Songs with the 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' chord progression

Peglegasus, "Marcus"

As for "1969", that two-chord riff shows up in The Byrds' "Gathering of Tribes" and (at twice the speed,) Ted Nugent's "Wango Tango".

Swell Maps, "Harmony In Your Bathroom"

You're obsessed!

i think "bulletproof cupid" by girls against boys sorta has it, maybe?

You're obsessed!

Not really. I just keep hearing these songs by accident; it's not like I'm looking for them. The chord progression just jumps out of albums at me.

OMFG I can't believe none of you came up with the most OBVIOUS and GLARING and ILXY one: "Premature Burial" by Siouxsie & the Banshees. Quick! Go listen to it and see.

I like that word "ILXY" and look forward to reading it in future threads

Almost none of these songs have the same chord progression.

Plastic People of the Universe, "Toxica" (though eventually it turns into more "30 Seconds Over Tokyo," maybe appropriately given its title.)

Er...I meant "Zácpa," actually. (Same band, but forget what I said about the title.)

Too Slim & The Taildraggers, ""Make It Sound Happy"

Fleetwood Mac, "Homeward Bound" (off Bare Trees -- if not exactly this chord progression, something close to it.)

Pop Will Eat Itself "Def Con One".

The guitar break after the chorus always sounded a lot like the intro to Proud Mary to me.

Pop Will Eat Itself "Def Con One".

Well, yeah, the original version actually samples I Wanna Be Your Dog

Hanoi Rocks, "Lost In The City" (I assume this one is intentional.)

wtf

Almost none of these songs have the same chord progression.

― billstevejim, Saturday, May 2, 2009 9:41 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

bIII, V/V, I)

I haven't spent a lot of time with it, and there's a fair bit of distortion on the recording while I'm using an acoustic, but I'm not sure I'm hearing a third in any of the chords (especially the third chord, the tonic chord): I'd just as soon call it G5-F#5-E5 over a pedal point on E (which effectively turns the first chord into Em7). I actually don't see a reason to analyse it in a major key, assuming that's what you meant by calling the third chord "I". The other person who has tried to analyse it here seems to have analysed the same way, though, so maybe I'm missing something. If I had to put Roman numerals under it, right now, I'd probably just write "e: i[7]-ii-i (over tonic pedal)". It's basically a tonic prolongation, not that it's functional anyway.

Like, this is what I'm hearing:
http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/i/iggy_pop/i_wanna_be_your_dog_tab.htm
http://youtu.be/yeTjztRmGkc

Actually, you could even just write "i-----" and call the F# and C# embellishing notes.

Starting to listen to other examples: in the Mazzy Star, it's even more clearly just a riff or melodic gesture over a drone/pedal.

otm. In a way it is a variant of "Venus In Furs" which is, I think, a droning C# minor going up and down C#,D#, E, D#. Obviously a different key and slightly different pattern but the idea and vibe are certainly related.

I think "Phoenix" is mostly the bassist playing the pitches (not chords) G-F#-F-E while the guitarist improvises in E blues minor, sometimes playing a power chord on the tonic?

xpost

And the riff in "Two Beads at the End" sounds like A5-G#5-E5, which is pretty different.

OK, listening to the Boston song now, billstevejim OTM.

The "Venus in Furs" comparison makes sense to me.

Actually, you could even just write "i-----" and call the F# and C# embellishing notes.

The C# reinforces the idea that it's E major to me. In general, I just think major key even if I'm not hearing the thirds in the guitar just because of so much tradition of rock and roll songs that are in major keys but have blue notes and/or bIII and bVII chords.

(Minor pentatonic guitar solos over major key songs, etc.)

The C# reinforces the idea that it's E major to me.

Borrowing ^6 from the parallel key is really common practice and doesn't really prove much on its own. Besides, you get C natural in the only other real riff in the song. There's really nothing else to suggest E major. Any time ^3 appears in the song, it's G natural, as far as I can tell. It's not just a case of blue notes over a major-key chord progression.

When you get C, though, it's another rock and roll chord - the bVI. I think you're right that there's no evidence that it's E major, but the presence of G and C chords doesn't make me think it's in a minor key either.

where's the C#?

It's the fifth in F#5. It has no real structural weight.

I'd just as soon call it G5-F#5-E5 over a pedal point on E

this is the only thing that makes sense. why feel the need to add thirds that clearly aren't there? if you play power chords up high on the 4th and 5th strings and let the 6th string ring open, it's pretty obvious that's how the song was written.

It's the fifth in F#5. It has no real structural weight.

It doesn't? I think it's crucial to that progression.

Almost as a dissonance (which might reinforce the idea of the song tending more toward minor modality).

To me the whole point of playing power chords is that it's tonally ambiguous. Doesn't make any sense to try to nail it down like that.

I agree, wk. I was just saying what I would do if I were forced to write Roman numerals.

tim: That riff (it's barely a 'progression') is really just prolonging the tonic. As such, the F# and C# are important parts of the melodic gesture but they don't carry structural/functional weight.

yeah, I was agreeing with you

To me the whole point of playing power chords is that it's tonally ambiguous

Yes and no. When you play a G power chord and E is the tonic, no one is going to think it's G minor.

If the bass just stayed on E, I might agree more with the idea that it's just a prolongation of the tonic and not a progression, but I'm not sure I do as I hear it.

As for functionality, you could just say both the G and the F# chords are movement away from the tonic (or back towards the tonic without any cadence with the F# chord).

Sund4r and wk otm.

Also, since when did C# over an E chord imply major, have you heard of the Dorian mode, Tim?

I think we've even had a thread or two dedicated to that mode.

Warning: undergrad theory below

To clarify my terminology: I'm using terms from common-practice theory but I don't think they're too inappropriate in this case. Take this progression (assume this is a single phrase):

I-ii[6]-V[4/2]-I[6]-IV-ii-V-I [PAC].

Here, I-ii[6]-V[4/2]-I[6] is all what we call the tonic area of the phrase. IV-ii is the pre-dominant area. V is the dominant area and I is a return to the tonic after V (with cadence). Even though I-ii[6]-V[4/2]-I is a chord progression, because of its position in the phrase and the inversions that are used, all the progression is really serving to do here is to expand or elaborate on tonic harmony, so I call this a tonic prolongation. And then, I would say that this V[6] carries less structural weight than the V at the cadence.

All I'm saying with this is that wrt the main riff of "I Wanna Be Your Dog", it doesn't even matter whether you think of it as a chord progression or a melodic gesture: it never really departs from the area of tonic harmony and so I say it is prolonging the tonic. (There is more movement during the other riff.)

There are no G or F# (major) chords in the song! They are G5 and F#5 and always presented with a tonic pedal. There is a difference. If you include the bassline and count the tonic pedal as a chord member each time, you could analyse the main riff as i[6/5]-ii[7]-i if you really wanted to do a Roman numeral analysis. This is actually a very standard tonic prolongation pattern: you find variants on it all over Schubert, for example. (Tbh, an ostinato bassline that goes G-F#-E should provide enough confirmation that this is not E major.)

this V[6]

V[4/2], sorry

Yeah, I understand the premise of that analysis of different areas of that progression. And I understand the premise of saying the three chords in this song are all just tonic prolongation. But where would I draw the line?

Take the Sonics' version of "Louie Louie" as an example. They don't play the regular chords of the song - they play I-bIII-IV instead. I'm not sure why I would want to say that the chord in this song is any less of a bIII (or III chord if you want to say that we're in a minor mode) chord than the one in their "Louie Louie."

(Other than, yes, I know, you don't hear the third in this song. But like I said, no one's going to guess that it's G minor.)

since when did C# over an E chord imply major

Yeah, that's a decent argument. I mean, of course, it's a major sixth. I suppose it doesn't really reinforce my thinking of it as being in E major, though.

It would be interesting to know if Ron Asheton had his index finger on G# when he played E (even if he didn't actually play that string when he hit the chord).

My point with the "Louie Louie" argument is this - that song's only three chords, too. One of them's a subdominant. Are those three chords all tonic prolongation, too? If not, I don't think this song is either (because I'm not sure there's a significant difference).