I have no clue if non-musicians know when you are listening to two-chord songs, or whether you find them monotonous/repetitive vs. groove-y/mesmerizing.
But I was watching this documentary on Mavis Staples: https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=853869 and realized I’ll Take You There is a two-chord song. Muscle Shoals Swamper bassist David Hood lays down the classic bassline, bopping between C and F. Period. The I chord and IV chord - forever, thankyouverymuch.
So - musicians: any thoughts on it’s drivingly simple structure?
Non-musicians: do you realize you are listening to a two-chord song, or, at the very least, that this is a super simple song? How do you tend to process that? I mean, it ain’t exactly progressive rock
The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” is still considered a landmark advance in Western popular music, but it’s famously two-chord.
I can think of at least two “genres” that are very sparse with chords: those based on or inspired by styles that are based on a drone (Indian classical music, e.g., an inspiration for “Tomorrow Never Knows”); and, those where dancing 'til you drop is the point (funk; dance-oriented pop since the 80s; EDM; and punk, too, though that’s usually close enough to “traditional rock” that it will have a third chord in there somewhere).
I’d call myself somewhere between a “musician” and a “non-musician” – and I’d say that a song with only one or two chords will be noticeably boring to me if there isn’t something else great going on to compensate: interesting rhythm, soulful singing, memorable melodies… Your Stax examples obviously compensate with all this and more.
There may be a third chord in the guitar lead and at the very end, but I haven’t tried to suss that out. But overall, he toggles between the I Chord (E) and the IV chord (A), sometimes for longer intervals, and sometimes shorter intervals. But man, it sounds so much more complex than that, with all of the great lead fills, changes in dynamics, etc.
What makes that Chris Isaak song stand out to me is the lack of a bridge (middle eight). Even in harmonically sparse genres, there is often a contrasting “B” section of some sort (and that’s where the second or third chord is introduced, along with a different “feel” — melody, or instrumentation, or loudness…).
Chris Isaak is a master of two-chord songs that have no middle eight but do have a lead break - check out the gorgeous organ in the middle of this song that never does anything but toggle between the I and IV chord. I Want Your Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DMSnQ8fouI
My all-time favorite Chris Isaak song is It Must Be Wrong to Love You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGoohR2bQUE you guessed it: it’s two chords, bouncing between E and A, just like the first song I linked to, Beautiful Homes.
Dude knows how to work magic in those chords. This song just hypnotizes me.
Wow, so bluesy — milking those sevenths! If either of those songs were sung by, say, John Lee Hooker with just a delta blues acoustic guitar, you’d assume they were bayou originals.
“Jump Into The Fire” – D chord and Dsus4; Nilsson keeps it interesting by singing more and more like a crazy man. Then a drum solo (too long, IMHO). 7 minutes.
“Everyday People” Sly and the Family Stone – I would swear it’s only one chord, but there could be a quick additional chord in there; the Internet chord charts have it that way. Interesting vox keep it moving along.
Apparently not, since I’ve never noticed any two-chord songs before, or paid attention to how many chords were involved in a song, but
I don’t know—it’s entirely possible that if you listed some two-chord songs I was already familiar with, I’d say "Yeah, I can hear that, and now that you mention it, that song has always sounded awfully simple to me.
Okay, now that you mention it, I can hear that. I wouldn’t have thought of that song as “simple”—it may have only two chords, but there’s enough other stuff going on to make it interesting—but it does have a droning, hypnotic quality.
Hmm - I’ll be: appears that it is. I hadn’t realized, or apparently listened hard enough. Damn, and that one’s tattooed on my brain, like anyone who lived through its heyday. Hilarious.
Fire on the Mountain by the Grateful Dead as well. A lot of the energy is in the groove, especially with the interplay between the two drummers and Phil Lesh’s loping bass line. Jerry kind of meanders around quite a bit both in key and modally but I imagine Bobby got pretty bored eventually.
For the Beatles, there’s a couple of them, but “Eleanor Rigby” would be my clear choice for favorite. “Paperback Writer” is also pretty much just two chords, but if you count the vocal harmony a capella part, there’s an extra chord in there.
I mentioned in the other thread: “Whole Wide World” by Wreckless Eric (current/recent radio play version by Cage the Elephant."
“Roadrunner” by The Modern Lovers is a gritty, garage rock organ-and-guitar, I-IV fueled fun talk-song. One of my favorites. Reminds me of what the Doors could be if they made music I liked. “Sister Ray” by Velvet Underground would also fit above, and precede the Modern Lovers song by almost a decade.
“Molly’s Lips” by Vaselines. Their quirky, jangly version (complete with bicycle horn in the chorus) is great, but Nirvana’s manic cover is what hooked me a) on Nirvana and b) introduced me to the Vaselines (which took me a little while to warm up to, as I was coming from a mainstream rock music background, but it was one of my bridges to “college” music.)
“Milestones” by Miles Davis is essentially just C11 (or Gm7/C) and Am7. I’m sure there must be many more modal jazz examples out there. “So What” is essentially a two-chord vamp, but it gets transposed up a whole step for the B section, so we do have four chords there.
Oh, “Jane Says” by Jane’s Addiction is another good one that just came to mind.
Also, Bo Diddley’s “Mona” (and similar songs) all tend to be two chords. It’s all just E-A (or E-Asus2 or whatever variant) over and over and over (though I’ll throw in a D for the Asus2 in there every so often).
