So what songs are you into that have, at most, two parts (because I can’t think of a tune that’s literally just one part) and, at the very least, no discernible verse, chorus, or bridge, whatsoever, so that it essentially comes off as an extended jam?
Sly and the Family Stone - Thank You Falletinme be Mice Elf Agin.
The Beatles White Album songs are based on chord changes. Working Class Hero his a chord sequence with melody as I can hear it. WDWDIITR is actually a blues. I think Within You Without You and other Indian songs are closer to OP.
“Werewolves of London” is the same descending piano riff from beginning to end, with one little shuffle in the middle. Do a karaoke filter on it and you’ll see.
But if WCH, WDWDIITR and WHP have, as explained in the OP, certainly no discernible verse, chorus, nor bridge, then they definitely qualify. We don’t have to rigidly adhere to the strictest and most hermetic definitions of “groove” here.
The Krautrock-type of bands had a number of these. Neu!'s work has a bunch of this. Try Hallogallo, where it’s basically all E through the whole song. Stereolab has a number of examples; I’ll point you to Metronomic Underground, which sits on that drum and bass groove the entire song, and doesn’t have discernable verse-chorus parts (although it has parts that have singing, and parts that are purely instrumental, so I don’t know if you’re counting that or not as “separate” parts.) There’s a few more examples or near-examples on that album. “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” would be another one.
Good Lovin’ – Little Rascals
Gloria – Them
96 Tears – ? & the Mysterians
(She Was Waitin’ For Her Mother At The Station In Torino And You Know I Love You Baby But It’s Getting Too Heavy To Laugh) AKA “Woman” – Shawn Phillips
The last only has 8 bars of melody repeated throughout the song but you could say the groove evolves. Having listened to this recently for the first time in many years I’d say it isn’t as successful as I remember but it’s much better than it sounds from my description.
I was wondering if songs like this counted for the OP. I was going to suggest “Mona” by Bo Diddley, which is not just almost a one-groove song, but also almost a one-chord song (minus a little guitar interlude where he slides from the chord a whole step below up to the groove chord). However, like"Gloria," while the groove doesn’t really change, there’s vocally a refrain part and a verse part. “96 Tears” has a distinct bridge to it, too, in addition to the “you’re gonna cry 96 years” refrain-ish part. Otherwise, songs like “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” and probably a gazillion other folk rock songs would also qualify.
None of the parts seemed “separate” enough to me (heh despite my referring to them as parts), so it seemed like a one-groove thing for me.
Pretty well. At 2:50 (“Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make her talk”) I was like - oh - is this gonna go into a break? But then it built up back into the song again, so…cools.
I thought his Cadillac Ranch might qualify, but after the solo, some of the instruments peel away for a near-acapella part that makes it a borderline qualificaton.
I wondered that too. The vocal repetition of “Gloria” feels like a chorus to me, and a bit more musically upbeat in that part too.
Even more distinguishing from the rest of the song - at the 1:20 mark of 96 Tears, the “To be right out there, lookin, up” part’s keyboards do slightly change to sustained notes, so this one would barely not quite cut it for the OP.
Sure, despite that reading like it’s in opposition to something I’ve stated.
I Gotcha - despite the “Now give it here” drum break @ 1:33…Sure.
Hollywod Swingin - @ 2:20 I thought it was going to go into something slightly different, but seemed to maintain the same path.
Bo Diddley - definitely.
The vocal part (“He’s a well respected man about town, doing the best things so conservatively.”) may deviate slightly, but it’s still a one-groover.
The bulk of Roadrunner by the Modern Lovers fits the OP, I think. It has that endless jam feel to it, with a couple variations, but essentially the whole song is based on I-IV-I (with a little break in the middle where the instruments drop out and there’s a a little chromatic ditty on the organ that leads back up to the main groove.)
I feel there should be something by Velvet Underground or Lou Reed that fits the OP, but I can’t find anything quite there. “Heroin” almost fits, but it kind of has distinct parts, even if the chords never change.