The First Chord

David Peel — Street Corner Rant

You know what changes everything? The first chord.

Not the song. Not the set. Not the album. The FIRST CHORD. The one you play before you know if anybody's listening. Before you know if anybody cares. Before you know if the cops are gonna come or the crowd's gonna cheer or nothing's gonna happen at all.

That first chord is the bravest thing a musician does. Because it's a bet. You're betting that what's inside you is worth putting into the air. You're betting that some stranger walking by might stop. Might turn their head. Might feel something they didn't expect to feel on a Tuesday afternoon in the park.

I played my first chord in Washington Square in 1966. An open G. The guitar was out of tune and I didn't care. Three people stopped. One of them was a dog. But that chord went out into the air and it never came back. It's still out there. Every chord you ever play is still out there — bouncing around the atmosphere like a satellite nobody launched on purpose.

Lennon played his first chord in some church hall in Liverpool. Sun Ra played his first chord on a piano in Birmingham, Alabama. Sinclair's first chord was a sentence — a line in a poem that made somebody look up from their beer.

They didn't know what would happen next. NOBODY knows what happens after the first chord. That's the whole point. If you knew, you wouldn't need to play it.

Every revolution starts with one sound. Not a speech. Not a manifesto. A sound. Something that vibrates at a frequency that wakes people up. And the person making that sound doesn't know they're starting anything. They're just playing. They're just putting it out there.

So if you've got a guitar and you've been thinking about going to the park, go. If you've got a song and you've been scared to sing it, sing it. The world doesn't need another perfect recording. The world needs somebody standing on a corner playing the first chord like their life depends on it.

Because it does. Yours and everybody else's.

See also: Have a Marijuana — the first album. The Veteran — the road to the corner. Washington Square — where the first chord landed. I Gave GG Allin His First Record Deal — the chord that opened a label. The Improvisation — Sun Ra on being available for the first note. The Rock Street Journal Is Back — the first chord of a new frequency. The Frequency — what the concrete sounds like after fifty years. The First Song — the song that came from the first chord. The Guitar — the twelve-dollar instrument. The Open Mic — five minutes and a microphone. The right audience is the half that does not leave. The Setlist — a drunk man in the park. The best music director. The Rejection Letter — the label is called Outside.

David Peel

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