Chords + Lyrics | Monkey Wrench (drop D tuning)
Intro
||: B5 | B5 F#5 | (F#5) E | E (D5) :|| 3/4 N.C | 4/4
Verse 1
||: N.C B5 | B5 F#5 | (F#5) E5 | E5 (D5) :||
What have we done with innocence?
It disappeared with time, it never made much sense.
Adolescent resident.
| N.C B5 | B5 F#5 | (F#5) E5 | E5 (D5) E5 D |
Wasting another night on planning my revenge.
Bridge 1
| (D) E5 D5 | E5 (D5) D |
One in ten.
| (D) E5 D5 | E5 (D5) D |
One in ten.
| (D) E5 D5 | E5 (D5) Dsus4 |
One in ten.
Chorus 1
| B5 G5 | G#5 G5 | F#5 E5 | F#5 E5 F#5 D5 C5 |
Don’t wanna be your monkey wrench.
||: (G5) B5 (G5) | G#5 (G5) | (F#5) E5 | (F#5) E5 F#5 D5 C5 :||
One more indecent accident.
I’d rather leave than suffer this.
I’ll never be your monkey wrench.
Instrumental 1
||: B5 | B5 F#5 | (F#5) E | E (D5) :||
Verse 2
All this time to make amends,
what do you do when all your enemies are friends?
Now and then I’ll try to bend,
under pressure, wind up snapping in the end.
Bridge 2
||: One in ten :|| x3
Chorus 2
Don’t wanna be your monkey wrench.
One more indecent accident.
I’d rather leave than suffer this.
I’ll never be your monkey wrench.
Middle 8
||: G#5 E5 B5 | G5 | (F#5) E5 | (F#5) E5 B5 G5 :|| x3
||: Temper :|| x3
| (F#5) E5 B5 D5 | (F#5) E5 B5 D5 | F#5 E5 F#5 E5 | F#5 E5 G5 C5 |
Verse 3
||: B5 | B5 F#5 | (F#5) E5 | E5 (D5) :||
One last thing before I quit, I never wanted any more than,
I could fit into my head, I still remember every single,
word you said and all the shit that somehow came along with it, still,
there’s one thing that comforts me, since I was always caged and now I’m free.
Instrumental 2 (as bridge)
||: (D) E5 D5 | E5 (D5) D :||
| (D) E5 D5 | E5 (D5) Dsus4 |
Chorus 3
Don’t wanna be your monkey wrench.
One more indecent accident.
I’d rather leave than suffer this.
I’ll never be your monkey wrench.
Outro
||: B5 | B5 F#5 | (F#5) E5 | E5 (D5) :|| x3
||: Don’t wanna be your monkey wrench (fall in, fall out). :|| x3
| B5 | B5 F#5 | F#5 E5 |
Don’t wanna be your monkey wrench.
End
| (F#5) E5 | F#5 E5 F# E5 | F# E5 C5 | B5 N.C |
Monkey Wrench Backing Track | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Monkey Wrench. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, horns, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Chord Progression – What’s Going On?
First of all, drop the low E string to a D – use my free online tuner for this!
The intro, verse, and Instrumental 1 sections all revolve around a riff that moves from B5 (chord I) to E5 (chord IV). Just before the E5, we hit an F#5 on beat 3+, then move between E5 and D5.
In the chords and lyrics above, it’s not obvious that the F#5 lands on beat 3+ and then stays on beat 1 of the next bar until 1+, just like Rolling in the Deep does.
To clarify the movement between E5 and D5, I’ve put D5 in brackets, like this:
||: B5 | B5 F#5 | (F#5)E | E (D5) :|| 3/4 N.C | 4/4
There’s a stop before looping this riff, first for three beats in its own 3/4 bar, then for one beat in the verse, like this:
||: N.C B5 | B5 F#5 | (F#5) E5 | E5 (D5) :||
This is seriously clever, as it feels, when you first hear it, as if we come in on the 1. We don’t — we come in on the 2 after an empty 3/4 bar.
To be fair, this is so well disguised that you need TAB to understand it properly and for me to explain it clearly – Find it further down this guitar lesson.
Bridge + Instr. 2
The bridge and instrumental 2 section reuse the final two bars of the verse riff, with the modification that on the repeat we play a D, not a D5:
||: (D) E5 D5 | E5 (D5) D :||
| (D) E5 D5 | E5 (D5) Dsus4 |
Chorus
The chorus introduces new chords. At first, it looks like this:
| B5 G5 | G#5 G5 | F#5 E5 | F#5 E5 F#5 D5 C5 |
When we start repeating, it becomes:
||: (G5) B5 (G5) | G#5 (G5) | (F#5) E5 | (F#5) E5 F#5 D5 C5 :||
That C5 is a tritone substitution. The G5 and F#5 are passing chords — again, you really need to see the TAB.
Middle 8
Next is the middle 8, which is mostly instrumental. The chords are:
| B5 G5 | G#5 G5 | F#5 E5 | F#5 E5 F#5 D5 C5 |
||: (G5) B5 (G5) | G#5 (G5) | (F#5) E5 | (F#5) E5 F#5 D5 C5 :||
There’s plenty of tension here — especially from the bVIx chord (G5), which holds for a full bar. This kind of extreme tension works similarly to chords like bVIIx and bIIIx.
Outro + End
Finally, the outro mirrors the chorus but uses the verse progression instead:
||: B5 | B5 F#5 | (F#5) E5 | E5 (D5) :|| x3
| B5 | B5 F#5 | F#5 E5 |
| (F#5) E5 | F#5 E5 F# E5 | F# E5 C5 | B5 N.C |
To play Monkey Wrench correctly, you must first memorise the TAB, then use the lyrics, chords, backing tracks and chord chart below to navigate the full arrangement.
Monkey Wrench Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Admittedly, this chord chart looks a bit mental — the reason for this is all those quick changes and passing chords.
You can download my chord chart as a PDF, or if you want to mess with the layout, use the iReal Pro format. Feel free to turn it into a two-page chart, or go the other way — remove a bunch of passing chords to make it less cluttered. The main purpose of a chord chart is to remind you of the structure; it is not a transcription.
Monkey Wrench | TAB
Let’s work through each of Monkey Wrench’s section as they appear. Practice slowly and methodically, using the original recording to guide you. All of these riffs should be memorised until they become muscle memory.
Intro + Instrumental
The very energetic intro (and instrumental) is best played exactly as written. There is a second guitar playing here, as we do in verse 3, which is why the chord names don’t directly relate to the TAB.
Verse
The verse uses the same chords as the intro, although focusing on the riff may have made that less obvious.
The third verse is different. I’ve also added an open string here to make it sound bigger and more like two guitars blended together. If you have a second guitar, this is also the part to play during the intro and instrumental sections.
Chorus
The chorus introduces a few new chords, along with several passing chords, including G5 and D5. The G5 can use either open strings or fretted notes depending on the preceding chord.
Middle 8
The middle 8 moves to a completely new section before returning to a previous riff. The recycled riff is then varied by repeating it more quickly.
End
The final chorus is played like verse 3, with a variation at the end to close the song.
Once you can play all of this TAB and have committed it to muscle memory, put it all together using the backing tracks and chord chart for guidance.
How Dave Grohl’s Drumming Mind Shapes Foo Fighters’ Guitar
Foo Fighters are arguably the only major rock band whose defining guitar riffs were written by a drummer. That fact alone explains much of what makes their music feel different. Dave Grohl doesn’t approach the guitar as a traditional riff-writer concerned with finger shapes or flashy technique. Instead, he writes rhythm-first parts that behave more like drum patterns, locking tightly to the groove and driving the song forward with relentless momentum.
Monkey Wrench, released as a single from the band’s second album, The Colour and the Shape, is one of the clearest examples of this approach. The main riffs are built around displacement, accents, and short bursts of movement. The guitar parts feel percussive, aggressive, and urgent because they are conceived in direct relationship to the drum groove. When you study the TAB, you can clearly see how the riffs push against the bar lines, land on unexpected beats, and create tension through rhythm rather than harmony.
This rhythmic mindset is what makes Monkey Wrench so powerful. The guitar doesn’t sit politely on top of the drums — it interlocks with them. The result is a song that feels constantly on edge, even though the harmonic material itself is relatively simple. That sense of forward motion is no accident; it comes from a songwriter who instinctively thinks in terms of feel, timing, and impact.
It’s worth contrasting this with bands such as Rage Against the Machine, Blink-182, and Green Day. While all are rhythmically tight, their riffs are written from a guitarist’s perspective, often built around shapes, patterns, and fretboard logic. Foo Fighters flip that idea on its head. In Grohl’s hands, the guitar becomes a rhythmic weapon — and Monkey Wrench is one of its sharpest examples.
Monkey Wrench Chords: Continue Learning
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