Here is the chart ecoll65 requested.
"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" is a song with words and music by Jim Croce, recorded in 1972. It is a
ballad, meaning that it is a narrative song (i.e., it tells a story); this is not to be confused with the jazz term
ballad, meaning a song in 4/4 time with a slow to moderate tempo.
The song's structure is that of a
strophic song with refrain, a strophe consisting of a verse and a refrain. In this form, the narrative part is presented in the verses, with a section called the refrain that repeats a short set of lyrics. A well-known example is "Yankee Doodle." For an expanded discussion of this topic, see my 6/9/2017 post to the forum here:
https://forums.irealpro.com/threads/Verse-Chorus-(V-C)-vs-A-B&p=44565&highlight=.18217/#post-44565. In this song, Leroy's story is told in the verses, and the the refrain always starts with the words "And it's bad, bad, Leroy Brown."
The specific structure of the song is AAB AAB AAB ABB tag, with the A and B sections being 8 measures long. Thus, the first three verses are different from the fourth verse, which has ony one A section. In contrast, the fourth refrain repeats the B section. The tag is simply the last four measures of the refrain. In order to maintain this structure, the chord chart should be played through three times; the fourth verse, refrain, and tag are in the coda. Note that the recording has an introduction which I did not put in the chord chart.
This chart works well in the Pop-Shuffle style at 145 bpm.
Bad, Bad Leroy Brown - Croce
)BOB
