Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A · Bars 1–8

C E7 | A7 | Dm7 | F Fm | C A7 | D7 G7 | C

This is a short excerpt, not the full chart. The composition dates from 1923 and is old enough that it is very likely in the public domain in the United States, which is why the excerpt runs longer here — but copyright status varies by territory and by edition, so treat that as context, not as legal advice.

The books behind this page

Every one of these tunes is assembled out of the same handful of harmonic resources. Jazz Harmony is those resources, explained in the order in which they build on each other.

Start here Project 03 · Harmony

Harmonic analysis

Key

C major

Tonal center

C

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

11

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
C	I	Tonic	C is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
E7	V7/vi	Dominant	E7 is functioning as V7/vi: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of A, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at vi instead.	High
A7	V7/ii	Dominant	A7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of D, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	High
Dm7	ii	Predominant	Dm7 is the ii chord of C: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
F	IV	Predominant	F is the IV chord of C: subdominant. It moves away from the tonic without creating the pull of a dominant.	High
Fm	iv	Predominant	Fm is a minor iv in a major key, borrowed from the parallel minor. Its b6 pulls down into the third of the tonic — one of the most recognisable sounds in the repertoire.	Medium
C	I	Tonic	C is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
A7	V7/ii	Dominant	A7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of D, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	High
D7	V7/V	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	High
G7	V7	Dominant	G7 is the dominant of C. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
C	I	Tonic	C is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

What the analyzer found in it

V - IG7 - C

The progression closes with an authentic cadence in C.

High, medium and low next to each numeral are judgements about musical context, not probabilities. A low rating marks a bar that can honestly be read more than one way. How the ratings are decided →

Why this example matters

Numbered against C major, the excerpt is I – V7/vi – V7/ii – ii – IV – iv – V7/V – V7. Inside those 11 chords there is at least one secondary dominant. Take the roots away and keep the third and seventh. In E7 that is Ab and D. Those two notes decide where the progression is going, and hearing them move is worth more than naming the chords. Stella by Starlight, How High the Moon and Ornithology use the same device, which is the argument for learning it once properly rather than three times by accident.

How the rest of Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out goes

A sixteen-bar form rather than twelve, and although it is called a blues it works by a chain of secondary dominants moving around the cycle rather than by the blues’ three-chord scheme. The harmony is therefore much richer than the genre label suggests, and the piece sits closer to the popular songs of its decade than to the country blues. The extra four bars change the phrasing entirely — a lyric line gets room to finish that a twelve-bar form would cut off.

Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out on record

Jimmy Cox wrote it in 1923, before the crash it is usually associated with. Bessie Smith’s 1929 recording, made months after the crash, is the one that fixed its meaning — the timing turned a song about a rich man’s reversal into a document of the moment. It has been recorded across genres ever since, and most versions descend from hers rather than from the sheet.

Analyze this progression

Open these chords in the analyzer and change them. Move one chord, substitute a dominant, take the ii away — the reading updates and tells you what you just did.

Open in Jazz Harmony Analyzer →

Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

Jazz Guitar Comping

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out goes

Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out on record

Analyze this progression

Related

Secondary dominants

Stella by Starlight

How High the Moon

Ornithology

Jazz chord progressions