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Topic: Three chords and the truth? |
Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 3:14 am |
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I learned this expression from browsing through the Forum. Here's "He'll Have To Go" with a lot more chords. I quite like it. It's done by Prefab Sprout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI-c6ZHpxhg
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Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube. |
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Carl Kilmer
From:
East Central, Illinois
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 6:00 am
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With real country music turning to trash, I'd say that helps. 
_________________
aka "Lucky Kay"--Custom built Rittenberry SD10 3X5, Walker S/S, NV-112, and Hilton Pedal |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 9:21 am
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I'd heard the term (3 chords...) but didn't have a clue.
But I REALLY like this.
(So if this takes the essence of a time that I associate with '3 chords and the truth', it'd be the '50s. This song would attach to that. Right?)
It's got outstanding chords that are additions, I guess, to the 3 chords, but it's got steel, kalimba and... outstanding.) |
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Jerry Overstreet
From:
Louisville Ky
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 9:40 am
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| Well, just call me clueless, but I still don't know what this "three chords and the truth" phrase means even though I've seen it used for years. |
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Lyle Bradford
From:
Gilbert WV USA (deceased)
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 10:03 am
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| Give me the 3 chords any day!! Why mess with perfection. |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 10:26 am
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The term applies to many songs, as Charlie pointed out, there are many from the fifties. Not from that period "Me And Bobby McGee" comes to my mind as good example.
One of the first country standards I heard was "Oh Lonesome Me" in a version done by Neil Young, which is very different from the original.
_________________
Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube. |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 11:12 am
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I'm not sure if the gentleman who received credit for "Country Music is three chords and the truth" would be down with this version of He'll Have to Go - but if we run across him in the hereafter it would interesting to get his take on it.
That would be Harlan Howard and to mention just four of the many hundreds he penned or cowrote: I Fall to Pieces, Heartaches By the Number, Busted, Pick Me Up On Your Way Down.
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Mark |
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Frank Freniere
From:
The First Coast
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 12:31 pm
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| It's also the title of the first Sara Evans album, which featured Bucky Baxter and Tom Brumley on pedal steel guitar. |
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Steve Green
From:
Gulfport, MS, USA
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 3:24 pm
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| I have a hard time listening to this, it's that bad. |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 18 Sep 2016 3:29 pm
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Three chords and the truth is a beautiful catchphrase for country music. Somehow, though, with only three chords, I feel I'm only getting a part of the story.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 19 Sep 2016 8:47 am
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Donny,
You got that right, that version is awful.
If I want to hear that song, it's Jim Reeves for me.
"Play me a good ole three chord country song". |
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Henry Brooks
From:
Los Gatos, California, USA
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Posted 19 Sep 2016 10:59 am
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The added chords aren't the problem it's the feel is wrong. The timing of the notes has been altered to the point that the song has lost it's meaning. I don't think that the arranger understands or listened to what the song is about. Song writing has become a lost art. Song writers today don't know how to use tension chords to add color and movement in their song. It's almost impossible to play a song today instrumentally because there so bland, there just isn't anything to work with or build on.
Henry |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 19 Sep 2016 11:28 am
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Btw this was from an English band from the mid- eighties, and the singer could write songs! I won't put a link to their song "Faron Young" because some of you might be offended.
_________________
Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 19 Sep 2016 12:18 pm
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It was the '80s that it took me back too, Joachim. There was a certain jeu n cest whatever about the music then.
A good song lasts reincarnations, it's still a good song. This one happens to put me in that place I like to go back to. Faron was fine, but I didn't go country. |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 19 Sep 2016 12:21 pm
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| Steve Green wrote: |
The originator of the quote was songwriter extraordinaire Harlan Howard.
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"Is there an echo in here?"
Anyone else ever get the feeling that folks sometimes just don't read your posts? 
As far as taking Harlan Howard literally, I'm guessing that when he originally made the statement he didn't feel that every song he wrote from that point forward would have to be limited to three chords to get "the truth" across - I Fall to Pieces and Busted each contain four chords!
But I think we all get his point, or I at least hope so.
Some of you are familiar with the CD by dobro master Rob Ickes that was released several years ago entitled Road Song. Most of the tracks are jazz standards, and Rob is accompanied by pianist Michael Alvey, an accomplished jazz player. An excerpt below from an interview which was done on NPR, and it serves to illustrate (at least in Ickes' and Alvey's case) that a lot of chords or lack thereof doesn't really have anything to do with the validity of a piece of music.
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| "This is a discussion that Rob and I have had many times about bluegrass versus jazz," Alvey says. "He would say to me, 'How do you learn all those different chords and inversions and harmonically move around these songs and improvise and make it make sense?' And my response was, 'How do you play a song with two or three chords and make it sound like a symphony? You're all over the place, and after about eight bars, I've run out of ideas.' " |
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Mark
Last edited by Mark Eaton on 19 Sep 2016 1:24 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 19 Sep 2016 12:51 pm
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What really amazes me is that when I listen to the old cowboy songs done by the Sons of The Pioneers and others, I think, how difficult can those songs be?
Then I get the music and I can't believe all the chords they contain! 
I just got through tabbing out "Blue Prairie" and it was almost beyond the abilities of this left-handed Norwegian. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 19 Sep 2016 12:57 pm
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That's a spooky one, Erv. Beautiful. At some point I quit counting chords along the blue blue trail. I mean, it must be the truth.  |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 19 Sep 2016 1:14 pm
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Let me tell you an interesting story about that song.
There is a steeler in Montana who requested several cowboy songs and one of them was "Blue Prairie".
I searched and searched the internet and finally located Bob Nolan's Grandson, btw, Bob Nolan wrote the song along with most of the Sons of The Pioneers music. His grandson has Bob Nolan's complete library of songs and I finally got the song from him.
Erv |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 20 Sep 2016 8:05 am
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| Quote: |
| I learned this expression from browsing through the Forum. Here's "He'll Have To Go" with a lot more chords. I quite like it. It's done by Prefab Sprout. |
Yet another version..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84L7ZW4HtjQ |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 20 Sep 2016 8:23 am
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That one I liked.  |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 20 Sep 2016 9:30 am
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Barry...uhhh...thank you for that "gem?"
I have the vaguest recollection as a little kid, the golden voiced Jim Reeves on the radio as my mother hummed along while cooking dinner. I went back and listened to the original for the first time in many years. Man, that must have been one of the most "politan" of the Countrypolitan productions of Chet Atkins. So much sugary goo that a diabetic shouldn't even risk listening to it.
It hit the mark for me when Ry Cooder, Flaco Jimenez and company did their California/Tex-Mex version in the mid '70s.
Studio recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP5sa6s3XBA
Live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uiq61V_HPgg
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Mark |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 20 Sep 2016 9:57 am
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I noticed that Ry added a fourth chord. 
_________________
Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube. |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 20 Sep 2016 12:30 pm
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Ry probably figured it was okay to add a chord since it wasn't a Harlan Howard song.ðŸ˜
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Mark |
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Barry Blackwood
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