Losing My Religion | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| N.C Dsus2 | F | Dm Dsus2 | Am Am/B |
| C6 Dsus2 | F | Dm Dsus2 | Am | G |
Verse 1
| Am | Am | Em | Em | Am |
Oh, life is bigger, it’s bigger than you and you are not me.
| Am | Em | Em | Am | Am |
The lengths that I will go to, the distance in your eyes.
| Em | Em | Dm Dm/A | Dm Dm/A | G G/D | G |
Oh no I’ve said too much, I set it up.
Verse 2
That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight, losing my religion.
Trying to keep up with you, and I don’t know if I can do it.
| Em | Em | Dm Dm/A | Dm Dm/A | G G/D |
Oh no I’ve said too much, I haven’t said enough.
Bridge 1
| G Dsus2 | F | Dm Dsus2 | Am Am/B | C6 Dsus2 |
I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing.
| F | Dm Dsus2 | Am | G |
I think I thought I saw you try.
Verse 3 (as verse 1)
Every whisper, of every waking hour, I’m choosing my confessions,
trying to keep an eye on you. Like a hurt, lost and blinded fool, fool.
Oh no I’ve said too much, I set it up.
Verse 4 (as verse 2)
Consider this, consider this the hint of the century, consider this.
The slip, that brought me to my knees, failed, and what if all these fantasies come,
flailing around, now I’ve said too much.
Bridge 2
I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing.
I think I thought I saw you try.
Instrumental
| Am Asus4 | Am/G Am | Fmaj7 F6 | D7sus2 |
Tag
| C Cadd9 | D7sus2 | C Cadd9 | D7sus2 |
But that was just a dream, that was just a dream,
Verse 5 (as verse 2)
That’s me in the corner. that’s me in the spotlight. losing my religion.
Trying to keep up with you and I don’t know if I can do it.
Oh no I’ve said too much, I haven’t said enough.
Outro
| G Dsus2 | F | Dm Dsus2 | Am Am/B | C6 Dsus2 |
I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing.
| F | Dm Dsus2 | Am Am/B | C6 Dsus2 |
I think I thought I saw you try
| F | Dm Dsus2 | Am Am/B | C6 Dsus2 |
But that was just a dream. Try, cry, fly, try.
| F | Dm Dsus2 | Am | G |
That was just a dream, just a dream, just a dream, dream.
End
| Am |
||: A5 :|| x6
| Amadd4 | A5 |
Losing My Religion Chords: Learn the progressions
In the key of Am, R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion’s chords don’t break any harmonic rules, let’s take a look at each section.
The instrumental intro is what later on comes back as what feels like a bridge, although it doesn’t lead to a chorus as the song doesn’t have one.
The intro moves II – IV – II. The II chord uses mainly sus2 extension, disguising if it’s minor or major at first, like this:
Dsus2 (II) – F (IV) – Dm – Dsus2.
Strum these chords with the rhythm of the melody and the chord extensions will make the melody line pop out. However, for best results, you need to strum a different amount of strings at different points so to get this perfect you need TAB.
Here’s a link to that part of the lesson: Losing My Religion – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Next, we have the movement of chord VI with an ascending bass line:
Am – Am/B – C6. The Am/B is like some kind of variation on a VII chord. C6 is chord I, but also an Am/C.
Next, we repeat what we started with, then finish with Am – G. Here are all the chords for Losing My Religion’s intro.
| N.C Dsus2 (II) | F (IV) | Dm Dsus2 | Am (VI) Am/B |
| C6 (I) Dsus2 | F | Dm Dsus2 | Am | G (V) |
Let’s take a look at the verse, the chords are now much simpler.
We start with repeating chords VI – III, three times. This is finished with II – V. Looks like this:
||: Am (VI) | Am | Em (III) | Em :|| x3
| Dm (II) Dm/A | Dm Dm/A | G (V) G/D | G |
There’s TAB for how to best strum this verse as well, for example, the Dm – Dm/A in the first bar is played differently to the second bar, so you must look at the TAB to get this right.
These two sections, the verse and intro/bridge repeat three times before we get an instrumental section.
The bridge has the same chords as the intro but you need to strum it differently (check TAB).
Losing My Religion’s instrumental section uses these chords:
| Am (VI) Asus4 | Am/G Am | Fmaj7 (IV) F6 | D7sus2 (II) |
You could see these chords as variations on an Am chord, with a descending bass line. Even the Fmaj7, is an Am/F. F6 is chord IV, D7sus2 is chord II with no 3rd.
For the lyrics “that was just a dream…”, the chords now go somewhere new. C – Cadd9 – D7sus2. Since the melody is still the same here, all we do is change the bass notes, again, check the TAB.
The outro first plays an Am, then just the note E before we move down playing notes that can be described as an Amadd4.
Peter Buck may have written the riff for Losing My Religion on a mandolin, little did he know it would work so well on just one acoustic guitar!
All you need to do is check that TAB, then come back here and move on with this little chord chart in your hand on the way to the gig.
Losing My Religion Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Losing My Religion Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Losing My Religion iReal Pro.
Using this and the iRealPro app you can change the key, although I can’t see that working too well – especially if you want to include that mandolin melody!
Losing My Religion has many songwriting lessons for you!
Originating from the southern part of the U.S., “losing my religion” means losing my temper.
This is fascinating to me as I always believed it meant losing your faith, which is great proof that lyrics with a vague meaning, allowing the listener to decide the meaning themselves, is a great songwriting trick.
Written by lead singer Michael Stipe, the song is about unrequited love, and apparently, the lyrics started as “that’s me in the kitchen.”
This is another great tip for the budding songwriter; put something down that allows you to keep developing the song, rather than get stuck on a detail.
Another great example of this kind of lyric writing is Yesterday by Paul McCartney, which famously started out as “scrambled eggs.”
Anyway, once Stipe had settled on the lyrics and the mandolin riff (surprisingly easy to adapt to a guitar) was in place, R.E.M. had their signature song down and ready for their seventh album, Out Of Time (1991).
This was the album that took the band to superstardom with 18 million copies sold and 183 weeks in the U.K. charts, and 109 in the U.S.
As a single, “Losing My Religion” sold 1.5 million in combined U.S. sales (digital and physical).
This is impressive as when it was released, there was no such thing as a digital download to buy. Clearly, Losing My Religion has had great longevity, something I, for one, am attributing to that since the chords are so easy to play, millions of guitar players have learned it, and in that way, kept it relevant.
Losing My Religion Chords | Related Pages
Losing My Religion | Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, we look at TAB for how Losing My Religion can be played on one acoustic guitar, incorporating all melodies.
| Am | Am | Em | Em | Am |
Oh, life is bigger, it’s bigger than you and you are not me…
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R.E.M. tunes
R.E.M on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Losing My Religion 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.
