Poll: Best opening line of a song (1 Viewer)

[Jon_Are]

I've always liked the first line of Liz Phair's F*** and Run:

"I woke up alarmed."

Jon

 

[Vickie_M]

Several of my favorites are from my musical goddess Kate Bush:

All the Love: "The first time I died, I was in the arms of good friends of mine"

Blow Away: "One of the band told me last night, that music is all that he's got in his life"

Coffee Homeground: "Down in the cellar, you're getting into making poison."

Deeper Understanding: "As the people here grow colder I turn to my computer, and spend my evenings with it like a friend."

Disbelieving Angel: "So much for all the prayers you've learned, they are no help to basic needs"

The Dreaming: "'BANG!' goes another kanga on the bonnet of the van"

Experiment IV: "We were working secretly for the military, we only know in theory what we are doing"

Hello Earth: "Hello, Earth. With just one hand held up high I can blot you out, out of sight.

Kashka From Bagdad: "Kashka from Baghdad lives in sin, they say, with another man, but no one knows who"


Here are a few from another musical goddess, Happy Rhodes:

100 Years: "With no genetic code, so pathetic am I, don't have the luxury of knowing someday I'll die"

I'm Going Back: "Where are my monsters and cats, where are my attic antiques and bats?"

Number One: "The day must come for us to begin, the way's away from the craze we're in"

Off From Out From Under Me: "I knew a man who was very odd, he always thought that someone was following him"

Poetic Justice: "Get out of my world of words, you little poets crying pain"

You Never Told Me: "There were those nights, there were those long nights when we would test our views, air out our lies and truths"

 

[Angelo.M]

Best first line, ever:

The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves...

Springsteen's "Thunder Road".

--AM

 

[Kristian]

I don't know if I'd consider it the best, but the line that first comes to mind is "I read the news today, oh boy..." from The Beatles' "A Day in the Life".

 

[JenB]

I agree with Kristian-that opening line from the Beatles definitely sticks with me.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Just to get some in from other kinds of music:
Hear that lonesome whippoorwill;
He sounds too blue to fly;
That means he’s lost the will to live;
I’m so lonesome I could cry.
Hank Williams, who knew a thing or two.
La Ci Darem, La Mano, one of the most seductive pieces of music ever written (words by Carlo de Ponte—music by Mozart). It means (more or less) let’s walk hand in hand; but it really refers to a bride leaving her groom on her wedding day to go off with Don Giovanni, his own self—and by the end of the duet, she willingly agrees—and anyone listening to this music can well understand why.
Some trees bear strange fruit;
Blood on the leaves and blood at the roots;
Black bodies swinging in the evening breeze;
Strange fruit hanging, from the popular trees
If anyone can listen to this lament by Billie Holliday and not be moved, I’ve not met them.
Who were you thinking of;
When we were making love, last night?
Was it a good looking stranger or a close friend of mine?
An eternal question asked by The Texas Tornadoes, which for the uninitiated, plays Tejano or Conjunto—sort of a combination of polka, Western Swing and what many call Mexican music.
Lots of other examples, from every form of music.

 

[Jon_Are]

We can't do this without Bob Dylan, can we?

"Johnny's in the basement, mixin' up the medicine." (Subterranean Homesick Blues)

"When she said, 'don't waste your words, they're just lies,' I cried, she was deaf." (Fourth Time Around)

"They say everything can be replaced..." (I Shall Be Released)

"Stake my future on a hell of a past." (Silvio)

"God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son' Abe says, 'Man, you must be puttin' me on.'" (Highway 61 Revisited)

"Once upon a time you dressed so fine, you threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?" (Like a Rolling Stone)


Jon

 

[Dheiner]

"What a drag it is, getting old."

 

[Darren H]

"My mother moved the furniture when she no longer moved the man." from Jonatha Brooke's "Angel in My House"

 

[Rain]

"That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplace and Lenny Bruce is not afraid."

 

[george kaplan]

"Now that your picture's in the paper being rhythmically admired" - Welcome to the Working Week - Elvis Costello

"Lend me your comb, it's time to go home, I've got to confess, my hair is a mess" - Lend me your Comb - Beatles

"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" - Norwegian Wood - Beatles

"Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream, it is not dying, it is not dying" - Tomorrow Never Knows - Beatles

"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see" - Strawberry Fields Forever - Beatles

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies" - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds - Beatles

"She looks so simple in her way, does the same thing every day, but she's dedicated to having her own way, she's very complicated" - Complicated - Rolling Stones

"Mother told me, yes she told me, I'd meet girls like you, she also told me, stay away, you never know what you'll catch" - Surrender - Cheap Trick

"As soon as you're born they make you feel small, by giving you no time instead of it all, til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all" - Working Class Hero - John Lennon

"Too many faces that are not just like mine, I see them moving in two at a time, it doesn't look too good to me" - There Goes The Neighborhood - The Bus Boys

"Some people try to pick up girls and get called assholes, this never happened to Pablo Picasso" - Pablo Picasso - Modern Lovers

"Calling Mister Oswald with the swastika tattoo, there is a vacancy waiting in the English voodoo, carving V for vandal on the guilty boy's head, when he's had enough of that maybe you'll take him to bed to teach him he's alive before he wishes he was dead" - Less Than Zero - Elvis Costello

"This song is called Alice's Restaurant and it's about Alice and the restaurant but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song and that's why I call the song Alice's Restaurant" - Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie

"Ouch, you're breaking my heart, Ouch, I'm falling apart, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch" - Ouch! - The Rutles

"Here she comes, you better watch your step, she's going to break your heart in two, it's true" - Femme Fatale - Velvet Underground

"No, don't ask me to apologize, I won't ask you to forgive me, If I'm gonna go down, you're gonna come with me" - Hand in Hand - Elvis Costello

"I'm gonna tell you the way it is, and I'm not going to be kind or easy, you're whole attitude stinks I say and the life you lead is completely empty, you paint your head, your mind is dead, you don't even know what I just said, that's you, American womanhood" - Harry, You're a Beast - Frank Zappa

"There will come a time when everybody who is lonely will be free, to sing and dance and love" - Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance - Frank Zappa

"Woman is the Nigger of the World, yes she is, think about it" - Woman is the Nigger of the World - John Lennon

"If you had the luck of the Irish, you'd be sorry and wish you were dead, you should have the luck of the Irish and you'd wish you was English instead" - Luck of the Irish - John Lennon

"Sit on my face and tell me that you love me" - Sit on my Face - Monty Python

"Immanueal Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable" - Bruce's Philosophers Song - Monty Python

 

[Rain]

"Delia, oh Delia, Delia all my life. If I hadn't have shot poor Delia, I'd have had her for my wife."
- Delia's Gone, Johnny Cash

 

[Lew Crippen]

And if you can stand one more from ‘Month Python’:

Always look on the bright side of life, sung by Eric Idle and company as they are on their crosses (Life of Brian). Also reputedly sung by the crew of sinking HMS Sheffield while they were waiting to be rescued.

 

[Christopher~O]

whoops

 

[Christopher~O]

They're gonna break out the hats and hooters when Josie comes home - Josie - Steely Dan.

 

[Brook K]

Fight the power! - "Fight The Power" - Public Enemy

Born a poor young country boy, Mother Nature's son - "Mother Nature's Son" - The Beatles

Burn Hollywood, burn, I smell a riot going on, first they're guilty then they're gone; yeah I'll check out a movie, but it'll take a black one to move me! - "Burn Hollywood, Burn" - Public Enemy

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again. The life I love is makin' music with my friends, and I just can't wait to get on the road again. - "On The Road Again - Willie Nelson

People are always talkin' at me, I don't hear a word they're sayin', only the echoes of my mind. - "People Are Talkin'" - Harry Nilsson

 

[Jon_Are]

Rain - What song is your earthquake, birds & snakes line from? I like it.

George - Good stuff, especially all the Elvi. However, I believe her picture was terrifically admired. Also, I about fell off my chair when I saw you quoting the Bus Boys.


"Spent all day, shining shoes, when I got off I wanted something to do." (Bus Boys - Did You See Me)

"Enter Madam X painted in a shocking pink spangled dress
Her teeth are perfect but her mouth is loose." (Elvis Costello - Glitter Gulch)

"There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder; I thought I heard you mention my name, can't you talk any louder? Don't come any closer, don't come any nearer, my vision of you can't get any clearer." (Elvis - Girls Talk)

"Photographs of fancy tricks to get your kicks at sixty-six; He thinks of all the lips that he licks and all the girls that he's going to fix." (Elvis - I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea)

Jon

 

[Blaine Skerry]

"I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you. . . (guess??)
FIRE by THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN

 

[Rain]

Rain - What song is your earthquake, birds & snakes line from? I like it.

It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by R.E.M.

 

[george kaplan]

Many years ago, my friend worked at Knott's Berry Farm, and at night he could get us in free, and the Bus Boys would be playing very often and we saw them many times. Great music, and a great show. It's really a shame that their humor is lost in the music that was selected for 48 Hrs.