Songs with only two chords

having the seventh doubled in different octaves is improper, though!

are there any good musical examples of a sustained chord with a major seventh in the bass?

Not that I know of. Example above was of maj7 as part of descending bass line. There is one very good example of a major triad over a flat 7th though.

So basically this thread is destined for 500+ posts about what a chord is

― Οὖτις, 3. september 2016 18:05

Chords, why are they so bad and hated?

Imaj7 is approaching V over I territory.

In any situation where this would make sense, I think I would analyse ^7 as an anticipation of V, i.e. a standard embellishment of a I-V progression.

If I'm understanding you right.

These kinds of arguments go way back

Or, if not that far back, at least to that other instance of this semi-regular ILX tradition for long weekends, the Great Music Theory Discussion of the Saturday Before Easter 2014.

I've just had to check out 'Autumn Almanac', I counted 26...

(A, A7, A9, Am7, Amaj7, Bb, B7, C, Cm, C#m, C#m7, D, Dm, D7, Eb, E, E7, Em, F, Fm, F7, F#7, G, Gm, G7, G#7)

Not counting the different extensions (and two discrepancies, one on the Eb - I think there's only an eb minor chord, and I think there's an augmented chord on the beat for "toasted" from "toasted, buttered currant buns"), the ones I'm missing are:

C and c minor chords?
e minor?
f minor?
g minor?

I don't hear these.

I figured out how to play this song as a teenager, by the way, but never really got through the whole thing!

Nice to look at it again - it sure is a great, great song!

I don't hear these.

― timellison, Tuesday, 6 September 2016 01:56 (fifty-one minutes ago) Permalink

Then yer doing it wrong.

Oh? Maybe you could point out where they are.

C, I got, by the way. Not c minor, though.

John Cale, "Ship of Fools"

'Crazy for You' by Slowdive is just C major and A minor.

'Age of Consent' by New Order is just D and G.

Ministry - "New World Order"

Gravity Rides Everything by Modest Mouse is just Cadd9 and G

Milligan claimed that he wrote this song as a bet, with his brother, that he could not get a song into the hit parade that had only two chords (in this case G and D7).[3]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nebe1zuEtbc

Tom Verlaine/Television, "Breakin' In My Heart"!

yes but which of these songs have the truth

― mookieproof, Friday, September 2, 2016 8:46 PM (six years ago)

"Practice Makes Perfect" is an unusual example of this, in that the two chords (Cm and G♭) don't share any conventional key or mode. Colin Newman did this again in the verse of "Don't Bring Reminders" (using B♭ and E), but tossed in three more chords for the chorus.