Songs with I and IV chords only?

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: The Og
Date: 27 Apr 23 - 10:04 AM

Peter Rowan and Bill Monroe's "Walls of Time" uses a I and a IV chord but in one place the 7th of the IV chord is used.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Apr 23 - 01:19 PM

Hey, Guest, I can't tell you how many of my threads have been taken REALLY off-topic - and I don't mind! I thought what I posted was at least vaguely connected...

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: The Og
Date: 26 Apr 23 - 10:24 AM

Bill Grant's "The Wall". ...good song!

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 23 - 07:29 AM

Why not? I fpound it useful

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 23 - 06:57 AM

So why did you mention it on this particular thread, Steve?

An odd thing to do...

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Apr 23 - 04:53 AM

Yes, I know.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 23 - 02:57 AM

Steve, D and A are I and V chords, that doesn't meet the thread's criteria. I and IV would be D and G.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Apr 23 - 02:34 AM

Woody's song Pastures of Plenty, as played by him, has D chords only, arguably with a couple of A chords towards the end.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Apr 23 - 08:48 PM

I like abusing instruments by playing them in traditions they were never designed for. The Hungarian tilinko is a flute with no fingerholes that plays the harmonic series over the open tube or the (interleaved) series over a stopped tube if you close the end with a finger. Mine is in C so I get a choice of C or G harmonic series. This works well for a lot of blues in G where I and IV predominate. And I get to play washboard with the other hand.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Jason Xion Wang
Date: 25 Apr 23 - 03:26 PM

I remember two songs within the folk genre that use I and IV chords only:

Follow That Road by Anne Hills [A and D]
Prisoners by John Denver [D and G]

Hope this helps.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 07 Sep 18 - 04:05 PM

How about Turquoise by Donovan?

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 07 Sep 18 - 03:58 AM

The "Rudeboy Skank" riddim is a 2018 remake of "Feel Like Jumpin'".
https://youtu.be/TMwA-hBMpfs

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 07 Sep 18 - 01:13 AM

"or blues music" It was rare to leave the V out in blues. For instance people sometimes used I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-V-V-I-I or very close to that, but it was rarer to swap that, to include the IV and leave out the V.

There were (rarely) some 8-bar I-I-I-I-IV-IV-I-I blues, such as "Pretty Mama Blues" by Cannon's Jug Stompers, "Sundown Blues" by Alec Johnson, and "Carroll County Blues" by Narmour and Smith.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 06 Sep 18 - 09:22 AM

Bo Diddley - I'm a man

Muddy Waters - I'm your hootchie cootchie man

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,Ted
Date: 06 Sep 18 - 09:14 AM

Woody Guthrie - 1913 Massacre

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,Ashley
Date: 04 Sep 18 - 06:39 PM

Is there any Christian songs that only have I and IV I need it for a class and I don’t find any

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: kendall
Date: 21 Aug 14 - 06:24 AM

One of the first songs I learned was: "The convict and the rose." two chords.Within my prison cell so dreary, alone I sit with weary heart, I'm thinking 'bout my lonely darlin', from her for ever I must part...

And there's "Colin man." 1, 2, 3, 4, Colin man he come, 1, 2, 3, 4, Colin man he come, 1, 2, 3, 4, Colin man he come and his watch and chain hit the belly bum bum bum.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 21 Aug 14 - 12:45 AM

Going Up on the Mountain 1/4 generally G/C

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,Joyce
Date: 20 Aug 14 - 08:42 AM

I teach Intro with a focus on 2 - chord cadence songs and am looking for I-IV-I progression songs also. Simplified version of Imagine uses C - F repeatedly, but begs for the G7 - C at the end. So, I simply point out that the main progression is the IV I cadence until the final and stronger resolution of V7 - I.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,Sarah T
Date: 21 Jan 14 - 11:02 PM

Hi all, long-time Mudcat reader but very rarely post anything. I read this thread last week and then tonight while playing bedtime songs for my mother I realized I had a I/IV song -- California Joe, as recorded by Jim Ringer. In the key of G, G and C are all you need. The song is in the DT and there are multiple threads about it.
--Sarah

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,Stew
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 08:46 AM

Angeline Baker

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 08:41 AM

Guy Davis' song Hooking Bull at the Landing is a two chord I and IV song. As Eve said way at the top, the number of chords has nothing to do with how good a song is. I know a few songs where you can get away with one chord. To quote the late Lou Reed, one chord is fine, two is all right, three, you're venturing into jazz.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 06:08 AM

Wild Mountain Thyme uses only I and IV chords

Apart from the minor II and III, of course...

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Gary T
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 12:34 AM

Wild Mountain Thyme (Go Lassie Go) uses only I and IV chords.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,bzribee
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 12:16 AM

A reason I looked for this list of songs is related to what Big Aj Whittle said two posts above--I teach beginners and use I, V chords for guitar--there are TONS of songs to get started with. But when I started to teach ukulele, I prefer to teach the C chord first and the F chord second. Since there are so few I IV songs, I either have the students tap the uke in place of the V chord, or I flip to the key of F and we play all the same I, V songs but using F, C. then I teach the G7 and we're back to another gazillion songs....

Thanks for the thread. It's basically reinforced that I stay in F 'til students are comfortable. And I can't use "Trouble, Trouble on my Mind" with little kids. I"m going to learn it, though.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Ross
Date: 26 Apr 12 - 04:48 AM

With God On Our Side by Dylan can be done with two chords

Great lyrics - I heard it when I was 7 - cover version by Manfred Mann and it captured my landscape of the sixties

War & the wild west; and should it be questionerd

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Apr 12 - 04:13 AM

think divergently

start with the F
then play the c

then you can play the I and V songs in the key of F

weird stuff if you can do the barre F, why wouldn't you be able to do the G7?

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 12 - 02:39 AM

Just My Imagination

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 12:57 PM

Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth (Monterey 1967)

Can be done with I and IV.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,Yanai Morris
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 06:59 AM

My favourite I IV song is "Heroin" by The Velvet Underground. It amazed me how interesting the song was with just the 2 chords repeating for the whole entire song. The tempo changes is the one of the things that gives the song its power.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 11:20 PM

Here's a link to a thread about Joshua Gone Barbados.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: PHJim
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 01:51 PM

I think Joshua Gone... was written by Eric Von Schmidt.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST,lefthanded guitar
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 06:47 PM

Joshua Gone Barbados, a haunting song about political corruption, has two chords. First learned it from a Tom Rush album, but not sure who the writer is.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 06:30 PM

And I just recently realized that "Green Green Rocky Road" only uses the I and IV chords.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 01:28 PM

'Rosie Anderson' - just been playing and singing it and suddenly realised there's no dominant in it.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: PHJim
Date: 19 May 09 - 11:39 AM

I just found an earlier thread with some other lyrics suggested by Art Theime:
http://www.mudcat.org/Detail.CFM?messages__Message_ID=45891

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: PHJim
Date: 19 May 09 - 11:29 AM

Sorry, the verse that says:

Trouble, trouble,
Trouble On My Mind,
Only tune I could play was
Trouble On My Mind, boys
Trouble On My Mind.

should be:

Trouble, trouble,
Trouble On My Mind,
If trouble don't kill me boys
I'll live a long, long time, boys
Live a long, long time.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: PHJim
Date: 19 May 09 - 11:26 AM

We were jammming last night and I just realised that Trouble On My Mind has only the I and IV chord:

Once I had an old banjo,
Head was strung with twine.
Only tune I could play was
Trouble On My Mind, boys,
Trouble On My Mind.

Trouble, trouble,
Trouble On My Mind,
Only tune I could play was
Trouble On My Mind, boys
Trouble On My Mind.

I went down to Lynchberg town
To buy me a bottle of wine.
They tied me to the whipping post
And give me ninety-nine, boys,
Give me ninety-nine

I went back to Lynchberg Town
To buy me a bottle of gin.
They tied me to the whipping post
And give me hell again, boys,
Give me hell again.

Raining, hailing,
Falling from the skies.
My true love's gone back on me,
Surely I will die, boys,
Surely I will die.

Once I had an old banjo,
Head was strung with twine.
Only tune I could play was
Trouble On My Mind, boys,
Trouble On My Mind.

I learned it from a Michael Cooney recording that I borrowed from a friend about twenty years ago and have since returned. I think it was called Singer Of Old Songs.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 02 May 09 - 05:26 PM

M.Ted points out that "many folk melodies are derived from the composed melodies of an earlier time".

Indeed, but often with changes. While the broadside press played a major part in the transmission of words, tunes were mostly (I say mostly, not exclusively) transmitted by ear.

A person singing without accompaniment is not constrained by implied chords or implied harmonies, or indeed by the original mode. The resulting modified tune might still fit the original chord sequence or it might not. It might "imply" a new sequence of chords to someone accustomed to thinking in such terms (such as Cecil Sharp when he made his piano arrangements) but that implication is in the mind of the arranger, influenced by their musical upbringing, not in the mind of the singer from whom the melody was collected.

You can fit a sequence of chords to a pentatonic melody, but only very rudimentary ones unless you introduce additional notes that are not part of the scale.

Richard

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: M.Ted
Date: 01 May 09 - 10:07 PM

Just to take Don's point a bit farther, most of western composed melodies, at least up through the beginning of the 20th century, are based on the chordal movement from tonic to dominant and back--or through the circle of fourths, which really is a movement from dominant to tonic through a series of different keys. And many folk melodies are derived from the composed melodies of an earlier time.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Don Firth
Date: 01 May 09 - 07:56 PM

Whether a song is traditionally sung with an accompaniment or not, all melodies imply chords and can be put to an accompaniment or arranged for musical ensemble (see Vaughan Williams, Delius, others).

The melody dictates the chords, keeping in mind, of course, that there are often choice points where either of two or more chords may appear to be perfectly correct. At these points, the context will usually determine which one to use.

The change from IV to I is called the "plagal cadence" or sometimes the "church cadence," as in the "Amen" at the end of a hymn. The change from V to I, or especially V7 to I, is called the "authentic cadence." It's stronger, and implies a necessity to return to the Tonic (the I chord). The interval of a diminished 5th in the V7 chord is dissonant, and it demands resolution. This is why a V7 is sometimes called the "drop the other shoe" chord.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 01 May 09 - 07:23 PM

I stand corrected by M.Ted on my statement that folk songs fundamentally have only melodies. I was essentially referring to the traditions of the British Isles and the continuations of those traditions elsewhere, which account for a lot of the discussions here on Mudcat. But I should have said so. Most of the examples cited above seem to be either from other traditions or what I would regard as composed songs. But this thread isn't the place to branch off into another "what is folk" discussion.

Richard

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 01 May 09 - 04:39 PM

"...a 3-finger C (sixth string is picked open) position on the third fret...."

Depending upon which strings are muted/silent, and depending upon one's degree of musical education, that could be nothing more exotic than a D chord (plus a "drone" G note) or an E-minor-9th.

I use that inversion quite often when playing in G; for my money, it's just a slightly-discolored "D." That is, the "V" chord in the key of G.

There may be some truth to the argument that SOME folksongs are pure melodies without chords. However, for many people in the modern world, listeners as well as musicians, some sort of harmonic framework is almost always implied as a matter of instinct.

And, where there are any chord changes at all ~ anywhere except in a round or a John Lee Hooker-style boogie ~ the other chord besides the "I," or one of several additional chords, almost HAS to be a "V," which provides a very basic sound/feeling of "resolution." I would argue that this is the case for both major and minor keys

Some of the songs proposed above as examples of "I and IV only" songs are quite clearly NOT such two-chord songs to my ear. I don't recognize all the itiles that people have mentioned, but among the songs that I do know, very nearly ALL of them go to the V, even if only once at the end of each verse/repitition, and even if most of the composition alternates from I to IV.

If traditional songs can be though not to "have" chords at all, the corrollary would be that there could not possibly be wrong chords ~ that assignment of harmonies is entirely arbitrary. I do not think this is true.

Songs can absolutely be played poorly, using inappropriate chords that fail to make any kind of harmonic sense. We've all heard such playing ~ hell, we've all committed such playing while trying to come up with suitable arrangements. Those who know better, of course, refrain from public performance until having discovered, if not "the" correct chord progression, at least "a" plausible set of chords that works with a melody.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Nick
Date: 01 May 09 - 01:46 PM

Not a folk song but Lesley Duncan's Love Song which was on Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection album only has variants of Im and variants of IV.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Nick
Date: 01 May 09 - 01:36 PM

Evangeline on Dreaming Sea - Karen Matheson written by James Grant comes very close. I'm just listening to it (on Youtube) and it is nearly all I and IV to my ears (though it could be a debateable VIm in one bit) and I don't think ever gets to the V.

As an aside it has one of those bits that always makes me smile when, to me, things are just 'right'. At 2:08 on the video there is just a lovely bit of warm harmony singing that just does it for me. At about 2:15 there is a little look on Jerry Douglas's face that suggests I'm not the only one who likes that bit.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: M.Ted
Date: 01 May 09 - 10:22 AM

Just Richard Mellish said "Art songs and pop songs are written with chords, but folk songs fundamentally have only melodies" which may be true for folk music from certain places,
but there are lots of different musical traditions that are feature a repeating rhythmic chord pattern and feature a soloist or vocalist improvising melody and lyrics above that. Blues is an example, as are island forms like bomba and plena, salsa, montuno, reggae and it's predecessors, soca, calypso, as well as Latin forms like samba.

There are, of course, a lot of different chord patterns, not just I-IV, the La Bamba progression being probably the best known--An interesting thing to make note of is that, because the progressions repeat, they actually have no separate ending, or resolution, and no beginning, or introduction, so they allow the performer a lot of latitude in phrasing.

Another thing is that, though I-IV is pretty straightforward, the I7-IV7 can actually be considered II7-V7 instead. That is to say, you'd be playing a circle of fourths D7-G7 that implies the key of C, and never actually resolving back to the C.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Sir Roger de Beverley
Date: 01 May 09 - 08:57 AM

I use "Still Got the Fever" by Ian McNabb. It is great for mixed sessions where the players have lots of space to noodle around and there is a really good chorus that the singers can get into.

Also it is great for new players (and even old ones like me) because it only uses G and C.

Roger

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 01 May 09 - 08:50 AM

"It Don't Bother Me" by Bert Jansch.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 04:27 PM

"To sing for you" by Donovan includes a V chord (G). And the fingerpicked "Freewheelin'" version of Girl/North Country begins by going from G to a 3-finger C (sixth string is picked open) position on the third fret. Don't think that is an actual chord, but I watched him play it and that's how I learned it. And the V chord is a D9. As to the original question, I don't know any songs that use just the I and IV chords.

Subject: RE: Songs with I and IV chords only?
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 04:22 PM

Hmm! I question the assumption behind this thread. Art songs and pop songs are written with chords, but folk songs fundamentally have only melodies, and it's up to the person providing the accompaniment (if any!) whether to use chords at all (rather than, for instance, unison, a single line harmony or a drone) and if so which chords.

That said, if a tune seems to work well with I and IV but not V, that does say something about the structure of the tune and possibly the mode. This might apply to some of those tunes that seem to imply a particular tonic but end somewhere else (just speculating, without an example in mind).

Richard