Shake A Tail Feather chords

Video blocked due to privacy settings

Shake A Tail Feather | Chords + Lyrics

Intro

| D7 | D7 | G7 | D7 | A5 |

Verse 1 (Fender Roades only)

| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | G (G6) |
Well, I heard about the fellow you’ve been dancin’ with, all over the neighborhood.
| D5 (D6) | Bm (Bm7) | E (E7) | A (A7) |
So why didn’t you ask me, baby? Didn’t you think I could?

Verse 2 (Band in)

| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | G (G6) |
Well, I know that the boogaloo is outta sight. But to shake a leisure thing tonight.
| D5 (D6) | Bm7 (Bm) | E7 (E) |
Would it happen to me and you baby? I want to show you how to do it right.

Pre-chorus

| A5 | A5 | A | A | A | A | A7 | A7 | A lick | A lick |
Do it right. Uh-huh. Do it right. Do it right, do it right, do it right, do it right! Uhhh!

Chorus 1

| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | A |
Twist it! Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby!
| G | G | D | D | G | G |
Here we go loop di loo! Shake it out, baby! Here we go loop di lie!
| A5 | A5 |
Bend over, let me see you shake your tail feather.
| A | A |
Bend over, let me see you shake your tail feather.
| A | A |
Come on, let me see you shake your tail feather. Uh!
| A7 | A7 | A lick | A lick |
Come on, let me see you shake your tail feather. Uh!

Chorus 2 (same as chorus 1)

Outro

||: D5 (D6) | G (G6) :||
Come on! Come on babe!
Come on! Yeah, come on babe! Alright!
Do the twist! Do the fly! Do the swim! (Ha! Ha! Ha!)
And do the bird! (Oh!) Do the duck!
(Ah!) Do the monkey!
(Hey! Hey!) Watootsie!
And the… what about the food?
Do the mashed potato! What about the boogaloo?
The Boney Muroney! Come on let’s do the twist!
| A5 | A5 |
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

End

||: D5 (D6) | G (G6) :|| to fade
Twist it! Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it baby!
(Oh!) Twist it! Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it baby!

Shake A Tail Feather’s chords and progressions

Let’s look into all of Shake A Tailfeather’s chords, I provide TAB further down this page but let’s first hash out the general idea, we’ll leave the intro out as that definitely needs TAB!

The verse is mainly a I – IV progression, using that honky tonk concept we know from Chuck Berry. I’ve notated this as a 6 chord in brackets to avoid writing it too many times.

After the honky tonk part, we go to chord VI – IIx – V. Like this:

| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | G (G6) |
| D5 (D6) | Bm (Bm7) | E (E7) | A (A7) |

Verse 2 ends early as the A chord is now the pre-chorus. The pre-chorus idea is to build on an A chord, similar to how Twist & Shout does it.

We want to hear the root – 3rd – 5th – b7 – lick. This is best described using TAB, but if we don’t have this, you could read it like this:

| A5 | A5 | A | A | A | A | A7 | A7 | A lick | A lick |

Those final two bars use a three against-four rhythm of the lick that T-Bone Walker made famous. Again, we need TAB for this (available further down this page).

Finally, the chorus. Here we play a similar honky tonk over the D6 – G6 part, go sooner to an A chord, and then scrap the honky tonk as we go just between D – G. Like this:

| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | A |
| G | G | D | D | G | G |
| A5 | A5 | A | A |
| A | A | A7 | A7 | A lick | A lick |

The outro and end is pretty much just back to honky tonk to fade. Let’s look at some TAB!

Shake A Tail Feather TAB

In my opinion, it’s much better for your development to transcribe other instruments for the guitar than to transcribe just guitar stuff. With that in mind, here’s the keyboard intro of Shake A Tailfeather, for guitar!

Shake A Tail Feather chords and TAB intro.

For the verse, I got a bit excited and did three verses even though there are only two in the tune!

Here’s verse 1, you could play this should you have lost/fired your keyboard player on the way to the gig, or if you want to play this on an acoustic.

Notice how the 6 chords are on the 2 and 3+ in this example. The Bm is followed by a Bm7, and the E is followed by an E7. The A chord takes us to verse 2.

Shake A Tail Feather chords and TAB verse 1.

Here’s verse 2, now the band has joined in and we need a smaller guitar part or we won’t cut through the mix. The G chord is now an E shape.

The Bm7 is followed by a Bm, not the other way around. It is also almost identical to the D – D6. The E is followed by an E7. The A chord is the beginning of the pre-chorus.

Shake A Tail Feather chords and TAB verse 2.

Next, here’s another way to play the verse. The Bm is now followed by a Bm7 again, same goes for the E – E7. The A chord is the first of the pre-chorus.

Shake A Tail Feather chords and TAB verse 3.

Let’s look at a way we could build the intensity for that pre-chorus using TAB. This part also comes back in the chorus.

Notice how the top part of the chord moves root – 3rd – 5th – b7 – lick.

Shake A Tail Feather chords and TAB Pre Chorus

Finally, here’s Shake A Tail Feather’s chorus chords is TAB.

Shake A Tail Feather chords and TAB Chorus

The honky tonk is now different from what we played in the verse, the 6 chord is on the 2 and 4, not the 3+. The final G – D chords are played without honky tonk, giving the arrangement more space.

To get better at this kind of rhythm guitar playing, play along with the original recording above as well as compare how these kinds of 6 chord parts are played in other tunes like I Can’t Stand The Rain, Son Of A Preacher Man, You Never Can Tell, Nutbush City Limits, and perhaps most famously, Johnny B. Goode.