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Single-shape songs: spanning pop, rock, blues, grunge, folk, reggae, jazz, funk, soul, calypso, classical, avant-garde, & beyond

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Bo Diddley (G) • Run Through the Jungle (D7) • Electric Avenue (A) • Chain of Fools (C7) • Slow (Bbm) • Small Car (Bbm7) • Papa was a Rolling Stone (Bbm7) • Freedom Jazz Dance (Bb7alt) • Carmina Burana: Ecce Gratum (F) • Rheingold Prelude (Eb) • Tomorrow Never Knows (C) • Exodus (Am) • Whole Lotta Love (E5) • Shoppin’ for Clothes (F7) • Country Boy (C#) • Run On for a Long Time (F#) • The Monkey (E) • Peter Gunn Theme (F7) • Ever So Lonely (C) • Coconut (C7) • Andy (C5) • Bad to the Bone (G) • Crosseyed and Painless (Bm7) • Who is He and What is He to You? (Abm7) • One-Chord Song (G) • Sossego (C7) • Jukebox Babe (A) • I’m Bad Like Jesse James (E) • Totally Wired (D) • Thank You (E7) • Hallogallo (E) • Low Rider (G) • Love Buzz (Bb5) • Words of Wisdom (Am7) • Trees (Em11) • Loser (D) • It’s All Good (G) • Who Knows? (C7#9) • Extremely Cool (D7) • Mono Plane (E7) • Machomusic (F5) • Short and Sweet (E) • HONOURABLE MENTIONS

A collection of my favourite one-chord songs: i.e. those built around a single chord throughout, with no discernible shifts in harmonic focus. I’ve aimed to be fairly restrictive here: while countless tunes loop up an unchanging groove, many of them aren’t really ‘chords’ as such (more just a bassline or melodic ostinato). The tabs below cover several chord options for each song, plus other key elements: despite their ‘static harmony’, they offer plenty of variety in terms of melody, rhythm, and timbre. Also see my Short Jazzy Loops and Golden-Age Hip-Hop transcriptions – and don’t hesitate to suggest more tunes!

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• Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley) •

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• NOTES: Among the most influential guitar songs of all time, this self-titled classic is driven by its relentless ‘Bo Diddley beat’ (counted ‘3-3-4-2-4’): a variation of the Afro-Cuban clave pattern linked to gospel traditions as well as the ‘hambone’ style of body percussion used by street performers (also see other tunes which use the same groove). Bo Diddley in fact played the song using the ‘0-2-2-1-0-0’ Emaj shape, turned into Gmaj via a 3fr capo.

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—Listen: Bo Diddley (1955)—

• Run Through The Jungle (C.C.R.) •

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• NOTES: A strident song by John Fogerty, which, despite its status as an iconic anti-Vietnam anthem, was actually inspired by issues closer to home: “The thing I wanted to talk about was gun control and the proliferation of guns…I [read] that’s there was one gun for every man, woman, and child in America [lyrics: ‘200 million guns are loaded’], which I found staggering…I just thought it was disturbing that it was such a jungle for our citizens, just to walk around in our own country [with] so many private guns”. [n.b. The song also led to a famous frivolous lawsuit, when CCR’s old label boss Saul Zaentz attempted to sue Fogerty for ‘sounding too much like himself’: see Fantasy Inc. vs. Fogerty].

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—Listen: Run Through The Jungle (1970)—

• Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant) •

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• NOTES: Composed by pioneering British-Guyanese vocalist Eddy Grant in response to the 1981 Brixton Riots in London, sparked by the effects of racist policing on the area’s predominantly Afro-Caribbean population (Electric Avenue is a street in Brixton: itself named via being one of the very first streets lit by electricity). Match the rhythmic feel with different Amaj shapes.

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—Listen: Electric Avenue (1982)—

• Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin) •

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• NOTES: One of Aretha’s most underrated songs, composed by Don Covay based on the gospel tunes of his youth, and backed by the twin-guitar duo of Joe South & Jimmy Johnson – both of whom bring a heavy growl via tuning 4 semitones below Standard (see my C Standard tuning page). Try mixing major and minor chords to capture the ambiguities of the vocal lines [n.b. the original is slightly sharp of concert C: here’s a pitch-corrected file].

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—Listen: Chain of Fools (1967)—

• Slow (Kylie Minogue) •

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• NOTES: Released on her 2003 Body Language album, Kylie cited Slow as her all-time favourite release in an interview two decades later (in her view, the song is about “how time and space have a different meaning when you meet someone…I loved the way the song had this push-pull effect; the musical and lyrical combination gives you [that] sense…”). One of the first ‘minimal space disco’ tracks to hit the charts, it maintains a sultry Bbm groove (albeit with a brief shift in bassline focus at the bridge-ish section @ 2:05).

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—Listen: Slow (2003)—

• Small Car (Marvin Pontiac) •

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• NOTES: The mysterious singer-guitarist known as ‘Marvin Pontiac’ is in fact a fantastical creation of artist, actor, and horn player John Lurie – prompted by the music industry’s obsession for finding artists with ‘backstories’ (or finding ‘authentic’ backstories for aspiring artists…). Pontiac’s ‘credentials’ are detailed in the album’s liner notes: “Born in 1932, the son of an African father from Mali and a white Jewish mother from New York, the father’s original last name was Toure, but he changed it to Pontiac when the family moved to Detroit…His mother was institutionalised in 1936, and the father brought the young boy to Bamako, Mali, where Marvin was raised…At 15 Marvin moved by himself to Chicago, where he became versed in playing blues harmonica” – also peppered with tales of bank robberies, fist-fights with Little Walter, and attempting to initiate benevolent contact with aliens – before noting Pontiac’s supposed demise in a 1977 bus crash (“…ending the life of one of the most enigmatic geniuses of modern music”). Use Bbm7 shapes to match his hypnotic rhythm-shifting refrains (“in a car, in a car, in a small car; in a car, in a car, in a small car driving…”) – and learn more about Pontiac and Lurie in a Far Out article, including how Iggy Pop and David Bowie played along with the hoax by providing publicity quotes (Bowie: “Pontiac was so uncontainably prescient that one might think that these tracks had been assembled today…”).

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—Listen: Small Car (1999)—

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“At the age of 17, Marvin was accused by the great Little Walter of copying his harmonica style. This accusation led to a fistfight outside of a small club on Maxwell Street. Losing a fight to the much smaller Little Walter was so humiliating to the young Marvin that he left Chicago and moved to Lubbock, Texas, where he became a plumber’s assistant…Not much is known about him for the next three years. There are unsubstantiated rumors that Marvin may have been involved in a bank robbery in 1950. In 1952, he had a minor hit with the then-controversial song I’m a Doggy. Oddly enough, unbeknownst to Marvin and his label, he simultaneously had an enormous bootleg success in Nigeria…Although approached by other labels, Marvin refused to record for anyone unless the owner of the label came to his home and mowed his lawn…” (Marvin Pontiac/Far Out)

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• Papa Was a Rolling Stone (The Temptations) •

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• NOTES: Originally recorded by Motown group The Undisputed Truth, then immortalised by The Temptations in a longform 1972 jam – held together by a repeated bass/hi-hat pattern, supplemented with congas, trumpets, and Wah-Wah Watson’s eponymous electric tone. Add to the sound with a variety of Bbm7 shapes, and try improvising in Bb Minor Pentatonic.

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—Listen: Papa Was a Rolling Stone (1972)—

• Freedom Jazz Dance (Eddie Harris) •

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• NOTES: Composed by Eddie Harris, Freedom Jazz Dance is arguably the only jazz standard not to require any chord changes – rooted to Bb7 throughout, albeit with different alterations used to support the song’s jumpy, angular head melody (…however, performers will often spice up this statis by implying ‘overlaid’ changes: usually built around these two progressions). See more super-concise jazz standards in my Short Jazzy Loops article.

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—Listen: Freedom Jazz Dance (1967)—

• Carmina Burana: Ecce Gratum (Carl Orff) •

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• NOTES: Carl Orff’s static Fmaj setting of a 13th-century Latin poem forms the 5th movement of his Carmina Burana, a work better known for its louder, wilder moments. The poem’s title translates as ‘Behold the Pleasant’, with lyrics evoking rejuvenating seasonal themes (“The pleasant and longed-for spring brings back joyfulness, violet flowers fill the meadows, the sun brightens everything; Now withdraw the rigours of winter…”). Use a 1fr capo to intensify the open-string drones.

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—Listen: Carmina Burana: Ecce Gratum (1935)—

• Das Rheingold Prelude (Richard Wagner) •

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• NOTES: In contrast to the apocalyptic orchestrations often found elsewhere in his Ring Cycle, Wagner’s legendary ode to the River Rhein sustains a simple Ebmaj triad for its entire 136-bar length (as per a German quip, ‘The Rhein flows in E flat’). Described by composer Robert Erickson as “the only well-known drone piece in the concert repertory” – with all low-register instruments holding an Eb tone throughout the whole piece. Consider tuning to Eb if you want to capture more of the piece’s full-spectrum majesty.

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—Listen: Das Rheingold Prelude (1854)—

• Tomorrow Never Knows (The Beatles) •

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• NOTES: Debate persists as to whether Tomorrow Never Knows can be considered a true one-chorder, with a notable shift in harmonic focus coming at the end of each refrain (‘dying’; ‘shining’; ‘being’; ‘knowing’, etc) – but, as a fellow British guitarist-sitarist named George, I just couldn’t leave it out. Inspired by Harrison’s deep interest in North Indian classical music, the lyrics draw on ideas from Timothy Leary, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the group’s own burgeoning psychedelic explorations – combined with tanpura drones, tape-reversed guitar parts, and Lennon’s vocals being fed through a rotating speaker cabinet usually used for a Hammond organ. Also check out an amazing cross-cultural cover by Indo-British vocalist Susheela Raman, in collaboration with a gamelan ensemble from central Java.

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—Listen: Tomorrow Never Knows (1966)—

• Exodus (Bob Marley) •

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• NOTES: A bassy jam written soon after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt, Exodus was Bob Marley’s first single to find success with mainstream American audiences. Supported by the twin guitars of Al Anderson and Junior Marvin, Marley’s lyrics offer a concise summary of his core Rastafarian beliefs, connecting Biblical tales of Moses with modern-day Black liberation struggles (“We the generation, trod through great tribulation; We know where we’re going; We know where we’re from; We’re leaving Babylon…”).

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—Listen: Exodus (1977)—

• Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin) •

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• NOTES: Save for the un-chorded instrumental section, Whole Lotta Love is based around a repeated phrase throughout (voted the greatest guitar riff of all time by listeners of BBC Radio 2 in 2014). The lyrics ‘borrow’ heavily from Willie Dixon’s You Need Love (…in 1985, Dixon would win a copyright suit against the band: also read about more of Zeppelin’s prolific borrowings). Play along with Jimmy Page’s heavy licks in Em Pentatonic – and also peruse his use of altered tunings in my World of Tuning project.

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—Listen: Whole Lotta Love (1969)—

• Shoppin’ for Clothes (The Coasters) •

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• NOTES: A Leiber/Stoller song which recounts the tale of a man shopping for suits, who peruses many expensive designs while demonstrating an intricate knowledge of 60s fashion trends – he eventually picks out several of them, before having his credit line denied (“Go get that paper so I can sign on the dotted line”…”I’m sorry my man, but your credit didn’t go through; That’s a suit you’ll never own…”). The harmony outlines an F7 throughout, with breathy horn lines and sparse guitar tones combining for a smooth, tiptoeing groove.

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—Listen: Shoppin’ for Clothes (1960)—

• Country Boy (Fred Neil) •

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• NOTES: Folk singer Fred Neil, despite enjoying great renown amongst his fellow Greenwich Village songwriters, faded into relative obscurity from around the 1970s – the product of his aversion to live performance as well as his deeply-held commitment to the preservation of dolphins (refer to his 1967 track The Dolphins, and read about his work founding the Dolphin Research Project in 1970). Neil’s Country Boy, strummed on his signature 12-string in a similar rhythm to Bo Diddley, is very slightly sharp of concert pitch [play along to a pitch-corrected file here].

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—Listen: Country Boy (1965)—

• Run On for a Long Time (Bill Landford) •

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• NOTES: Ignoring the initial pitch-setting strums, Bill Landford’s captivating setting of a classic folk tune is laden with heavy vocal drones throughout, emphasising the spiritual concerns of the lyrics (“Great God, I been down on my bended knees; Talking to a man from Galilee; Michael spoke, and he sounded so sweet; I thought I heard the shuffle of angels’ feet…”). Add to the track’s unusually quiet guitar part with F#7 shapes.

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—Listen: Run On for a Long Time (1949)—

• The Monkey (Dave Bartholomew) •

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• NOTES: Found in Luke McKernan’s excellent song list: “Cherished by fans of New Orleans R’n’B and all progressive-thinking primates, [The Monkey] is one of the great one-chord songs…One of the great behind-the-scenes figures of American popular music, [Dave Bartholomew] helped create rock’n’roll through his crucial collaborations with Fats Domino” [n.b. the original is very sharp of concert E, in fact falling closer to F: here’s a pitch-corrected file].

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—Listen: The Monkey (1957)—

• Peter Gunn Theme (Duane Eddy) •

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• NOTES: Henry Mancini’s Peter Gunn Theme – composed for the TV show of the same name – hit the charts in 1959 via Duane Eddy’s heavy rendition: one of the original ‘big guitar riffs’ (who seems to have tuned up a semitone to F Standard for the recording). As per Mancini, the piece “derives more from rock and roll than from jazz. I used guitar and piano in unison, playing…an ostinato, which means ‘obstinate’…sustained throughout the piece, giving it a sinister effect, with some frightened saxophone sounds and shouting brass. The piece has one chord throughout, and a super-simple top line…”. Also featured prominently in The Blues Brothers film, as well as in The Sopranos (in a strange but effective mashup with The Police’s Every Breath You Take).

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—Listen: Peter Gunn Theme (1959)—

• Ever So Lonely (Monsoon) •

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• NOTES: The debut single from Indo-British group Monsoon sets piano, sitar, and tabla behind the raga-infused vocals of Sheila Chandra, aged just 16 at the time of recording (four decades later, she recounted that “The most radical thing is the instrumental, when it breaks down and for eight glorious bars you’re dancing to a classical raga; and loving it, whoever you are…Many people, especially from the Asian community, have contacted me over the years to tell me how significant it was for them…to see one of their own on TV”). Supplement their sounds with variants of C7 – and also check out a well-known cover by Jakatta, as well as the North Indian Raag Jog, a possible source for Ever So Lonely’s core melodies (see transcription).

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—Listen: Ever So Lonely (1981)—

• Coconut (Harry Nilsson) •

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• NOTES: A bizarre song by an unclassifiable singer-songwriter, with a fingerpicked C7 anchoring semi-coherent recollections of a stomach illness, apparently both caused and cured by a mysterious lime-and-coconut concoction – replete with atonal shrieks and unsettling single-line repetitions (in the words of one YouTube commenter, “is this what schizophrenia sounds like?”). Also see another Nilsson single-chorder: Jump into the Fire (D).

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—Listen: Coconut (1971)—

• Andy (Moe Tucker) •

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• NOTES: Despite its avant-garde chromatics, Andy is built on a static a C5 power chord – influenced by Tucker’s previous drumming duties in The Velvet Underground, a group renowned for their droning philosophies (…in turn drawn from La Monte Young and the Indian tanpura). Learn more about her life in a New Yorker profile (“Tucker was an I.B.M. keypunch operator when she started drumming for the Velvet Underground in 1965”).

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—Listen: Andy (1989)—

• Bad to the Bone (George Thorogood) •

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• NOTES: Although George Thorogood’s most famous tune has become a classic of the self-aggrandising blues format, he didn’t actually write it for himself: first offering it to Muddy Waters (after all, the song is essentially an update of Mannish Boy), and then to Bo Diddley – both of whom declined due to contractual issues. Thorogood’s take is in Open G tuning, but you can still play the slide riff on 2-3-4str, which are unchanged from Standard.

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—Listen: Bad to the Bone (1982)—

• Crosseyed and Painless (Talking Heads) •

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• NOTES: An odd blend of cowbells, funk guitar stabs, and West African keyboard grooves from the group’s seminal Remain in Light album. Intriguingly, the rhythmic delivery of the final ‘fact verse’ (“Facts are simple and facts are straight; Facts are lazy and facts are late…”) was also influenced by ultra-early hip-hop, a full decade before it would hit the mainstream – specifically Kurtis Blow’s The Breaks, given to David Byrne by drummer Chris Frantz [also check out Kurtis Blow’s bizarre Bob Dylan collaboration, which sees the latter’s folksy drawl spittin’ some actual bars…].

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—Listen: Crosseyed and Painless (1980)—

• Who is He and What is He to You? (Bill Withers) •

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• NOTES: Withers co-wrote this 1972 hit with Stan McKenny (“Stan sent those lyrics to me in the mail. I’ve gotten a gazillion things in the mail, and that’s the only one I’ve ever done something with, because I could see it. If I don’t see it…I don’t attempt to say it”). Prominently featured on the soundtracks for Tarantino’s Jackie Brown in 1997, and Grand Theft Auto 4 in 2008. Play along with Abm shapes (although the original uses Em shapes with a 4fr capo).

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—Listen: Who is He And What Is He To You? (1972)—

• One Chord Song (Keith Urban) •

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• NOTES: A hidden track at the end of his 2002 Golden Road album, holding a Gmaj underneath some playful lyrics (“There ain’t too much I can do with a melody; This is my one chord song…I can make it sound like it’s another chord [holds a C]; But you’d be fooled because it’s only one…”) [n.b. broadly speaking, this C sounds ‘distant’ as it is the G Major scale’s 4th degree, implying a different set of melodic resolutions to those of a Gmaj triad]

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—Listen: One Chord Song (2002)—

• Sossego (Tim Maia) •

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• NOTES: An enchanting groove from Brazil’s early-70s funk pioneer, which loops a powerful bassline throughout – use this solid foundation to explore the different jazzy C chords above (& read more about Maia: “Large, in charge, and completely out of control, he was the personification of rock-star excess: having lived through five marriages, multiple prison sentences, voluminous drug habits, and a stint in an UFO-obsessed religious cult…”) [n.b. the original is sharp of concert pitch: here’s a pitch-corrected file]

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—Listen: Sossego (1978)—

• Jukebox Babe (Alan Vega) •

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• NOTES: A punk-rockabilly tune driven by its characteristic rhythmic roll (subdivided ‘2-2-4-3-3-2’, with the very first segment played quietly). Also see Vega’s prolific work as a visual artist, spanning abstract portrait painting to light-and-shadow sculptures (“He was always making stuff, but he never really cared whether it was seen or not; it was just something he did…”).

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—Listen: Jukebox Babe (1981)—

• I’m Bad Like Jesse James (John Lee Hooker) •

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• NOTES: One the most genuinely menacing blues tunes I’ve ever heard (“I may shoot you; I may cut you; I may drown you; I don’t know; because I’m mad…”), featuring a graphic portrayal of a revenge murder. Hooker maintains a sparse, unforgiving groove throughout, spanning the tones of Em Pentatonic in various combinations – try grooving to it with these bluesy E7 variants.

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—Listen: I’m Bad Like Jesse James (1992)—

• Totally Wired (The Fall) •

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• NOTES: One of the prolific post-punk group’s best-known tunes, notable for Mark E. Smith’s substance-fuelled, straight-to-the-point lyrics (“I drank a jar of coffee; Then I took some of these; And now I’m totally wired…”). In his own words, “It should have been number one, but it wasn’t, so what can you do? I’m not going to degrade myself and do smoother and smoother Totally Wireds, which is what people are doing, man – and don’t tell me that’s not true.”

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—Listen: Totally Wired (1980)—

• Thank You (Sly & the Family Stone) •

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• NOTES: Among the first unveilings of slap bass (courtesy of Larry Graham), Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) also showcases Freddie Stone on guitar, Greg Errico on drums, Cynthia Robinson on trumpet, and Jerry Martini on tenor sax. The group would later rework the track as Thank You for Talkin’ to Me, Africa on their 1971 album There’s A Riot Goin’ On – and the original guitar line was also famously sampled in Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation.

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—Listen: Thank You (1969)—

• Hallogallo (Neu) •

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• NOTES: Released as the opening track of group’s debut album, Hallogallo is a textbook example of Klaus Dinger’s ‘motorik’ beat: a signature 4/4 Krautrock groove based on the pattern ‘kick–kick–snare–kick; kick–kick–snare–kick’ (n.b. he would later refer to it as ‘lange gerade’ [long-straight] or ‘endlose gerade’ [endless straight], or ‘Apache’ – in his words, the beat is “essentially about life; how you have to keep moving, get on and stay in motion…”). The track’s title is a play on the German ‘halligalli’, a slang term for enthusiastic partying – join the fun with Emaj shapes.

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—Listen: Hallogallo (1972)—

• Low Rider (War) •

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• NOTES: An ode to Chicano car-modding culture, War is a much more relaxed tune than the group’s name might suggest, holding firm on Gmaj from start to finish – although the bass and vocal melodies around it mix both major and minor 3rds, amidst saxophone imitations of car chases and passing police sirens. Also known via its persistent use in Marmite adverts on British TV – and covered by Korn in 1996 (as a brief interlude), and by Barry White in 1999.

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—Listen: Low Rider (1975)—

• Love Buzz (Nirvana) •

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• NOTES: Nirvana’s first single is one of their more experimental tracks, with a strident Bb5 power chord supporting melodies in the lower half of the Phrygian Dominant scale, interspersed with rapid blasts of the Minor Pentatonic (n.b. the original seems to be played in the A position, tuned up a half-step to F Standard). The song is in fact a cover, having been composed by Dutch group Shocking Blue in 1969 (their version showcases a sitar: see Raag Basant Mukhari for the likely source of the Phrygian Dominant melody).

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—Listen: Love Buzz (1989)—

• Words of Wisdom (Tupac) •

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• NOTES: Perhaps Tupac’ most articulate political track, Words of Wisdom is a rallying cry for radical Black liberation (“Pledge allegiance to a flag that neglects us; Honor a man that refuses to respect us…The constitution, it don’t apply to me; And Lady Liberty? Stupid bitch lied to me…No Malcolm X in my history text, why’s that?; ’Cause he tried to educate and liberate all Blacks…”). Train your musico-mental independence by focusing on the lyrics while playing Shock G’s loop behind them – and also try improvising to the rapid syllabic cadences of Pac’s flow.

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—Listen: Words of Wisdom (1991)—

• Trees (Blurt) •

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• NOTES: Constructed around punctuating ostinatos rather than clear chords, this unique post-punk work was conceived by poet, puppeteer, and horn player Ted Milton, supported by his brother Jake on drums and Peter Creese on guitar. As per the Listening Post: “Trees feels like it’s on the brink – of what I’m not sure – but its hypnotic feel, yowling sax, and mesmerising looped melodies express movement and anticipation all at the same time…”).

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—Listen: Trees (1982)—

• Loser (Beck) •

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• NOTES: More of a riff-based jam than a truly ‘chordal’ tune, Beck’s biggest hit -tuned to Open D, and supplemented by producer Carl Stephenson’s sitar – has origins in his pre-fame bar-playing days: “I’d be banging away on a Son House tune and the whole audience would be talking – so out of desperation or boredom, I’d make up these ridiculous songs just to see if people were listening. Loser was an extension of that”. The title arose from Beck’s ill-fated attempts to imitate rapper Chuck D’s vocal flow: “When [I heard] it back, I thought, ‘Man, I’m the worst rapper in the world, I’m just a loser.’ So I started singing ‘I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me’…”.

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—Listen: Loser (1993)—

• It’s All Good (Bob Dylan) •

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• NOTES: Inspired by Dylan realising that he had heard the titular phrase “one too many times”, It’s All Good is an accordion-led song which remains in bluesy G territory throughout (albeit with some freedom to switch between major and minor 3rds). The line “I’ll pluck off your beard and blow it in your face” is a nod to a soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 2 Scene 2: “Who calls me villain?…Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face…”).

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—Listen: It’s All Good (2009)—

• Who Knows? (Jimi Hendrix) •

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• NOTES: Built around a repeating pentatonic riff, this trio jam with Buddy Miles and Billy Cox is best known via Jimi’s Fillmore East performances on the first day of 1970 (during the second show, he exclaimed “I hope you don’t mind us jamming a little bit, we’re just messing around…”). Join the rhythm section with funky C7 extensions, including Jimi’s signature 7#9 voicing [n.b. the original is slightly sharp of concert pitch: I’ve pitch-corrected it here].

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—Listen: Who Knows? (1970)—

• Extremely Cool (Chuck E. Weiss) •

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• NOTES: A slow D7 jam from an oddball stalwart of the L.A. songwriting scene, known for his associations with Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones (both of whom namechecked Weiss in songs: Jitterbug Boy & Chuck E.’s In Love). Weiss’ concise inclinations are also evident in that his first album, 1981’s The Other Side of Town, comes in at only 24 minutes long.

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—Listen: Extremely Cool (1999)—

• Mono Plane (Slapp Happy) •

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• NOTES: A steady-rooted jam by the English-German-American avant-pop trio (later subsumed into Henry Cow). Accompanied by Krautrock stalwarts Faust, Dagmar Krause’s shouted vocals intermingle with Peter Blegvad’s overdriven guitar stabs and Anthony Moore’s stripped-down keyboard grooves, in places reminiscent of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. Improvise freely around an E root.

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—Listen: Mono Plane (1972)—

• Machomusic (Peter Gordon) •

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• NOTES: An exuberant collaboration between avant-garde pianist ‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny and experimental horn player Peter Gordon (not to be confused with Peter & Gordon, a quaint 1960s pop duo) – undoubtedly influenced by Gordon’s high-school days spent hanging out with Captain Beefheart during the recording of Trout Mask Replica. Despite its melodic clash and chaos, the track remains anchored to the solid foundations of an E5 power chord.

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—Listen: Machomusic (2019)—

• Short & Sweet (Spinal Tap) •

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• NOTES: In their 2009 Back From the Dead interview, Britain’s loudest band outline the philosophies behind their own one-chord composition: “One time in South London we played Short and Sweet for two hours: and two hours of that relentless Bo Diddley beat, it left a mark. It scarred me internally – you literally go Diddley – but it was worth it. It’s like living an entire life while playing one song…But [the single release] is just 4 minutes: compressed, but still excessive; like a ‘speed meditation’…It’s a tribute song to ourselves…” [also see my Guitar World article Up to 11: A harmonic-melodic analysis of Spinal Tap’s genre-bending roots in jazz, J.S. Bach, and Indian raga]

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—Listen: Short and Sweet (2009)—

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“Its only one chord, a good old E: good enough for your grandad, good enough for you. The funny thing about playing a song with one chord is that it forces the people listening to imagine other chords [n.b. see Freedom Jazz Dance] – or other places to be, or things to be listening to – and to go through an entire fantasy of what it might have been if it had a bridge. It’s like a meditation or mantra, we keep zoning in on that chord. The more you hear it, the less you hear it; and the more you hear it, the less you need to hear it.” (Spinal Tap)

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—Honourable Mentions—

A few interesting examples of ‘near misses’…

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• The Story of One Chord (Mojo Nixon/Skid Roper): A fantastical tale of how our cavemen ancestors discovered the first chord (apparently an Emaj) – however the final verse depicts their dramatic discovery of another (Amaj).

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• American Woman (Lenny Kravitz): Though often cited as a one-chord song, the guitar solo transposes the same groove a semitone lower (by this criteria, Impressions and several other modal jazz standards would also qualify).

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• One Note Song (Tenacious D): Definitely a single-noter, save for a slight upward bend – but contains no actual chords (although the lyrics do offer some genuinely sage wisdom for our general one-chord theme: “Anyone could have written that!”, “Yeah, but who did write it?”).

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NEXT: Let me know which one-chord songs you like to play, which examples I’ve missed, etc. And if you’re looking to expand your six-string imagination, hit me up for Zoom lessons!

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