probably something by the Brainbombs. any others? i love that chord sequence
― dave q (listerine), Saturday, 16 September 2006 15:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 16 September 2006 15:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― Aaron W (Aaron W), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:08 (seventeen years ago) link
"It's Easy" by Boston"D.O.A." by Van Halen"Hey Country" by Montgomery Gentry
Also, aren't there songs by the Byrds and Sonics and people like that who found that chord progression before the Stooges did? And something on that first UFO album, and Ten Years After's *Watt* not too terribly long after? Or maybe I'm all mixed up, who knows.
― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:21 (seventeen years ago) link
"The Needle and the Spoon" by Lynyrd Skynyrd"Submission" by the Sex Pistols
(though maybe something other than chord progressions are why both of those resemble "I Wanna Be Your Dog"; again, decide fr yrself.)
― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link
Yeah, I was wondering if there's a Sonics song that has that chord, too. It's the stupidity of that chord (you'd have to call it a V/V though it's not functional - it goes bIII, V/V, I) that is so awesome.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:39 (seventeen years ago) link
i feel like a professional rock critic ought to be able to parse this.
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 16 September 2006 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 16 September 2006 17:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 16 September 2006 17:50 (seventeen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 16 September 2006 18:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Geoffrey Priory (big peach), Saturday, 16 September 2006 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link
Yes, this one works. As for the rest (Submission??) I don't really hear it.
― billstevejim (billstevejim), Saturday, 16 September 2006 21:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 16 September 2006 21:20 (seventeen years ago) link
Dark Entries!
(four chords rather than three, but even so)
― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Sunday, 17 September 2006 00:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 17 September 2006 00:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― Monty Von Byonga (Monty Von Byonga), Sunday, 17 September 2006 13:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Sunday, 17 September 2006 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Monty Von Byonga (Monty Von Byonga), Sunday, 17 September 2006 13:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Black Arkestra (Black Arkestra), Sunday, 17 September 2006 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Sunday, 17 September 2006 18:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― mango selassie (teenagequiet), Sunday, 17 September 2006 19:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― Run Ruud Run (Ken L), Sunday, 17 September 2006 19:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Run Ruud Run (Ken L), Sunday, 17 September 2006 19:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Sunday, 17 September 2006 22:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― sleeve version 2.0 (sleeve testing), Monday, 18 September 2006 02:16 (seventeen years ago) link
Probably.
― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 18 September 2006 05:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dan Gr (certain), Monday, 18 September 2006 23:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dan Booth (dad a), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 00:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 12:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mark G, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 12:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 14:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 14:46 (seventeen years ago) link
Tim McGraw, "Renegade" (1995)
― xhuxk, Saturday, 20 October 2007 21:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Great bump. A++++
― rogermexico., Saturday, 20 October 2007 21:17 (sixteen years ago) link
I can't believe somebody on this thread dissed "We Will Fall".
― Drew Daniel, Saturday, 20 October 2007 21:18 (sixteen years ago) link
archigram - doggystyle
― and what, Saturday, 20 October 2007 21:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Sonik Yoot - "White Kross" ?
-- Noodle Vague, Wednesday, March 14, 2007 2:17 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Link
that was my first thought, but i think its just the gtr rhythm
― 69, Saturday, 20 October 2007 21:30 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54yjLSmXtV0
― and what, Saturday, 20 October 2007 21:32 (sixteen years ago) link
"magic potion," at least sun dial's cover of it. i've never heard the original open mind version, but i think it came out in 1969. that would be funny if it sounds like the sun dial version, and "i wanna be your dog" follows the "magic potion" chord progression. or i guess not that funny
― kamerad, Saturday, 20 October 2007 22:11 (sixteen years ago) link
there was some song by gvsb that had a similar progression -- bulletproof cupid?
― omar little, Saturday, 20 October 2007 22:46 (sixteen years ago) link
NIWBYD is soooo classic, one of Ig's great moments (and the sleigh bells make it even more evil)
― iago g., Saturday, 20 October 2007 23:00 (sixteen years ago) link
wtf
― wk, Saturday, 3 August 2013 17:19 (ten years ago) link
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.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 17:50 (ten years ago) link
Like, this is what I'm hearing:http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/i/iggy_pop/i_wanna_be_your_dog_tab.htmhttp://youtu.be/yeTjztRmGkc
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 17:56 (ten years ago) link
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.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 18:16 (ten years ago) link
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.
― The O RLY of Everything (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 3 August 2013 18:26 (ten years ago) link
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
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 18:27 (ten years ago) link
And the riff in "Two Beads at the End" sounds like A5-G#5-E5, which is pretty different.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 18:40 (ten years ago) link
OK, listening to the Boston song now, billstevejim OTM.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 18:43 (ten years ago) link
The "Venus in Furs" comparison makes sense to me.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 18:45 (ten years ago) link
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.
― timellison, Saturday, 3 August 2013 19:59 (ten years ago) link
(Minor pentatonic guitar solos over major key songs, etc.)
― timellison, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:00 (ten years ago) link
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.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:11 (ten years ago) link
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.
― timellison, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:18 (ten years ago) link
where's the C#?
― wk, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:19 (ten years ago) link
It's the fifth in F#5. It has no real structural weight.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:20 (ten years ago) link
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.
― wk, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:21 (ten years ago) link
It doesn't? I think it's crucial to that progression.
― timellison, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:22 (ten years ago) link
Almost as a dissonance (which might reinforce the idea of the song tending more toward minor modality).
― timellison, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:23 (ten years ago) link
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.
― wk, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:25 (ten years ago) link
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.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:27 (ten years ago) link
yeah, I was agreeing with you
― wk, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:28 (ten years ago) link
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.
― timellison, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:28 (ten years ago) link
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).
― timellison, Saturday, 3 August 2013 20:33 (ten years ago) link
Sund4r and wk otm.
― The O RLY of Everything (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 3 August 2013 22:16 (ten years ago) link
Also, since when did C# over an E chord imply major, have you heard of the Dorian mode, Tim?
― The O RLY of Everything (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 3 August 2013 22:19 (ten years ago) link
I think we've even had a thread or two dedicated to that mode.
― The O RLY of Everything (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 3 August 2013 22:20 (ten years ago) link
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.)
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 23:06 (ten years ago) link
this V[6]
V[4/2], sorry
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 August 2013 23:07 (ten years ago) link
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."
― timellison, Sunday, 4 August 2013 05:09 (ten years ago) link
(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.)
― timellison, Sunday, 4 August 2013 05:10 (ten years ago) link
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).
― timellison, Sunday, 4 August 2013 05:14 (ten years ago) link
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).
― timellison, Sunday, 4 August 2013 05:26 (ten years ago) link
I'm slightly drunk and never listened to the Sonics song before tonight but listening to it now, I'd be fine with saying it's an extended tonic prolongation too, yes. In fact, I think that was probably part of the point of their changing the chords: to reduce the sense of harmonic movement/progression. There's a greater sense of tension in the Sonics' version compared to the Kingsmen's.
The pedal point is another difference between the Stooges' song and the Sonics'. Even if you analyse it as an inner voice, it still makes that 'III' chord seem more like an inverted i. (I would normally try to analyse mediant triads as tonic or dominant harmony when possible anyway.)
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 4 August 2013 05:39 (ten years ago) link
I think that was probably part of the point of their changing the chords: to reduce the sense of harmonic movement/progression.
Yeah!
I agree with all that other than to maybe make a case for mediant triads as just really significant things in their own right in rock and roll, distinguishing them from inverted and embellished tonic or dominant chords.
― timellison, Sunday, 4 August 2013 05:55 (ten years ago) link
What about I-IV-V songs? I was trying to think of examples and came up with a couple - "Do You Love Me" by the Contours and "Gee" by the Crows. In both songs, you have passages where the chords are moving quickly through the cycle and then there are passages where it clearly builds slower toward a cadence. Are the passages where the chords are changing quicker all tonic prolongation, even though there are IV and a V chords?
― timellison, Sunday, 4 August 2013 15:48 (ten years ago) link
― wk, Saturday, August 3, 2013 1:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
OTM, in any transposition. Not in any stretch. Not even with theory snobbery removed. All the songs xhuxk has mentioned go I-bVII-vi or I-V-IV or something like that, which makes me wonder if some people hear "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (basically G5 - F#5 - E5 with a high E drone) as being in G instead of E?!? i.e. the same chord progression as "Oh Yoko". Is that possible?!
― a blessing and an inspiration (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 4 August 2013 16:05 (ten years ago) link
Oh, "Venus and Furs" and "Phoenix" obv excepted :)
― a blessing and an inspiration (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 4 August 2013 16:09 (ten years ago) link
I think people were mistaking riffs that have a vaguely similar rhythm and contour as having a similar 'chord progression'??
(Btw, "G5-F#5-E5 with a pedal point on E" was the first thing I said. 'Theory snobbery' only came in when I had to argue the point.:P)
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 4 August 2013 16:48 (ten years ago) link
nah man I wasn't calling you a snob at all, your breakdown has been interesting. Just trying to point out that when people are saying "not the same chord progression" it's not because of some subtle difference, it's because they are completely different. Did you try singing I wanna be your dog along with Oh Yoko yet, btw? Kinda fun
― a blessing and an inspiration (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 4 August 2013 16:54 (ten years ago) link
It's cool, fgti. Was feeling defensive, I guess.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 4 August 2013 17:50 (ten years ago) link
This revive turned out to be pretty interesting. Enjoyed everybody's comments.
― The O RLY of Everything (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 4 August 2013 18:01 (ten years ago) link
Just started burning that massive history of female punk. Don't much care for this, but it clearly belongs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VxILA32Nd4
― clemenza, Saturday, 12 October 2013 00:35 (ten years ago) link
Buzzcocks, "Something's Gone Wrong Again" has not only the riff but the exact same one-note piano as the original.
Hmm, this thread - most of these songs are nothing like I Wanna Be Your Dog chord progression! Bela Lugosi's Dead and the end of Mudhoney's Halloween definitely are though.
Was wondering about this...would some of those curious examples be given if thread title asked for 'riff' instead of 'chord progression'?
― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Friday, 25 October 2013 07:00 (ten years ago) link
Ty Segall - Manipulator
― nostormo, Wednesday, 24 June 2015 23:32 (nine years ago) link
Chrisma, "Black Silk Stocking"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DY-MYND-zg
― Arthur Lowe & Love (Tom D.), Friday, 26 July 2019 20:03 (five years ago) link
Alternative TV, "Splitting In Two"
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Wednesday, 1 April 2020 14:07 (four years ago) link
The Fall managed it twice - the peel session version of Clasp Hands used it too...― Geoffrey Priory (big peach), Saturday, September 16, 2006 12:34 PM (fourteen years ago)
― Geoffrey Priory (big peach), Saturday, September 16, 2006 12:34 PM (fourteen years ago)
Thrice if you include "Big New Prinz" which is like a mash-up of "Rock & Roll pt 2" & "IWBYD".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wygQmJ59E4Q
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 25 January 2021 07:00 (three years ago) link
Yo La Tengo - "Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEVK7oJNw5A
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 25 January 2021 07:08 (three years ago) link
Just heard “Phoenix” by The Cult blasting out of a nearby barbecue place which brought me to this thread.
― Groovy Situation Vacant (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 19 May 2022 20:24 (two years ago) link