"the whole first line is on one chord"

Not such a problem for an EC system player, surely? You run out of air, you just reverse, and the chord stays the same. As Alan Day said, this is much more of a problem with an anglo, where you either play lots of in-and-out chords like PB, or use duplicate buttons and other wheezes to keep the air supply going.

Not wishing to nitpick, but PB's 'Death' arrangement is more a case of the chords following the melody than the other way round.