Songs with the Baba O'Riley Chord Progression

I'm back! Back in the New York groove!

longest thread ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPupROGv-sc

The Jam - Innocent Man

That part in 'The Necromancer' by Rush where Geddy sings: ♪♫ Stealthily attackiiiiing! By-Tor slaaaaays his foeeee! ♪♫

Maybe 'Be My Lover' by Alice Cooper?

Art of Noise, "Snapshot"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLHZjJddLh0

1st half of the chorus in Slack Motherfucker is what springs to mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c_GX2CYkcQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JTy-GCfmvw

JEFF LYNNE HAS EYES.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEwFssgvsC0

(also lol @ first laser beam on TV)

Alice Cooper - Department Of Youth

Queen - If You Can't Beat Them

I lol'd at the guy throwing his cello around like it was Pete Townshend's guitar.

xxpost

they shoulda sued ani difranco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6JnQbQbzdo

I lol'd at the guy throwing his cello around like it was Pete Townshend's guitar.

xxpost

Sweet Jane

B-b-but that one has a fourth chord!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCmhNRqN27I

I can't see the youtubes on iPad, are any of these "Hard to Make A Stand" by Sheryl Crow? If not, that one.

Fox On The Run - The Sweet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7miRCLeFSJo

Ha, yeah! I was thinking of that one. That's one where the root of the chord goes up for the IV and V chords, whereas the root goes down in "Baba."

I thought the Superchunk song that bit "Baba O'Riley" was the outro of "Song For Marion Brown."

John Mellencamp - "Small Town"

'straight to hell'/'paper planes'!

"Must of Got Lost" - J. Geils Band

Noah & the Whale - Tonight's The Kind Of Night (from memory, at least)

Witchy tai to

"Do Ya" - same year!

Just read thread title as "Songs with the Bill O'Reilly Chord Progression." Unsettling.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" - chords so nice, pete used em twice.....

Isn't this just I-V-IV? That's pretty standard in rock music, isn't it? Or are you looking for the same rhythm as "Baba O'Riley" too?

i always think about starting a companion thread about riffs with the same cadence as the "Baba O'Riley" riff because i know tons of those but have no idea when the chords are the same or not

I don't think I-V-IV is that common really! Not as a repeating sequence, anyway. (I'm sure there would be lots more songs where I-V-IV is part of a larger pattern.)

Yeah, I just scanned a couple of articles on rock harmony and you seem to be right.

Aerosmith - Angel

this has to be the most blatant one, it mimics not only the chord sequence but also the tempo

"Won't Get Fooled Again" - chords so nice, pete used em twice.....

― m0stlyClean, Monday, March 11, 2013 11:48 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nope

i can see for miles and miles and miles and miles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZWzYSu2luo

Yeah, "Baba" is F-C-Bb, WGFA is A-G-D. Different chords, different chord progressions.

xp

yeah, I guess it would be I-VII-IV

....unless D is the root, then it would be V - IV - I ....

Should be a silmiar thread for "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"

Do you hear D as the tonic in "Won't Get Fooled Again" though? I think it's clearly A.

Other nerds might find this interesting and somewhat relevant: http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.11.17.1/mto.11.17.1.temperley.html

really more of a sweet jane rip, but still:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlqC6SuhIXM

This is a great video if you like this song and have been misled about the song's construction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA7Y5f_C-tw

tbf, the organ track on Townshend's demo (which was nine minutes, and edited down for the band recording) was put through a couple of warbly synth modules at about the four- or five-minute mark. But yeah, as the clip shows, at no point was data about Meher Baba's life fed into a computer with that music being the result.

So, the new One Direction single "Best Song Ever" is a "Baba" pastiche, but the chords are F# (three beats), C# (one beat), G# (four beats). The I and IV chords are switched around.

The thing is, there's just so little use of the tonic chord in this progression. It's only on one beat (a weak beat). Nevertheless, it works.

that's precisely why it works, really

it's basically a variant of playing IV-V over and over again which is a common pop music trick (c.f. "Call Me Maybe") - IV-V blatantly sets people's ears up for a resolution to the I chord, but you get that release only sparingly, so everything stays in a heightened state of energy

Yeah. Of course, "Call Me Maybe" sticks to the tonic a lot in the verses. Kudos to 1D for jamming it through the whole song and making it work!

"Call Me Maybe" only hits the tonic right after the chorus & before the verses start, actually. otherwise it's IV-V the whole way through.

I don't hear any V chord in the verse. Sounds to me basically like an alternation between IV and I with a vi chord thrown in before the IV

Sorry, didn't finish that post. Try again.

I don't hear any V chord in the verse. Sounds to me basically like an alternation between IV and I with a vi chord thrown in before the IV the second and fourth time through.

(I LOVE the use of the tonic chord as that stuttering accent preceding both the IV and V chords in the chorus of "Call Me Maybe," by the way.)

Coda of "Pilot of the Airwaves" (starts at 2:52)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGKrgJZhpzk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2gy1Evb1Kg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bhLw3v_tiY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bhLw3v_tiY

"Let My Love Open the Door" - Pete Townshend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4qKKRn4kZs&sns=fb

"Camarillo Brillo"

"You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet"

Shawn Mendes - "Believe"

Hoyt Axton tune but with some added "Baba" for the fun of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gptRvXfkhvc

The Cars - "Bye Bye Love" (chorus)

og Brinsley Schwarz version of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding"

new one! california band Spice referencing baba oriley (via superchunk?) https://spiceispain.bandcamp.com/track/26-dogs

"If Not for You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTzWeyNJLwI

Chorus of "The Weight"

This has been weighing on me for years. The immediate opening reminds me of Roxette’s ‘Fading Like a Flower’. Still trying to place the piano and drum progression to another similar 80s song.