Side one, track one... and we're off. A great opening line can grab the listener's attention and set the mood for an entire album. Here are our favourite first lines from opening songs. Let us know who you think should have made the list.
1. “The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves/Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays.”
Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road (Born To Run)
In early demo versions Springsteen tried the names Angelina and Chrissie, before settling on Mary.
2. “In the next world war/In a jack knifed juggernaut/I am born again.”
Radiohead – Airbag (OK Computer)
Thom Yorke’s inspiration for the song was an AA road safety pamphlet entitled “An Airbag Saved My Life.”
3. “'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life/Try to make ends meet, you're a slave to money then you die.”
The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony (Urban Hymns)
Should you ever fancy a Verve pilgrimage, the street Richard Ashcroft walks down in the iconic Bittersweet Symphony video is Hoxton St, East London.
4. “Hello darkness my old friend/I’ve come to talk with you again.”
Simon & Garfunkel – The Sound Of Silence (Sounds Of Silence)
For our money, Paul Simon’s solo original (which you can find on The Paul Simon Songbook) is far superior to the weedily produced Simon & Garfunkel version.
5. “Belligerent ghouls run Manchester schools/Spineless swines, cemented minds.”
The Smiths – The Headmaster Ritual (Meat Is Murder)
Morrissey: he wasn’t exactly head boy material.
6. “’I think it’s dark and it looks like rain’, you said. ‘And the wind is blowing like it’s the end of the world’.”
The Cure – Plainsong (Disintegration)
And The Cure’s most pain-wracked album only gets more miserable from there…
7. “London, England. Consider yourself…warned!”
Public Enemy – Countdown To Armageddon (It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back)
Brimming with drama and excitement, this is how you open an album.
8. “London calling to the faraway towns/Now war is declared - and battle come down.”
The Clash – London Calling (London Calling)
London Calling boasts one of the most electrifying intros ever, all minor-key portent and tightly-wound tension.
9. “Got me a movie, I want you to know/Slicing up eyeballs, I want you to know.”
Pixies – Debaser (Doolittle)
As all cinema geeks know, this is a reference to the stomach-turning opening scene in Luis Bunuel’ 1929 surrealist film Un Chien Andalou.
10. “Mis-shapes, mistakes, misfits/Raised on a diet of broken biscuits.”
Pulp – Mis-Shapes (Different Class)
There was far more to Pulp’s 1995 Britpop masterpiece than mega-hit Common People.
5:42 PM | 02/05/2007
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Oasis, Definitely Maybe... "I LIVE MY LIFE IN THE CITYYY!!!"
Posted by statetrooper at 6:18 PM | 02/05/2007 | Report Abuse
Maybe, I don't really wanna know, how your garden grows.
Posted by Mr V at 6:37 PM | 02/05/2007 | Report Abuse
If you like to gamble, I tell you I'm your man
You win some, lose some, it's still the same to me!
Posted by brezhnev at 8:14 PM | 02/05/2007 | Report Abuse
"She's a very kinky girl, the kind you don't take home to Momma"
Posted by themofoshizzit at 12:22 AM | 03/05/2007 | Report Abuse
"Libraries gave us power, then work came and made us free, what price now for a shallow piece of dignity"
"I need to be myself, I can't be noone else"
"I was looking for some action but all I found was cigarettes and alcohol"
"High on diesel and gasoline, psycho for drum machine, shaking their bits to the hits"
and...
"You are hardcore, you make me hard, you name the drama and I'll play the part, It seems I saw you in some teenage wet dream, I like your get up if you know what I mean".
^nominate that for best lyrics from any song.
Posted by Elizabeth at 3:41 AM | 03/05/2007 | Report Abuse
"Libraries gave us power, then work came and made us free, what price now for a shallow piece of dignity"
Posted by Andrea at 7:22 AM | 03/05/2007 | Report Abuse
Classic album-opening lines...
"It was 20 years ago today/Sgt Pepper taught the band to play."
Posted by killersfan at 11:31 AM | 03/05/2007 | Report Abuse
In Your Honour by Foo Fighters - great way to start an album:
"Can you hear me? Hear me screaming/Breaking in the muted skies!"
Screamed by Dave Grohl in the manner of a man about to cough up a deckchair.
Posted by brezhnev at 11:33 AM | 03/05/2007 | Report Abuse
Johnny take a walk with your sister the moon
Let her pale light in to fill up your room
You've been living underground
Eating from a can
You've been running away
From what you don't understand...
Love
Posted by Ellejay at 11:52 AM | 03/05/2007 | Report Abuse
Obviously we forgot, 'Son, I'm 30, I only went with your mother cos she's dirty' from Kinky Afro, the first track on the Happy Mondays' Pill n Thrills and Bellyaches.
Action has been taken.
Posted by gareth at 3:34 PM | 03/05/2007 | Report Abuse
I hereby tender my resignation.
Posted by Luke Lewis at 3:51 PM | 03/05/2007 | Report Abuse
'I dont need to sell my soul he's already in me'.....c'mon! this is the best!!!
Posted by Mikey Phillips at 12:33 PM | 04/05/2007 | Report Abuse
Lovin' easy, Livin' free, Bought my ticket on a one way ride.
Posted by Richard Hardy at 12:48 PM | 04/05/2007 | Report Abuse
"I don't believe in an interventionist God, but I know Darling that you do"
Nick Cave, Into My Arms from Boatman's Call
Posted by Apples at 12:49 PM | 04/05/2007 | Report Abuse
"Whatever happened to Leon Trotski?
He got an ice-pick which made his ears burn"
Posted by Ben at 1:03 PM | 04/05/2007 | Report Abuse
How could everyone forget the Sex Pistols!
"A cheap holiday in other people's misery!"
Posted by Land at 3:59 PM | 04/05/2007 | Report Abuse
"You're my size, I need to try you on; Someone inbetween the right and wrong.."
Have It All - Foo Fighters
Posted by lee Egerton at 6:19 PM | 04/05/2007 | Report Abuse
I love you from the bottom of my pencil case
I love you in the songs I write and sing
I love you because you out me in my rightful place
And I love the PRS Cheques that you bring.
Paul Heaton was a bloody genius.
Posted by Young Becca at 8:13 PM | 04/05/2007 | Report Abuse
rock on gold dust woman, take your silver spoon, dig your grave
Posted by kat at 9:19 PM | 05/05/2007 | Report Abuse
"Lying in my bed, my blanket is warm. This body will never be safe from harm. Still feel your hair, black ribbons of coal. You touch my skin to keep me warm."
Mojo Pin - Jeff Buckley
Posted by dan at 2:53 AM | 07/05/2007 | Report Abuse
whoops! the last word in that one above should be whole.
"Lying in my bed, my blanket is warm. This body will never be safe from harm. Still feel your hair, black ribbons of coal. You touch my skin to keep me whole."
Mojo Pin - Jeff Buckley
Posted by dan at 2:56 AM | 07/05/2007 | Report Abuse
The return of the Thin White Duke
Throwing darts in lovers' eyes
Station to Station, Bowie 1976
Posted by bowiefan at 10:13 AM | 07/05/2007 | Report Abuse
There are some great ones here, but in reality there is no real contest: " Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine..." The opening line of the first song on Horses, Gloria, a thoroughly reconstructed version of a Van The Man rock song!
Posted by Roger Smith at 12:14 AM | 08/05/2007 | Report Abuse
'You know in all of the time that we've shared, i've never been so scared...Doll me up in my bad luck-i'll meet you there.'
Doll- The Colour + The Shape-Foo Fighters
Posted by sez at 8:39 AM | 08/05/2007 | Report Abuse
Morrissey, America is Not The World, from You Are The Quarry:
"America your head's too big, Because America, Your belly's too big
And I love you, I just wish you'd stay where you is
In America, The land of the free, they said, And of opportunity, In a just and a truthful way
But where the president, Is never black, female or gay, And until that day
You've got nothing to say to me, To help me believe
In America, It brought you the hamburger, Well America you know where, You can shove your hamburger
And don't you wonder, Why in Estonia they say, Hey you, Big fat pig
You fat pig, You fat pig"
Love that crazy guy
Posted by ed at 2:37 PM | 17/05/2007 | Report Abuse
Once upon a time you dressed so fine , threw the bums a dime DIDN'T YOU .
Does it get any better than that . Oh in case you don't know it's DYLAN - Like a Rollin Stone .
Posted by Andy Atwal at 9:10 PM | 23/05/2007 | Report Abuse
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