Red | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| E | E Eadd9 |
Verse 1
||: Asus2 | Asus2 | E Eadd9 | E :||
And I’m alright, standing in the streetlights here.
Is this meant for me, my time on the outside is over.
Bridge 1
| C#m | Bsus4 | Asus2 | Asus2 (Bsus2) |
And we don’t know how you’re spending all of your days, knowing that love isn’t here.
| C#m | Bsus4 | Asus2 | Asus2 |
You see the pictures but you don’t know their names, cause love isn’t here.
Chorus 1
| E | E | C#m | A |
And I can’t do this by myself, all of these problems, they’re all in your head.
| E | E | C#m | A (A6) | E Eadd9 | E Eadd9 |
And I can’t be somebody else, you took something perfect and painted it red.
Verse 2
| A | A | E | E Eadd9 |
No sympathy, when shouting out is all you know.
| A | A | E Eadd9 | E |
Behind your lies, I can see the secrets you don’t show.
Bridge 2
| C#m | Bsus4 | Asus2 | Asus2 (Bsus2/A) |
No, we don’t know how you’re spending all of your days, knowing that love isn’t here.
| C#m | Bsus4 | Asus2 | Asus2 |
You see the pictures but you don’t know their names, ’cause love isn’t here.
Chorus 2
| E | E Eadd9 E7 | C#m | A |
I can’t do this by myself, all of these problems, they’re all in your head.
| E | E Eadd9 E7 | C#m | A | E Eadd9 | E Eadd9 |
And I can’t be somebody else, you took something perfect and painted it red, oh,
| C#m | A | E Eadd9 | E Eadd9 |
you took something perfect and painted it red.
Middle 8
| C#m7 | Badd4 | Aadd9 | Aadd9 (Badd4) |
You take the best things from me, then everything gets empty, that’s not a world that I need.
| C#m7 | Badd4 | Aadd9 | Aadd9 |
Ooh, you take the best things from me, then everything gets empty, that’s not a world that I need.
Instrumental
| E | E Eadd9 E7 | C#m | A |
Chorus 3
| E | E | C#m | Asus2 |
And I can’t do this by myself, all of these problems, they’re all in your head.
| E | E Eadd9 E7 | C#m | A | E | E Eadd9 E7 |
And I can’t be somebody else, you took something perfect and painted it red. Red.
Outro
| C#m | A | E | E Eadd9 E7 |
Red, you took something perfect and you painted it red.
| C#m | A | E | E Eadd9 E7 | C#madd9 | A | E |
You took something perfect and painted it red, you took something perfect and painted it red.
Red Chords: Learn the progressions
In the key of E, Red only uses four diatonic chords. The I, IV, V, and VI chords. That’s E, A, B, and C#m.
Starting with the intro/instrumental section, which is harmonically super simple, we stay on the I chord, only adding an add9 extension, like this:
| E (I) | Eadd9 |
The verse starts on the IV chord before it returns to chord I. Spiced up with a couple of extensions, it looks like this:
||: Asus2 (IV) | Asus2 | E (I) Eadd9 | E :||
The bridge takes the song to chords VI and V for the first time before going down to IV, like this:
||: C#m (VI) | Bsus4 (V) | Asus2 (IV) | Asus2 :||
I feel it’s important to point out how the big impact this VI chord has is down to that we up until now have been so sparse, this is a great songwriting tip!
Red’s chorus chords start on I, and then go to VI – IV, like this:
||: E (I) | E | C#m (VI) | A (IV) :|| E Eadd9 | E Eadd9 |
The middle 8 recycles the chords of the bridge, now with add9 and add4, not sus2 extensions.
| C#m7 (VI) | Badd4 (V) | Aadd9 (IV) | Aadd9 (Badd4) |
The middle 8 uses the same chords as the bridge, such great minimalism, I love it.
Here’s a chord chart for Red, consider how you like this compared to reading chords and lyrics.
Red Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Red Chord Chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: Red iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
In the course, we look at TAB and play along to loops to learn Red in extreme depth, below is a preview.
Red TAB | Course Preview
To compensate for the lack of massive production, to work for one acoustic guitar, I’ve incorporated open strings as drones.
Above, there’s a play-along loop you can try out already now of the TAB you see below.
It is of the intro and verse 1. Do this and get a taste of what learning guitar with Spytunes is all about.
Members get TAB with play-along loops for the bridge as well as all other sections of Red, just like you saw for the intro and verse above.
What’s unique about my one guitar arrangement is how some of the chords have been extended. Using the same open strings throughout, we get different extensions depending on which chord is used.
For example, the C#m with an open B and E string produces a C#m7, but over an A chord, you get an add9 extension.
This is a similar idea to what happens in Wonderwall, although then the drones on the top two strings are fretted.
I did this to compensate for the lack of the huge production of the original recording.
In the course, to fully understand this song, we have to learn about the modes and play the vocal melody, this is necessary when incorporating it over certain chords.
Here’s a link to the 8 step-by-step guitar lessons: Red – Guitar Lessons with TAB.
Red – The hit that never was!
Red was the second single from Australian Daniel Merriweather’s second album Love & War, produced by Mark Ronson.
Previous to Love & War, Merriweather recorded an album in 2006 called The Fifth Season. However, this first album was never released.
After an initial single release of Change in February 2009, Merriweather released Red in May and entered the U.K. charts at #5 where it remained for a month.
It achieved good circulation on U.K. radio stations and was even predicted to become the song of the year by many, including myself.
The video for Red was shot in Brooklyn and directed by Anthony Mandler, a well-known video director with videos by Rhianna, Jay-Z, The Killers, and John Legend behind him.
The music video consisted of a dramatic feast of shadows and angles shot with a handheld camera.
Both the video and the song production were in the same style as those of other artists and bands released during 2009 such as The Script, who incidentally is on the same label as Merriweather.
My version of Red is much slower than the original, it didn’t become as big of a success as the original had anticipated either!
Red Chords | Related Pages
Red | 8 Step-by-step Guitar Lessons + TAB
The relatively unknown Red by Daniel Merriweather and famed producer Mark Ronson have some fantastic vocal melody secrets to teach us more about music.
To fully understand this song, we have to learn about the modes and play the vocal melody.
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- (Everything I Do) I Do It For You chords by Bryan Adams
- Angels chords by Robbie Williams
- Empire State Of Mind chords by Alicia Keys
- One chords by Harry Nilsson
- Wish You Were Here chords by Pink Floyd
Daniel Merriweather tunes
Australian Daniel Merriweather first started working with Mark Ronson in ’03, appearing on Here Comes The Fuzz.
After a few more collaborations with Ronson, they finally made a solo album for Merriweather that was released in ’09.
Daniel Merriweather on the web
Mark Ronson tunes
Mark Ronson‘s destiny seemed written in the stars as his stepdad was the guitarist of the well-known rock band Foreigner.
After a few solo album attempts, as well as working as a DJ, Mark found his calling in producing some of his time’s greatest artists.
Mark Ronson on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Red 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.
