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6.10.8“Walking After Midnight” Chords: How the Chord Progression Works
The "Walking After Midnight" chords include three chord variations at the IV (subdominant) position: two in the verse and one in the bridge (Figure 81). These three chords are IV7, IVm7, and IV (F7, Fm7, and the default F, respectively).
“Walking After Midnight” is really a three-chord song, with subdominant chord variations providing harmonic variety. (Lyrically, the song is in the best tradition of country music, describing what it’s like to stagger out of the saloon at midnight, only to find that your horse got bored and lonesome waiting around in the street and went home without you.)
FIGURE 81: Chord Map of “Walking After Midnight” (Words by Don Hecht, Music by Alan Block, 1956)
The verse progresses mostly in the common fifths-down pattern (C to F). But in the bridge, the pattern changes to fifths up through the tonic (F to C). This creates a solid harmonic contrast between verse and bridge, providing more harmonic variety.