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6.11.4 Chords to "Wild Horses," One of the Rolling Stones' Best Songs
After the intro, the chords to "Wild Horses", one of the Stones' best tunes, progress to a minor chord (IIIm, or Bm in the original key) when the vocal starts, even though the song is solidly in the major mode.
As the chord map below reveals (Figure 94), the chord progressions in both the verse and the chorus eschew the tonic of the relative minor (Em) while incorporating the other two minor chords. This gives the progression a truly distinctive sound.
FIGURE 94: Chord Map of “Wild Horses” (Words and Music by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, 1970)
As if that weren’t enough, in the chorus, the progression grabs the same ♭VII chromatic chord used in “Hey Jude” and “Carefree Highway.” In this case, being in the key of G, the chromatic chord is F major (on the words “drag me”). An elegant, attention-getting touch.
As with the other two songs, the progression visits the chromatic chord only briefly, then returns to the chords of the circular harmonic scale.
(You will recognize this as the song Sadie and Ellie Sue pipe through the sound system over at the Dodge City Horse Store.)