guitar on a C5, as the rest of the band moves to F and G. Compare this to Money (That’s What I Want) where the guitar stays and the rest of the band moves on too.
This is what happens during the bridge which without this would just be a simple IV – V, #2 on my top 10 chord progression list.
||: F5 (C5) | F5 (C5) | G5 (C5) | G5 (C5) :||
| F5 (C5) | F5 (C5) | G5 (C5) | G5 N.C |
What The Strokes have done here is used the classic hit writing trick – Familiarity with a twist.
The verse progression is a simple I – II at first, then it gets more complex. Both guitars move to chord V, a G chord. As they stay here for four bars, the bass changes the meaning of this G to Em7 and then Em7/D, like this:
||: C | C | C | C | Dm | Dm |
| G | G | Em7 | Em7/D :||
These two sections are all the chords we get in Last Nite.
If you’re an aspiring songwriter, there are two great lessons here, keep it simple, and don’t be afraid to borrow concepts from previous hits!
Last Nite – A rock standard
New York garage rockers The Strokes released Last Nite in 2001 and had moderate success, only hitting the #1 spot in the U.K. Indie chart.
Instead, Last Nite would be a slow burner, picked up by working bands worldwide and still played on the radio and by DJs decades later.
It sits neatly next to Are You Gonna Be My Girl, Molly’s Chambers, and Seven Nation Army on the indie rock covers band setlist and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Apparently, during the writing of Last Nite, the band was inspired by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ classic American Girl and Freddie King’s brutal solo tone. This combination of flavors clearly worked as the song has made the band worldwide famous without releasing a significant follow-up.
Tom Petty obviously didn’t mind that his classic tune had lent them inspiration as he invited The Strokes as a support act on his worldwide tour five years after it had been released.
Other clear influences are Money (That’s What I Want) for the way the guitars stay but the bass moves on and You Can’t Hurry Love for the rhythm.
A couple of years later, when Jet released the aforementioned Are You Gonna Be My Girl, they used the same rhythm, making these two songs an ideal medley for the working band.
Last Nite chords | Related pages
Five similar tunes
- Are You Gonna Be My Girl chords
- I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor chords
- Molly’s Chambers chords
- Song 2 chords
- You Really Got Me chords
The Strokes
The Strokes revived garage rock, mainly thanks to their worldwide smash hit Last Nite, the lead single from the debut album Is This It?
Their best tunes include The Adults Are Talking, Someday, Hard To Explain, and their signature song, Last Nite.
The Strokes on the web
Indie & Heavy Rock
Riff-based Indie & Heavy Rock tunes must be studied in depth in order to understand why a tune in these styles work.
Learn songs by Foo Fighters, Rage Against The Machine, Green Day, Kings Of Leon, Jack White, Blink-182, and many more.
