Stayin’ Alive chords by Bee Gees


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Stayin’ Alive | Chords + Lyrics


Intro

| Fm7 | Fm7 | Bb7 | Bb7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |

Verse 1

||: Fm7 | Eb Fm :||
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm, I’ve been kicked around since I was born.

Bridge 1

||: Bb | Bb :||
And now it’s alright, it’s okay and you may look the other way.
And we can try to understand the New York Times’ effect on man.

Chorus 1

| Fm7 | Fm7 |
Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
| Fm7 | Fm7 |
Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’ and we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
| Fm7 Gm7/F Fm7/Eb Cm7 | Fm7 |
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
| Fm7 Gm7/F Fm7/Eb Cm7 | Fm | (F7sus4) | (Fm) | Cm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive. Oh, when you walk.

Verse 2

||: Fm7 | Eb Fm :||
Well now, I get low and I get high and if I can’t get either, I really try. 
Got the wings of Heaven on my shoes, I’m a dancin’ man and I just can’t lose. 

Bridge 2

||: Bb | Bb :||
You know it’s alright, it’s okay, I’ll live to see another day.
And we can try to understand, the New York Times’ effect on man.

Chorus 2

| Fm7 | Fm7 |
Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
| Fm7 | Fm7 |
Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’ and we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
| Fm7 Gm7/F Fm7/Eb Cm7 | Fm7 |
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive (oh).
| Fm7 Gm7/F Fm7/Eb Cm7 | Fm | (F7sus4) | (Fm) | Cm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive (oh).

Chorus tag

||: Bb | Bb | Bbadd9 Bb Bb7 Bb6 | Fm7 | Fm7 :||
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah. I’m stayin’ alive.

Verse 3

||: Fm7 | Eb Fm :||
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm, I’ve been kicked around since I was born.

Bridge 3

||: Bb | Bb :||
And now it’s all right, it’s okay and you may look the other way.
And we can try to understand the New York Times’ effect on man.

Chorus 3

| Fm7 | Fm7 |
Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
| Fm7 | Fm7 |
Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’ and we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
| Fm7 Gm7/F Fm7/Eb Cm7 | Fm7 |
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
| Fm7 Gm7/F Fm7/Eb Cm7 | Fm | (F7sus4) | (Fm) | Cm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive (hey).

Outro

| Bb | Bb | Bbadd9 Bb Bb7 Bb6 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah.
| Bb | Bb | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah. I’m stayin’ alive.
| Bb | Bb | Bbadd9 Bb Bb7 Bb6 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah (ah, ah, ah).
| Bb | Bb | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah. I’m stayin’ alive.
| Bb | Bb | Bbadd9 Bb Bb7 Bb6 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah (ah, ah, ah, ay).
| Bb | Bb | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah. I’m stayin’ alive.
| Bb | Bb | Bbadd9 Bb Bb7 Bb6 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, somebody help me, yeah (oh).
| Bb | Bb | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah, I’m stayin’ alive.



Stayin’ Alive Chords: Learn the progressions


Moving between a II – V, the classic dance shoes progression! We mainly vary Stayin Alive‘s chords with different extensions.

During the intro, the II is an Fm7 and the V is a Bb7.

In the verse, we move from Fm7EbFm. Eb being chord I but since this clearly doesn’t feel like home but Fm does, we could say Stayin’ Alive is in Dorian.

The chorus is a feast of Fm7. Varied with Fm7 Gm7/FFm7/EbCm7Fm7 at the end, followed by a longer Fm7 on the final line. This time, you hold the chord and let the drums take over.

Should you want to put chords in here, you could follow the vocals using FmF7sus4Fm. Finish off on a Cm7.

After the chorus we have a bridge or perhaps a chorus tag that goes “Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me…” Here we start on chord IV, a Bb.

The string line could be incorporated and described as Bbadd9BbBb7Bb6. Putting details like that into your guitar parts makes all the difference.

On a final note, I’d like to salute the Bee Gees for the chord structure of this final part where we get 5 bars + 6 bars, genius!

| Bb | Bb | Bbadd9 Bb Bb7 Bb6 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
| Bb | Bb | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |

I also like how the lyrics are particularly brutal throughout but as it’s sung in falsetto, it somehow feels OK!

Chords are important but should always be seen in relation to lyrics and performance in order to get the complete picture. Just like with any language, it’s how you use it that defines the meaning.



Stayin’ Alive in the top 100 tunes

At #99 on the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time list, we find Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees. This classic tune is without a doubt one of the band’s biggest hits and a must on the Disco band’s setlist.

Released on the hugely influential Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the song was released when the entire world was going Disco crazy and all bands had one simple purpose – to make the crowd dance!

Over four decades later, it is still played by DJs, radio stations, and most importantly, bands at parties.

Stayin’ Alive became Bee Gee’s signature song for a good reason, study the chords and lyrics above carefully to see how they put this one together.



Stayin’ Alive Chords | Related Pages


Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play Stayin' Alive's chords, try these five tunes from the songbook.

Bee Gees tunes

Bee gees wrote Stayin' Alive.

Starting out in 1955 as the Rattlesnakes, Bee Gees would go on to become the Disco Kings and write Barbra Streisand’s best-selling album.

Their best tunes include Massachusetts, How Deep Is Your Love, Stayin’ Alive, Night Fever, Tragedy, Words, Jive Talkin’, and You Should Be Dancing.


Bee Gees on the web

Listen to Bee Gees on Spotify.


About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson about Stayin' Alive chords.

This was a guitar lesson about Stayin’ Alive’s 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 by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.


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