I Said It All

For the April "write a song with only two chords" Music Challenge. Brought to you by the chords E and A.

You don't know how hard it was for me to keep the chorus from resolving to a B chord.

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posted by chococat (13 comments total)

This is what I think Nirvana would have sounded like if Cobain had lived to make another three albums beyond In Utero. In short, this is great. Can't believe it's only two chords! You're a talented soul, choco.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:03 PM on April 3, 2009

to keep the chorus from resolving to a B chord. Man, you can almost hear the struggle there to keep from doing that.

I thought the two chord challenge would result in some funny experiments, but this fully realized, fully fleshed out and a great song to boot.

Way to rock it hombre!

(and thanks for setting the bar so damn high :P) Kidding!
posted by snsranch at 4:59 PM on April 3, 2009

I feel like I get some small measure of credit for providing you with "Country Death Song" to practice on which has, I believe, two chords? And really mostly just one.

But seriously: this is super freaking awesome. I was practicing a few ideas in my mind, and yeah, having to avoid that third, resolving chord is TOUGH. You did an amazing job. I am amazed at how quickly you can put together these songs.
posted by ORthey at 7:45 PM on April 3, 2009

I am amazed at how quickly you can put together these songs.

You can say that again. Listening to this song I realized that my original reaction to the two chord challenge was "oh, that's easy" and only now that I heard what he did it dawned on me that I have to come up with a whole new song that sounds like an actual song, not just a two chord jam.

This sounds great. You actually make the chorus sound different somehow. If I had learned this song by myself on the guitar, after figuring out I'd be thinking: "really? there's only two chords? how did he pull it off?"

(Disclaimer: something was updated on the site that won't allow me to favorite stuff anymore, but if I could, I would have favorited this song)
posted by micayetoca at 6:37 AM on April 4, 2009

This is kickass, chococat. Love the backing vocals, too. Like micayetoca, had I not been privy to the challenge, I would have been shocked to find out the song consisted of only two chords. Way to work 'em!
posted by lovermont at 11:26 AM on April 4, 2009

Sha lala la, sha lala la, sha lala la... terrific! I also am amazed that you can put such quality together so quickly.
posted by Corduroy at 2:55 PM on April 4, 2009

Are these lyrics a meta-commentary on the limitation of your chord choice? Once we hear the second chord, we know there's nothing left to the song (so to speak), and the first thing you sing at that point is "I've said it all." Brilliant!
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 3:11 PM on April 5, 2009

I don't really know what else to comment on your songs w/o sounding like a groupie. Even with two chords your song writing is top notch, good stuff.
posted by BrnP84 at 8:21 PM on April 5, 2009

Nice job holding out on chord #2 until the chorus. This is really cool, like Matthew Sweet singing with Teenage Fanclub.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 2:22 AM on April 6, 2009

That rocks, man. I was going to kick something into the two-chord challenge, but I might just feel inadequate now. What a sweet bit of pop.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:19 AM on April 6, 2009

Aye; two chords can be surprisingly versatile. Two favorites of mine that come to mind are the 'Song against Sex' by Neutral Milk Hotel, and I think the Velvet Underground's 'Heroin' is also just two chords... Both amazing songs.
posted by kaibutsu at 12:16 PM on April 6, 2009

Very impressive, you totally pulled it off. Like others have said, you could stick this on an album or in a playlist and I wouldn't think "oh, this must have been an experiment where he tried to use fewer chords." Once again I'm loving your vocals. I think I've said on the last three of your songs that you are expanding the range of your vocals. Not in terms of octaves but just emotionally and sonically. Powerful.
posted by edlundart at 11:10 PM on April 7, 2009

I was too busy enjoy this to realize that it was a 2-chorder as well. Nicely, nicely done.

The Nirvana reference from Effigy is interesting, because I was thinking of Foo Fighters; something about the vocal harmonies made me think of "It's You I Fell Into", though it's been years since I've actually heard that song so I might be vaguing up a correlation that's not so strong in practice.

Do you get tired of me telling you're awesome? Because if you do, I apologize in advance for the rest of this sentence, because you're awesome.
posted by cortex at 3:15 PM on April 9, 2009 [1 favorite]