It's Only Love | Fab forum

PeterWeatherby said:

For me, the trick with this song – the one obstacle that made it less-than-easy – was the G-augmented chord that John added to embellish the end of each line ("my, oh my", "butterflies", etc.)  Even after 20 years of playing, I've never found a good way to voice that G-aug chord that didn't involve clunky fretting and twisted hand cramps.

 

The secret, once again clearly revealed in the Anthology out-takes, is John's use of the capo.  The song is in C, but he clips on the capo at the 5th fret and moves it into the key of G (a nice, easy key to play in).  This takes all of the effort out of that augmented chord, because now it's a D-aug, which is a breeze to play (this diagram assumes no capo):

 

EADGBE

———--

xx0332

 

The chord progression, now with all of those wonderfully high-end notes ringing out, thanks to the capo, goes:

 

Intro: G – Em

Verse: G – Bm – F – C – D – Daug

Tag ("Haven't I the right …"): C – D – G – Em

Chorus: F – D – G – Em – F – D – C – D