best one chord song?

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Yeah, Edd, I was responding to "rockist thread rockist thread."

I don't have perfect pitch, so I can't really know what you're talking about without taking it to a piano, and I don't remember the Big Star song. But to me, even admitting the vast gray area, the point stands: The test isn't in how you'd write out the chords or explain them to other musicians, but in how you'd hear them. To my ears, when you play a C major chord, and then play the same chord while at the same time adding a C sharp, you just changed the chord. Maybe I'm wrong, or my terminology is fucked, but it sure sounds like the chord has changed to me...

― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 23 June 2005 17:10 (eighteen years ago) link

the most obvious (and one of the best) answers:

straitjacket fits - life in one chord

also happens to be the fits best song

― chris andrews (fraew), Thursday, 23 June 2005 22:28 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...

i'm still right

― Fetchboy, Friday, 16 March 2007 15:22 (seventeen years ago) link

"Jungle Blues," by Jelly Roll Morton

― Jazzbo, Friday, 16 March 2007 15:33 (seventeen years ago) link

"karen" the b-side to the first Go-Betweens single

There are two chords in that one.

― Jazzbo, Friday, 16 March 2007 15:34 (seventeen years ago) link

We're gonna rock down to, electric avenue

Isn't that just an A?

― filthy dylan, Friday, 16 March 2007 16:47 (seventeen years ago) link

PISSED JEANS - Boring Girls

― Colonel Poo, Friday, 16 March 2007 16:55 (seventeen years ago) link

We're gonna rock down to, electric avenue

Isn't that just an A?

Someone mentioned it above.

― o. nate, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link

galaxie 500 do not have any one chord songs

cover of "Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste" is one chord.

Anyway the correct answers to these thread have already been cited: Faust, Neu!, Hawkwind, Spacemen 3, Sunnnn O)))), etc.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha wow this thread is like a monument to WTF wrongness, from the question on down.

― nabisco, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Talking Heads- practically any song on Remain in Light: "Born Under Punches", "Cross-Eyed and Painless", "Houses in Motion", "Great Curve" and so on.

― Joe, Friday, 16 March 2007 18:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Neil Young "Piece of Crap".

You guys are a piece of crap for not mentioning this song yet on this thread.

― nickalicious, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah I'm amazed this thread quickly devolved into what constitutes "one chord" - way to go Geir.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Well when the first example offered has about three dozen really complicated jazz chords in it, it's not exactly surprising that a What Are Chords refresher might crop up.

― nabisco, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't know the Neu song in question off the top of my head... Hawkwind def. have a lot of one chord songs tho, bless 'em!

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:30 (seventeen years ago) link

(I'm sure Neu does actually have a bunch of one-chord songs too, I just can't keep any of their songtitles straight in my head)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:30 (seventeen years ago) link

drone
doom
ambient

― Cameron Octigan, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Well when the first example offered has about three dozen really complicated jazz chords in it, it's not exactly surprising that a What Are Chords refresher might crop up.

Erm, the 'not the one note samba' proviso was a joke.

― erganom, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, sorry -- I guess the joke was kinda undercut by so many suggestions that seem equally off. (I mean, "Waiting for the Man?")

― nabisco, Friday, 16 March 2007 23:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Green Day, people, Green Day.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 16 March 2007 23:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Talking about Harrison's Indian compositions (and a song like Tomorrow Never Knows, to some extent) in terms of how many chords they have is not going to be useful - you can't apply traditional western harmonic analysis to things outside of that domain.

There seemed to be some confusion earlier about non-harmonic tones; this is a good introduction.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Friday, 16 March 2007 23:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, the irony of Geir is not that he's wrong on a philosophical level, but that he gets technical stuff wrong too. I think every comment I've seen him make about theory or composition or whatnot has some kind of error in it.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Friday, 16 March 2007 23:35 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm gonna say Tenacious D - One Note Song

― pinder, Friday, 16 March 2007 23:37 (seventeen years ago) link

you gotta do the little bendy thing!

― unfished business, Friday, 16 March 2007 23:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I've skipped half the thread but would "Waterfront" by Simple Minds count? It runs through with a single bass note and only Jim Kerr's melody moves around over that, there's no chord progression per se. Also, it is shit.

― Trayce, Friday, 16 March 2007 23:55 (seventeen years ago) link

There's definitely a chord change in Tomorrow Never Knows - it's on the "DIE" in the first "It is not DIE-ying."

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 17 March 2007 00:00 (seventeen years ago) link

There's definitely a chord change in Tomorrow Never Knows - it's on the "DIE" in the first "It is not DIE-ying."

Yeah, it goes to B-flat, but I'm saying the song isn't about functional harmony, it's pretty much just a drone/sound effects, so talking about its "chord progression" or whatever is kind of futile. That song is sort of a tweener, though - the preceding is more true for Harrison's Indian compositions.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Saturday, 17 March 2007 00:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, but you could probably argue the same for some Velvet Underground songs.

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 17 March 2007 00:06 (seventeen years ago) link

(my pick is actually just one chord, as opposed to pretty much every other fucking song mentioned on this thread - it's probably A but it could also be G# depending on whether my guitar is in tune or not)

― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 17 March 2007 01:01 (seventeen years ago) link

I stand by my original comment

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Saturday, 17 March 2007 01:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Which is?

― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 17 March 2007 01:11 (seventeen years ago) link

the answer is CLEARLY Spacemen 3's 'An Evening Of Contemporary Sitar Music'.

all 44 minutes of it.

― unfished business, Saturday, 17 March 2007 01:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Panda Bear - Comfy in Nautica

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Saturday, 17 March 2007 01:43 (seventeen years ago) link

constantines "draw us lines"

― stephen, Saturday, 17 March 2007 06:13 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm actually having trouble thinking of one-chord songs.

Palace - I Was Drunk at the Pulpit

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 17 March 2007 06:20 (seventeen years ago) link

If the "song" by Band of Susans mentioned above is Guitar Trio by Rhys Chatham, I think it does indeed qualify as having only one chord. The ensemble strums a chord while a soloist highlights different overtones of the fundamental through picking techniques that bring out various harmonics.

I don't recall which album it was originally released on, I only have Wired for Sound now & it's the last track on the songs without words disc.

― Herb Levy, Sunday, 18 March 2007 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link

my pick is actually just one chord, as opposed to pretty much every other fucking song mentioned on this thread

"Electric Avenue" is one chord.

― Curt1s Stephens, Sunday, 18 March 2007 20:38 (seventeen years ago) link

three years pass...

Alan Vega "Jukebox Babe"

― bigdawg (crüt), Wednesday, 19 January 2011 05:25 (thirteen years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6CFyn_WzVY

― Meme From Turner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 January 2011 05:52 (thirteen years ago) link

lots that have already been listed, but also:

'7:20 am Jullander Shere' by Cornershop

― Blazes Boyband (Pillbox), Wednesday, 19 January 2011 06:10 (thirteen years ago) link

one year passes...

I was listening to the Prince vocals version of "Love thy will be done" and it suddenly appeared to me that it's a one chord song since the bass plays the same note through the whole song !
of course, the synth plays other notes but still (It's a bit like "tomorrow never knows" which has the bass playing one chord and some noises playing other notes, I guess...)

I'd forgotten what a great song it is anyway...

― AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 14:52 (eleven years ago) link

Best one-chord song round my house right now is "Sabotage"

― poxen, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 15:57 (eleven years ago) link

I'd say the Adverts' "One Chord Wonders," but it probably has more than one.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 16:08 (eleven years ago) link

Best concert promo poster ever, for a tour featuring The Adverts and The Damned: "The Adverts know one chord, the Damned know three. See all four at...."

Several mentions of Nilsson's "Coconut", but how about "Jump Into the Fire"? Those should get bonus points for being consecutive hit singles.

― Lee593 (Lee626), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:52 (eleven years ago) link

Jump Into the Fire has more than one chord. I believe two or maybe three, in fact.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:55 (eleven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1rp8lJFwv8

― fishermen are coveted by whores & stoners (Pillbox), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:01 (eleven years ago) link

Jennifer Gentle "I do dream you"

― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:04 (eleven years ago) link

surfin bird for a good minute. and it is a very good minute.

― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:11 (eleven years ago) link

Prolly mentioned upthread, but EC tried this once or twice, with "Uncomplicated" and a couple of others from that era.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 22:00 (eleven years ago) link

Jump Into the Fire has more than one chord. I believe two or maybe three, in fact.

There are two chords built into the guitar riff, but that falls short of an actual chord change imo.

― Lee593 (Lee626), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 22:05 (eleven years ago) link

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