the magnificent seven (1981)
The Clash. Punk, UK.
key: A aeolian
mode: A aeolian — A B C D E F G A
melody: spoken/intoned
form: verse-chorus
meter: duple
English function names: tonic subdominant
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: t s
Scale degrees: i iv
Chords: Am Dm Am Dm
|:/ / / / |/ / / / :| loop for whole song, save for a couple spots...How do I find two chord songs, you ask? Other than a Google search? Those searches tend to turn up the same 30 or so usual suspects, some of which you'll find here, but my goal is to branch out from the usual fare.1 You know that thing where, say, you buy a green car and you start seeing that everyone seems to have a green car? Once I started thinking about two-chord songs, I started hearing them all over the place.
Here in Prague, we have COLOR music radio, on which I hear many two chord songs. This song — which I was already familiar with, but had never thought about its two-chordedness before — was on the playlist for the one chain restaurant I frequent on a regular basis, Bageterie Boulevard.2 So yes — I may be eating breakfast with my family at a fast-food place and realize the song being broadcast in the background has only! two! chords! That's the level of nerdosity here at the two-chords substack.
I have not actually used this song in teaching yet. I may never as it has a tiny, offhand f-bomb at the very end of the song (here in Europe that is something less of an issue, but I always worry), but as far as those go, this usage is fairly tame — it's a little joke about the length of the song. I don't know who of my students might relate to this song or find it powerful, but I do find it important to try to offer a variety of styles and hope that someone finds something they connect with.
And yet again, we have a song-length shuttle. I took a workshop with Julyen Hamilton3 who said at one point during the workshop, "Repetition kills the future." There are those who think this is a terrible thing.4 I think this kind of musical structure — far from being simplistic or unhealthy or merely hedonistic — serves an important function. There are times where it's healing and important to dance in the now and a good shuttle with a beat will do the job.
Lovingly transcribed lead-sheet, courtesy of me and Sheet Music Direct
Also, I am often looking for particular keys so that all the chords are open on ukulele, before going on to barre chords.
It's like Subway, but with fat, so that the food actually tastes good. My friend and I call it our home-away-from-home. They put their store playlists up on Spotify.
Julyen is a dancer/mover/actor/poet/musician who focuses primarily on spontaneous performance, also known as instant composition, in the avant-garde tradition. Imagine going to school where there are no desks or chairs, the lecturer/teacher moves constantly and speaks extemporaneously, and the students also move around the whole time — that's what a Julyen Hamilton workshop is like. A real experience.
Julyen is not one of them and neither am I.