The Beatles · from Let It Be (Jan 1969) · Harrison composition
A study in a plain 12-bar blues with a circle-of-fifths intro.
The verse is a straight 12-bar in A (A7, D7, E7 as 1(7), 4(7), 5(7)), and the intro turnaround runs A7, D7, B7, E7 (1, 4, 2, 5) as a compressed circle-of-fifths sequence. B7 is a secondary dominant, V of V.
The home key is A major, played as a plain 12-bar blues, so every chord has a “7” on it (A7, D7, E7).
The 12-bar form is the oldest and most-used shape in blues. Four bars of home, two bars of four-up, two of home, one of five-up, one of four-up, two of home.
The intro is different: it runs A7, D7, B7, E7. That is a circle-of-fifths pattern, where each chord is a fifth above the previous one.
B7 is not from the plain key of A. It is a secondary dominant (called “V of V”) that points at E7 from a fifth above, tightening the pull to the 5-chord.
To see the exact chords and key, open Pollack or Isophonics.
The home key is A major, but every chord of the key is played as a dominant seventh (A7, D7, E7), the defining sound of the blues idiom.
No modal borrowing, no key change, no chromatic passing chord anywhere in the verse. The whole song is A, D, E in dominant-seventh voicings, plus one chord (B7) in the intro.
The verse is a plain 12-bar A-blues: four bars of A7 (1), two of D7 (4), two of A7 (1), one of E7 (5), one of D7 (4), two of A7 (1). This is the standard 12-bar shape used across pre-war country blues and post-war Chicago blues.
The 5-chord (E7) provides the strongest pull home; the 4-chord (D7) provides the plagal-flavored contrast.
The intro runs A7 (1), D7 (4), B7 (2), E7 (5). Read in the circle of fifths: A → D is a fifth down (or fourth up), D to B is a minor third down but B to E is a fifth down; the second half of the intro is a plain circle-of-fifths turnaround (B7 to E7 to A7).
The 1-4-2-5 shape is a compressed jazz-turnaround that plants the tune in A while previewing the 5-chord arrival on E7 before the verse begins.
In plain A major the 2 chord would be Bm (2m). Here it appears as B7, a major-quality dominant seventh. That change turns the 2 chord into a temporary V-chord pointing at E7, tightening the pull through the cycle of fifths.
The same V/V trick is used briefly in One After 909 (C#7 in B major) and constantly in jazz standards; here it lives only in the intro turnaround, not in the verse.
The full structure is an intro turnaround, three verses in the 12-bar shape, a slide-guitar solo over the same 12-bar changes, and a final tag on A7. No bridge, no modulation, no borrowed chord outside the intro B7.
The whole song is A7, D7, E7, B7 (with B7 used only as the V/V in the intro), four dominant sevenths across the entire piece.
| Degree | Chord | Nashville | Roman |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A7 | 1(7) | I7 |
| 2 | B7 | 2(7) | V/V (secondary dominant) |
| 4 | D7 | 4(7) | IV7 |
| 5 | E7 | 5(7) | V7 |
Chords sourced from a public transcription, in A major with a blues-idiom dominant-seventh palette.
Reading the numbers: each is a scale degree in A. Plain = major, (7) = a dominant-seventh coloring. The whole song is four dominant sevenths: 1(7), 4(7), 5(7), and 2(7) used as V of V in the intro only.
All four chords are dominant sevenths (low E to high e; x = mute).
Prose analysis of the 12-bar shape, the intro turnaround, and the secondary-dominant B7.
Open Pollack mirror →Downloadable chord and key files (per-album zip that includes For You Blue).
Open Isophonics →