The 10 best songs that only use two chords
As the adage goes, rock and roll was based on three chords and the truth. Before prog rockers came in and began playing some of the most complicated rock known to man, artists like Chuck Berry would produce nuggets of brilliance using only three blues chords to tell the story. It might not get simpler than just three chords, but artists like The Beatles and Nirvana discovered how to make it work with only two.
The main challenge with writing tunes this simple comes down to melodic constraints. Since there are only two chords to work with, artists will normally be limited in the melodic framework, usually hanging on one chord throughout the track and bringing another chord for a dash of colour to the tune. Other times, those chords are used as a pivot to capture the rising action before the tune is brought back to earth.
The most interesting cases come when artists use chords not typically used together. Rather than rely on that old-school bluesy structure, some of these songs string together some of the most mental chords and rely on their ears to create the melody to fill in the gaps.
Since listeners don’t have to worry about the musical complexity at work, the lyrics are usually pushed to the forefront, letting the musicians tell a story or put their audience in a particular frame of mind through the instrumentation. None of these tunes will win awards for their intricate understanding of music theory, but some of the greatest artists can make people forget about their lives with just two chords.
The 10 best songs that only use two chords
‘Whole Lotta Love’ – Led Zeppelin
When discussing the melodic structure of a tune, it gets a bit tricky when riffs come into the picture. Though the best tunes tend to come from a certain key, a riff could change the key a few times depending on how long they hang on certain notes. Jimmy Page was always a master of writing classic riffs, and most of the time, he just needed one chord to get the job done.
Picking up right where Led Zeppelin I left off, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ was the precursor for what would become hard rock, featuring an insistent riff that only uses a pivoting D chord to build tension before coming back to the main groove. While Robert Plant’s wailing delivery is captivating, the most intriguing part of ‘Love’ comes when there isn’t a key at all.
Partway through the tune, everything fades away as John Bonham’s hi-hat leads the charge. Instead of using typical guitar riffs, the midsection is one of the most psychedelic pieces in Zeppelin’s catalogue, as Page and producer Eddie Kramer fly across the soundboard to create a barrage of noise before coming back into the final riff. Although the radio edit cleared out the sonic chaos on the album version, this is a case study of what can be done when given rock fundamentals and an entire mountain of swagger.
‘A Horse With No Name’ – America
Folk rock has a reputation as one of the simplest genres in rock and roll. As much as people might like to add their influences from bluegrass, the best folk-rock tunes are basic strumming tunes anyone can break out around a campfire. When America painted their first masterpieces, though, their chords were a bit unorthodox on ‘A Horse With No Name’.
Containing a simple pivot from an E minor to a D6, the chords’ airy quality keeps pushing the melody forward all the time. Though the song sits at a lazy tempo for the most part, it suits the vocal melody perfectly, including some sublime harmonies in the back half of the chorus that glides over the backing instrumentation.
The vocals about clearing through rocky terrain also give the listener the feeling of a weary traveller, crisscrossing their way through the desert without ever knowing if they’ll see the comforts of home again. Whereas most other rock acoustic cuts might like to add sound effects to set the tone, the listener can picture themselves on the highway with a hit wind at their face from when those two chords begin.
Break On Through – The Doors
The entire genesis of The Doors almost happened by chance. If Jim Morrison decided to return to his home in Florida instead of meeting Ray Manzarak on a beach in Los Angeles, the ‘60s rock scene would have looked very different. The Doors were about to bend minds across the Sunset Strip, but they still had a soft spot for the blues.
When putting together their first batch of songs, ‘Break On Through’ was based around a riff by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which fixes itself on the note E for most of its duration. After turning the beat around, guitarist Rbby Krieger livened up the arrangement by bringing in chords stabs before launching into the chorus riff, which slithers around like a snake as Morrison wails about voyaging to the other side of consciousness.
Though the vocal melody isn’t demanding by any stretch, what makes it go is Morrison’s tone of voice, tapping into some primal urges and playing off the rest of the band without relying on the exact timing. Morrison may have considered himself more of a poet than a singer, but this vocal debut set the stage for a lifetime of rock and roll mayhem.
Give Peace a Chance – John Lennon
As the ‘60s drew to a close, John Lennon became more restless to break out of The Beatles’ shell. Although he and the rest of the band had been best mates for most of their career, he had desires beyond what ‘The Fab Four’ were capable of and set out to create something new with Yoko Ono. While the pair’s initial artistic endeavours were regarding peaceful protests, Lennon had one golden melody up his sleeve.
Bringing together some of the biggest peace activists of the time, Lennon wrote a gentle verse of ‘Give Peace a Chance’, meant as a simple plea for a peaceful end to the Vietnam War. Although the official publishing of the song bore the name Lennon/McCartney, Lennon always insisted that his old writing partner had nothing to do with it, instead crediting Yoko for its artistic inspiration.
While the only footage of Lennon performing the track comes from one of Lennon’s bed-ins for peace, Lennon was adamant about keeping the track as barebones as possible, only using the chords D and A to keep the track moving. Even though The Beatles had moved on to more complex structures, the melody of ‘Give Peace a Chance’ is just as powerful as any church hymn could hope to be.
505 – Arctic Monkeys
Listening to any early Arctic Monkeys tend to feel like getting socked in the face by Mike Tyson. As Alex Turner took his first steps into songwriting, he painted vivid pictures of the seedy underbelly of the English club scene. Every wild night in the city must end, and ‘505’ is the final hurrah before the band runs out of gas on Favourite Worst Nightmare.
While The Monkeys had made slower tracks before this, like ‘Riot Van’, the use of organ in this song is a nice change of pace, as Turner moans about getting back to his lover even if it takes a seven-hour drive. Even though this would make a fine slow end to the record, what people hear at the beginning is just part one of the madness.
In the back half of the tune, the band take those two minor chords that Turner is playing and builds them up to gargantuan proportions, almost like the anticipation is growing as Turner is inching closer and closer to his lovers. The live track is especially unhinged, as Turner usually builds to a piercing scream towards the end, begging to find some sort of happiness through this long drive home. After this record, the Monkeys may have gone in stranger sonic directions, but they would never sound more desperate than they did here.
Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
Of all the songwriters in Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks never claimed to be the most accomplished musically. Instead of relying on an instrument like a piano or guitar, most of Nick’s best compositions came when she was woodshedding on her own and brought something spellbinding back to the rest of Fleetwood Mac. Although Lindsey Buckingham may have had his own masterpieces across Rumours, ‘Dreams’ might be one of the most soothing moments on the entire record.
Featuring a gentle pivot between F and G, Nicks uses the backdrop to ramble off free-verse style, as she talks about the problems that have been going down between her and Buckingham. Instead of getting angry and putting him in his place, though, Nicks wishes him peace in this tune, hoping that both of them will find some sort of solace once they are able to take a break from each other.
Those intense emotions demand to be felt, though, and Buckingham’s guitar flourishes provide the perfect backdrop, sounding like a restless spirit desperately trying to break free throughout the track. The whole group may have gotten credit for turning ‘Dreams’ into something special, but nothing beats a songwriter wearing their heart on their sleeve.
Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen
By the time Bruce Springsteen reached the ‘80s, he had started to feel lost. World-weary after albums like Darkness on the Edge of Town, albums like Nebraska gave fans an intimate side of ‘The Boss’ they might not have been ready for, as he told dark tales of people that were dealt a bad hand from birth. Some of the casual Springsteen might have avoided something this honest, but the best way to win the crowd over was to add a little bit of honey to the mix.
Don’t let the star-spangled title fool you…’Born in the USA’ isn’t just blind patriotism. Using the cold synthesisers as his backing track, Springsteen feels conflicted, lost, and unsure of himself, playing the role of a Vietnam Veteran who wasn’t given any help during the war and was then spit on by the country when he returned home.
Underneath the poppy melody, Springsteen is looking to put America in its place, calling out some of the citizens who are too ignorant to look after their fellow man and trying to comfort those trying to make an honest living. The tune might be a ‘4th of July’ staple in the US, but some folks might want to take a listen when they start waving the flag with this tune in the background.
Heroin – The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground were easily the best and worst band of the 1960s. Whereas The Beatles may have introduced the world to psychedelia and The Sunset Strip became a utopia, these transplants from New York were writing seedy stories about life on the street, from bondage on ‘Venus in Furs’ to waiting for drug dealers in ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’. Although Lou Reed never minced words in his writing, he was never more honest than he was on the tune ‘Heroin’.
As the tune plods between two chords, Reed’s strength comes in the tune’s arrangement. Since the lyrics deal with a man writing an ode about drugs, the rest of the group simulates the sound of a drug high. Although the chords never stray, the intensity keeps building and building before falling back down again as the narrator calms down.
Even though rock stars were getting used to singing about the darker side of living, this was still a game changer for the time, giving people the same discomfort and bliss that comes with a heroin high. The Velvets never claimed to be straight-edge during their time together, but Reed’s depiction of heroin has all of the experience of being a junkie without ever having to put that spike into one’s own veins.
Something in the Way – Nirvana
Just like most of Generation X, Kurt Cobain felt lost. Even when he became one of the biggest cultural icons of his generation, Cobain was always uncomfortable with the idea of fame, always having the same internal problems that he had when he was living on the seedy streets of Seattle. No one knew just how dire Cobain’s struggles were, but ‘Something in the Way’ might be the closest fans will get to hear his state of mind.
Being completely removed from anything else on Nevermind, Cobain needed the song to come across much gentler, recording his vocal and guitar part while sitting on a couch without any other white noise happening. Even when they brought in drums for the final version, Dave Grohl was instructed to play quietly to not hurt the gentle composition at the tune’s heart.
While the guitar is fairly out of tune, the gentle slide between two different chords encapsulated what most of Generation X was feeling, which was then set on fire once ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was released upon the world. Cobain might not have been looking to become the voice of his generation, but somewhere in between the cracks of ‘Something in the Way’ is the raw wounds of adolescence that will never properly heal.
Eleanor Rigby – The Beatles
Towards the mid-’60s, The Beatles were just beginning to use the studio as their little playground. After becoming free from the road, ‘The Fab Four’ had free rein to do whatever they fancied in Abbey Road Studios as long as it still fit the ‘Beatles’ aesthetic. While John Lennon may have tried to expand his mind on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, Paul McCartney wanted to dream bigger than rock and roll on ‘Eleanor Rigby’.
Even though McCartney wrote the song, this is one of the first Beatles tunes that doesn’t feature any instruments from the group, instead being plucked out by a string quartet as their vocals glide above everything. Telling the story of a lonely church attendant and the priest who oversees her funeral, the minor tonality that McCartney chooses is drenched in melancholy, especially in the chorus section as the metaphorical camera pans out to see all the other lonely people in the world.
While the ‘where do they all come from’ section has a slow descending line that changes the function of some of the chords, it practically acts as a musical emotion by itself, almost crying out in pain at seeing all these people whose lives will never be fulfilled at the end of the day. The Beatles may have been about love and peace for the most part, but they could also cross over into morbid territory without missing a beat.
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