The Beatles · from Abbey Road (1969) · side-two medley
A study in the riff-driven medley fragment.
A one-minute blues-rock sketch carried by a bass-and-guitar riff, built to move rather than to resolve, handing straight off into Polythene Pam.
This is a tiny song, only about a minute long, tucked inside the big Abbey Road medley.
It is carried by a riff, a short catchy pattern the bass and guitar play over and over.
It is bluesy and rocking, and it is built to keep moving instead of stopping on a nice ending chord.
People usually write it in a home key of E, but it is short and shifts, so the exact chords are best checked in a book.
It does not really end. It runs straight into the next song, Polythene Pam.
To see the exact chords and key, open Pollack or Isophonics.
The fragment is short and defined more by its riff than by a stated key, and it is commonly transcribed with an E center that moves as it hands off.
Because it is a medley link rather than a standalone song, the tonal center is a means of transit more than a home to settle in.
The harmony is driven by a repeated blues-rock riff rather than a developed chord progression, so the motion is horizontal and groove-based.
Confirm the exact chords and the riff's harmonic outline at Isophonics and BeatlesFC.
The bass and guitar move together on the riff, giving the fragment a lean, propulsive texture with little harmonic padding.
That tightness is what lets a one-minute sketch feel complete enough to stand inside the medley.
The piece states its verse idea, makes a brief internal contrast, and moves on without a conventional verse-chorus build.
Its brevity is the point: it is one panel in a longer sequence rather than a self-contained arc.
Rather than closing with a tonic cadence, the fragment drives directly into Polythene Pam, using momentum as its ending.
The lack of a final resolution is deliberate, since the medley wants continuous motion. Confirm the exact pivot at Pollack.
| Degree | Chord | Nashville | Roman |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E | 1 | I |
| 2 | F#m | 2m | ii |
| 3 | G#m | 3m | iii |
| 4 | A | 4 | IV |
| 5 | B | 5 | V |
| 6 | C#m | 6m | vi |
| 7 | D#° | 7° | vii° |
Chords sourced from a public transcription, in E.
Reading the numbers: each is a scale degree in E. Plain = major, m = minor, ° = diminished, (7) = a dominant-seventh coloring, b-degrees are borrowed chromatic steps.
Movable and open shapes (low E to high e; x = mute). E and D are plain open triads. B7 = x 2 1 2 0 2. C7 = x 3 2 3 1 x.
Prose analysis of the fragment's tonal center, its riff, and the segue into Polythene Pam.
Open Pollack mirror →Downloadable chord and key files: the exact chords and where the fragment shifts.
Open Isophonics →Roman-numeral function and melody for the riff, if a community tab exists.
Open the Beatles index →