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Willie Nelson says:

All you need is three chords and the truth.

I expect those chords would be I, IV and V

But in his song H Gang, Donald Fagen sings about:

…the ultimate five-chord band".

What might those five chords be?

Dave Jacoby
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Brian THOMAS
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    Probably off-topic but interesting! I hope we'll get an answer before this gets closed. ;) – piiperi Reinstate Monica Sep 18 '20 at 18:08
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    I never believed Willie meant three exact chords. Several 3 chord combinations will do (and have done in the past). I ii and V is another time honored chord triple. I III IV works. There are others. By extension, if you add two more chords to any workable set of three chords you can make several combinations to build verses, choruses, and a bridge quite easily and effectively. – Todd Wilcox Sep 18 '20 at 18:37
  • Nashville country songwriters use all 24 combinations of I-iV-V-VI, but what would be the fifth chord? I would guess ii, which is a frequently used substitute of IV, and as @ToddWilcox mention part of the ii-V-I cadence. – user1079505 Sep 18 '20 at 18:45
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    Was Donald actually alluding to the five-man band instead and just mucked around with the middle word? – Dekkadeci Sep 19 '20 at 13:37
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    Only the lyricist knows for sure, anyone have his number? This is nothing but speculation on my part but considering the harmonic sophistication of Fagen’s and Steely Dan’s music maybe he’s saying it’s more sophisticated than a band that plays 3 chord songs but not by much. As for the chords themselves, maybe 4 out of the 7 diatonic chords and a bVII? – John Belzaguy Sep 19 '20 at 17:34
  • It's pretty clear what a 'three chord trick' is - the oft-toted I, IV, V. As found in so many songs - particularly most 12 bar blues! Fagen's song has way more that the quoted five, (love it), but the jury will always be out trying to ascertain which other two would be the missing ones. Like searching for the missing chord, only twice as hard... – Tim Sep 20 '20 at 08:03
  • Trying to find charts/dots for this song. Any ideas? – Tim Sep 20 '20 at 09:43
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    An unlikely possibility is that Fagen simply means the five chord, aka the chord built on the dominant of a key. – user45266 Sep 21 '20 at 04:50
  • I don't think Willie Nelson was the first to use "three chords and the truth." Near as I can tell, it was Harlan Howard. – Theodore Jul 23 '21 at 14:50

5 Answers5

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It is a fact more obvious than the daily sunrise that irony is Donald Fagen's stock in trade. We can look no further than the devastatingly arch Chain Lightning for positive proof. Fagen's narrators are always unreliable. The presence of the word ultimate suggests that the use of five chords, while impressive to the narrator, is nothing to write home about.

The five chords? The H Gang would probably run to five power chords (which use the root and the fifth, as in five chord), but Fagen? A cunningly disguised blues progression is always on the cards. Mu voicings; those D/G and F/G sounds; stacking fourths...it's hard to know, but thanks for the question.

Areel Xocha
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  • I live the Seattle. The daily sunrise is rarely obvious through the clouds. :-) – Aaron Oct 21 '20 at 20:19
  • Then I must apologise for the Australocentricity of my hyperbole. – Areel Xocha Oct 22 '20 at 03:18
  • Being from Seattle, I'd prefer you apologize; but I accept. Enjoy the zunshine. – Aaron Oct 22 '20 at 04:05
  • @AreelXocha - It never occurred to me that the "five" might have been the description of a chord - either the power-chord you mention, or a band that knows lots of ways of doing a 5-1 progression perhaps, My question is probably unanswerable by anyone apart from DF himself, but you've given me a new way of thinking about the lyric. – Brian THOMAS Oct 22 '20 at 12:00
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Both examples to me don't really imply any specific chords, but convey simple and good music. Now of course you could assess, as a commenter pointed out, that these five chords could be the I, IV, V, VI, chords common in country; and II a common substitute for the IV.

In my opinion though this line has two meanings: What I said above, but considering the context of the rest of the song about a group of sisters starting a group, a five-man band (something another commenter pointed out). So a band consisting of five individuals playing music that requires the knowledge of only five or so chords.

bruv
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You hear this "three chord" idea a lot either as a put down meaning the musician is too dumb to know more than three chords, or as praise meaning the musician has reduced the harmony to some kind of pure fundamental.

The fact is three chords, more insightfully three harmonic functions, is the fundamental model of tonal harmony. Those three functions are predominant, dominant, tonic. In chord symbols: IV, V, and I. There are various alternatives and substitutions, for example ii V I, iv ♭VII I, ii7♭5 ♭II7 i6, etc.

When you account for various alteratives, substitutions, modulations, and transpositions (sequential harmony) a huge amount of harmony in classical, jazz, rock, and pop reduces to three harmonic functions, three "chords".

…the ultimate five-chord band". What might those five chords be?

Unless you can find a quote somewhere, this will be speculation but...

The first obvious three would be I, IV, and V. ii is a very strong candidate as the other subdominant chord. vi would also be a sensible candidate as a the relative minor to I and as the chord for "deceptive" progressions, two common harmony devices. That gives us five chords I, IV, V, ii, and vi.

But, there is a bit of a let down here, in terms of "deep" insight: the "strongest" harmonic movement is roots by descending fifths. If you rearrange the five chords by descending fifths you get vi ii V I IV which is just five of the seven chords in a diatonic circle of fifths. That's nearly all the diatonic triads! It's like saying there are only three important colors: red, blue, yellow. That's obvious, because you can mix all the other colors from those three.

Another possibility is even simpler: the five basic open guitar chords: E A D G C. If you adding in the very easy minor forms Em Am Dm, that group of chords allows you to play in a nice variety of keys.

Michael Curtis
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"Three-chord band" - basic minimum musical content. The three chords were probably I, IV and V7.

"Five-chord band" - a bit more harmonically adventurous. But ONLY a little. I think vi is a strong candidate for the fourth chord. The fifth is a bit more tricky! I don't think ii and IV deserve two slots. Maybe III7 as a lead-in to vi? Or ♭VII?

I don't really have to remind anyone that the soubriquets 'Three chord band' and 'Five-chord band' were just intended to mean 'harmonically simplistic' and 'harmonically not QUITE so simplistic' do I? :-) Full marks for wild ingenuity in some of the other answers and comments though!

Laurence
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I believe it's a jazz head reference to a fifth chord in music theory ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_(chord) ) Hence, a jazz band that makes heavy use of fifth chords.

Michael
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    That wiki article is about the fifth of a chord, the fifth relative to the root, not a "fifth chord." That really isn't a thing, unless it's meant to mean a power chord, just a root and fifth with third omitted. – Michael Curtis Jul 23 '21 at 14:46