How 'Gloria' Became the Ultimate Rock Anthem

'GLORIA', WRITTEN more than fifty years ago by Van Morrison for his band Them, is the simplest song. Just three chords – my musician friends tell me they're E-D-A – that any startup garage band can play, and that almost every garage band has. And the story it tells couldn't be more basic: the singer (usually but not always male) knows this girl and he's eager to tell us about her, but he doesn't (again, usually) share much in the way of detail. She comes down the street, up to a room, knocks on a door, enters, makes the singer extremely happy. That's about it. But from the time her story was first told, it's been told over and over. She's irresistible.