Ongoing History Daily: Accidental guitar chords that led to big hits

Guitarists are always messing around, trying to find that lost chord that will launch them down the road of creativity. In the days before Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello was trying to make ends meet as a guitar teacher. During one lesson, he was teaching a student the mechanics of drop-D tuning when he stumbled on a chord he’d never played before. The lesson was cut short and Tom immediately recorded the a riff using that chord into a portable tape machine. That became the foundation of “Killing in the Name.”

The same thing happened with Dave Grohl. He was trying to up his guitar playing by trying out different chord shapes using that same sort of drop-D tuning. He fell upon a dissonant sounding chord that he though was pretty cool. That launched him down a path that resulted in the song “Everlong.” The chord that started it all is the one that begins the song.