Man On The Moon | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: C | Dadd4 Dadd9sus4 | C | C :||
Verse 1
||: C | Dadd4 Dadd9sus4 | C | C :||
Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Monopoly, 21, Checkers, and Chess. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Let’s play Twister, let’s play Risk. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
| C | Dadd4 Dadd9sus4 | C | C (C/B) |
I’ll see you in Heaven if you make the list. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Bridge 1
| Am | G (Gsus4) |
Now Andy, did you hear about this one?
| Am | G (Gsus4) |
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
| Am | G C |
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? “Hey, baby”.
| D | D (Dsus4) |
Are losing touch?
Chorus 1
| G Am | C G/B | G C | D (Dsus4)|
If you believed, they put a man on the moon, man on the moon.
| G Am | C G/B | Am | Am |
If you believed, there’s nothing up his sleeve, then nothing is cool.
Verse 2
||: C | Dadd4 Dadd9sus4 | C | C :||
Moses went walking with the staff of wood. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Newton got beaned by the apple good. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Mister Charles Darwin had the balls to ask. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Bridge 2
| Am | G (Gsus4) |
Now Andy, did you hear about this one?
| Am | G (Gsus4) |
And tell me, are you locked in the punch?
| Am | G C |
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? “Hey, baby”.
| D | D (Dsus4) |
Are you having fun?
Chorus 2
| G Am | C G/B | G C | D (Dsus4) |
If you believed, they put a man on the moon, man on the moon.
| G Am | C G/B | Am | Am |
If you believed, there’s nothing up his sleeve, then nothing is cool.
Instrumental 1
||: Em (Em7) | D (Dsus4) :||
| Em (Em7) | D (Dsus4) | D (Dsus4) |
Verse 3 (breakdown)
||: C | Dadd4 Dadd9sus4 | C | C :||
Here’s a little agit for the never-believer. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Here’s a little ghost for the offering. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Here’s a truck stop instead of Saint Peter’s. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Mister Andy Kaufman’s gone wrestling. Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.
Bridge 3
| Am | G (Gsus4) |
Now Andy, did you hear about this one?
| Am | G (Gsus4) |
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
| Am | G C |
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? “Hey, baby”
| D | D (Dsus4) |
Are we losing touch?
Chorus 3
| G Am | C G/B | G C | D (Dsus4) |
If you believed, they put a man on the moon, man on the moon.
| G Am | C G/B | Am | Am |
If you believed, there’s nothing up his sleeve, then nothing is cool.
Instrumental 2
||: Em (Em7) | D (Dsus4) :||
| Em (Em7) | D (Dsus4) | D (Dsus4) |
Chorus 4
||: G Am | C G/B | G C | D (Dsus4) |
||: If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon.
| G Am | C G/B | Am | Am :|| x3
If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve, then nothing is cool. :||
End
| Em |
Man On The Moon’s chords, progressions, and TAB
One of R.E.M.’s most popular tunes, Man On The Moon, can be found on their best album, Automatic For The People (1992).
I say the best album because here you also find Everybody Hurts and Drive, another two brilliant tunes, but I guess this is a very subjective opinion.
Anyway, what is clear is that Man On The Moon is an excellent example of how a typical guitarist comes up with a riff – by moving a shape and discovering what it sounds like!
The chords for the verse, which is the hook of the tune, is clearly a C chord, then just moved up two frets.
This creates a very strange-sounding chord name for the D. For once, something that is easier done than said: Dadd9sus4. I really like this chord and tend to use it for other songs as well, just because I like it.
Should you feel, when playing along with the original recording, that something isn’t quite right then that would be because they’re tuned slightly sharp, to 444Hz. My online guitar tuner can change the Hz, use it!
You may find that knowing this is just an open C, moved up to a D, playing along is easy and you don’t need any TAB. It’s basically the same rhythm throughout.
If not, you may want some detailed TAB, members get this, here’s a link to the complete lesson (members only): Man On The Moon chord analysis and TAB.
Even though it’s clear that R.E.M. wrote this by randomly moving a chord around, I’ve found that this is not a good argument for not knowing what you’re doing means you become more creative.
Instead, I’ve found that the more songs I study in-depth, the better I’ve become as a player, and writer. I’ve also found that learning theory from songs like this is the best way forward so that’s how I teach my guitar courses.
Become a member today and get unlimited access to all my guitar courses, the SEPR practice route, and the eBook Spytunes Method – You can learn guitar!
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