Chords + Lyrics | Mercy
Intro
||: G5 (D F) :|| x4
Hit the beat and take it to the verse, now.
| G G6 | G7 G6 |
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
| G G6 | G7 G6 | D7sus4 D9 | C7 C6 | G G6 | G7 |
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Verse 1
||: G5 (D F) | G5 (D F) :||
I love you, but I gotta stay true.
My morals got me on my knees, I’m begging, please, stop playing games.
||: D7sus4 D9 | C7 C6 | G5 (D F) | G5 (D F) :||
I don’t know what this is ‘cause you got me good, just like you knew you would.
I don’t know what you do but you do it well, I’m under your spell.
Chorus 1
| G G6 | G7 G6 |
You got me begging you for mercy (yeah, yeah, yeah).
| G G6 | G7 G6 |
Why won’t you release me (yeah, yeah, yeah)?
| C C6 | C7 C6 |
You got me begging you for mercy (yeah, yeah, yeah).
| G G6 | G7 G6 |
Why won’t you release me (yeah, yeah, yeah)?
| D D7 D6 | C C7 C6 | G G6 | G7 G6 |
I said release (yeah, yeah, yeah) me (yeah, yeah, yeah).
Verse 2
Now you think that I, will be something on the side.
But you got to understand that I need a man who can take my hand, yes I do.
I don’t know what this is, ’cause you got me good, just like you knew you would.
| D7sus4 D9 | C7 C6 | G5 (D F) | G5 (bend b5) |
I don’t know what you do but you do it well, I’m under your spell.
Chorus 2
You got me begging you for mercy (yeah, yeah, yeah).
Why won’t you release me (yeah, yeah, yeah)?
You got me begging you for mercy (yeah, yeah, yeah).
Why won’t you release me (yeah, yeah, yeah)?
I said you’d better release (yeah, yeah, yeah). Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Breakdown
||: N.C | N.C :||
I’m begging you for mercy (you look at me and think we’re the same kind, ‘cause you don’t know what I got and).
Yes, why won’t you release me (I’m gonna get more than I’m asking for but I just don’t want to waste my time)?
I’m begging you for mercy (You know that I’ll be the other girl, just like there’s nothing in this world).
| N.C | N.C | N.C | (bend b5) |
You got me begging. You got me begging. You got me begging (I know that I’m gonna get me some, I just don’t know where to get it from).
Chorus 3
Mercy (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Why won’t you release me? (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
I’m begging you for mercy (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Why won’t you release me? (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
You got me begging you for mercy (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Chorus 4
I’m begging you for mercy (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
I’m begging you for mercy (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
I’m begging you for mercy (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
I’m begging you for mercy (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Why won’t you release me, yeah! yeah!
Outro
||: G5 (D F) :|| to fade
Break it down. Mercy, begging you for mercy.
(Believe me) You got me begging, down on my knees.
I said, you got me begging, begging you for mercy
You got me begging. Eeeeh, eeeeh…
Mercy Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Mercy. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, strings, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
The chords for Duffy‘s Mercy are far more complex than I initially thought when I played it at nearly every gig back in 2010.
At the time, I considered it just a blues-style tune in the key of G, where I could improvise over it. Many years later, as I sat down to transcribe it, I realised I missed some great chord riffs that are definitely worth exploring!
These chord riff feature various extensions that require TAB to fully understand. Once you’ve seen this, the chords and lyrics will make perfect sense.—it’s a shame no bands are playing this awesome tune anymore!
I suppose it’s mainly of interest now for those wanting to study this blues/soul chord progression style, which has seen countless variations since the ’60s. Can I Get A Witness comes to mind as one of the first examples, and there have been many more since.
If you’re aiming to write a hit like Mercy, you should probably explore exactly how Duffy and her producers crafted it.
As the saying goes, “the devil is in the details.” To truly understand these chord progressions, you need to transcribe carefully and compare what you find to similar tunes—or you could let me do it for you!
To find the TAB, keep scrolling down this guitar lesson.
Once you grasped the TAB, a simple chord chart is all you need. Here’s one I made for you.
Mercy Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Mercy chord chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: Mercy iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Mercy | TAB
Let’s look at how you could play the chords of Mercy in a band using TAB. Here’s the first riff—use this for the intro and verse.
Notice that if you added all the notes up, it should technically be called G7omit3, since F is the b7 and the 3rd is missing. However, I feel that calling it G7 might lead you to play a full G7 chord, which doesn’t quite fit. That F behaves more like a bass line note than part of a proper chord voicing.
Next, we play another riff that takes us into a turnaround—also for use during the intro and verse.
Finally, here’s the chorus TAB:
Mercy Chords: Continue Learning
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