Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man

Music by Marcus Mumford
YouTube Video here

Key: F major
Time: 4/4
Tempo: 138

VERSES

Above is an illustration of the second half of the first verse. I found the way chords were written in the sheet music I purchased very interesting. Starting at 'rate yourself...,' we have a Csus4 and Bbmaj7. This is a simple way of notating chords for performances. However, analyzing the chord progression with Roman numerals will be confusing with these chord names. 

First, the Csus4 will be labeled as a V chord with a 4 suspension in the key of F major. Following this V4 chord is Bbmaj7 which is a IV7 chord. V4-IV7 indicates a retrogression which is not uncommon in non-Classical music. However, the 4 suspension is not resolved and leaves the analysis unsatisfactory. 

An alternate analysis of this chord progression is achieved when the Csus4 chord is spelled differently. If we make the F the root of the chord then it becomes a  Fsus2/C. In Roman numerals this is a I6/4 chord with a 2 suspension. The 2 suspension refers to the G and this resolves to the F in the following Bbmaj7  (2-1 resolution). This would make more sense because instead of a retrogression we will have a I6/4-IV7 progression. The I6/4 would serve as sort of a passing chord connecting the previous I chord to the following IV7. In my opinion, this reflects the phrasing of the vocal line because the music seems to move forward instead of retrogressing.  

I also relabeled the IV7 to a IV9 because, to my ear, the C in the vocal line belongs to the chord.