Chords + Lyrics | Mary Jane’s Last Dance
Intro
||: Am G | (Dsus2) D Am |
| Am7 G | (Dsus2) D Am :||
Verse 1
||: Am G | (Dsus2) D Am :||
She grew up in an Indiana town,
had a good-lookin’ mama who never was around.
But she grew up tall and she grew up right,
with them Indiana boys on an Indiana night.
Instrumental 1
||: Am G | (Dsus2) D Am :||
Woo oh-oh-ooh.
Woo oh-oh-ooh.
Verse 2
Well, she moved down here at the age of eighteen,
she blew the boys away, it was more than they’d seen.
I was introduced and we both started groovin’,
she said, “I dig you, baby, but I got to keep movin’.
Instrumental 2
On, keep movin’ on.
Chorus 1
| Em | Em7 | A (A6) | A (A6) |
Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain.
| Em | Em7 | A (A6) | G |
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m tired of this town again.
Instrumental 3
Woo oh-oh-ooh.
Woo oh-oh-ooh.
Verse 3
Well, I don’t know but I’ve been told,
you never slow down, you never grow old.
I’m tired of screwing up, tired of goin’ down,
tired of myself, tired of this town.
Oh, my, my, oh, hell yes,
honey, put on that party dress.
Buy me a drink, sing me a song,
take me as I come ’cause I can’t stay long.
Chorus 2
Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain.
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m tired of this town again.
Solo
||: Am G | (Dsus2) D Am |
| Am7 G | (Dsus2) D Am :||
Verse 4
There’s pigeons down on Market Square,
she’s standin’ in her underwear.
Lookin’ down from a hotel room,
the nightfall will be comin’ soon.
Oh, my, my, oh, hell yes,
you’ve got to put on that party dress.
It was too cold to cry when I woke up alone,
I hit the last number, I walked to the road.
Chorus 3
Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain.
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m tired of this town again.
Outro
||: Am G | (Dsus2) D Am |
| Am7 G | (Dsus2) D Am :|| to fade
Mary Jane’s Last Dance Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Mary Jane’s Last Dance. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, harmonica, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Should you want to play along with the original recording instead, you need to tune your guitar sharp to 452Hz. In the backing tracks, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
Verse
The chords are simple open-position chords, so get started with the verse progression, which follows a II – I – V pattern in the key of G:
||: Am (II) G (I) | Dsus2 D (V) Am :||
Chorus
The chorus shifts to the key of D, moving from II – V, and then finishing on IV, like this:
| Em (II) | Em7 | A (V) A6 | A A6 |
| Em | Em7 | A A6 | G (IV) |
Using two neighbouring keys like G and D (with only one note change, C to C#) creates a natural tension.
After playing along with the original recoridng for a while, you’ll realise there are two guitars involved. Tom Petty and Mike Campbell are masters at crafting seemingly simple, yet effective, guitar parts.
If you want to improve your skills in writing guitar parts for hits, I recommend studying Tom and Mike’s approach. Angus and Malcolm Young would also be solid references, but they’re perhaps the only other duo in this league.
However, if you’re the only guitarist in your band, you’ll need to develop another skill—combining two great parts into one!
To help with this, I’ve provided a TAB lesson showing how I would suggest combining Tom and Mike’s parts into one cohesive guitar part for a full band. You’ll find this TAB further down this guitar lesson.
After studying the TAB, try making small adjustments to make the part feel more alive and dynamic. In the end, all you need is a chord chart. Here’s one I’ve made for you.
Mary Jane’s Last Dance Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Mary Jane’s Last Dance chord chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Mary Jane’s Last Dance iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Mary Jane’s Last Dance | TAB
If you don’t have a second guitarist int he band, what you need to do is combine the the two parts into a single playable riff. Here’s what I came up with:
Start by learning this version. Then vary it during the verse—perhaps leave out the Am7, or don’t hammer on the initial Am.
Still, begin with the TAB above. Once you get into it, you’ll uncover lots of small variations within that riff. I found that once the verse riff felt good, the chorus section was super easy.
Try it all using the backing tracks which have been tuned to 440Hz, the original is way off, I suspect they were tuned to Eb, then sped the entire tune up!
Mary Jane’s Last Dance Chords: Continue Learning
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