Favorite Opening Line From A Song

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"do you feel ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLright?"

― artiste, Friday, 27 September 2002 00:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

I quote 'this ain't rock n roll, it's genocide!' all the time; and another honorable mention to "when I say I'm in love you best believe I'm in love L-U-V"

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 27 September 2002 00:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

Early one morning, the sun was shining,
I was laying in bed
wondering if she'd changed at all
if her hair was still red.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 27 September 2002 14:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

Actuall, Bob Dylan and Sir Mix-a-lot OWN this thread.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 27 September 2002 14:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

Actually, Bob Dylan and Sir Mix-a-lot OWN this thread.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 27 September 2002 14:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I had a shower / And then phoned my brother up" from the Associates' "Party Fears Two" (doesn't work as well on paper).

"This goes out to all the woman in the world / Especially her" from Freak Nasty's "Da Dip"

― scott pl., Friday, 27 September 2002 14:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I'm brokenhearted
with all this this entails
It takes some complicated drinking
to keep me on the rails"

Max Eider, "Drink"

"Hello, my name is Billy Bob and I don't give a damn
I got myself some white sheets straight from the Klu Klux Klan
I got myself a daughter and she's a mongoloid
Because I married my sister and our gene pool's been destroyed."

Dead Milkmen, "Tiny Town"

"Sometimes I wish I was a pretty girl
So I could (oop) myself in the shower"

Robyn Hitchcock, "Sometimes I wish I was a pretty girl"

"Uh oh, Chuck, they out to get us man.
We gotta dust these boys off."

Public Enemy, "You're Gonna Get Yours"

― TMFTML (TMFTML), Friday, 27 September 2002 18:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm tempted by the nerve of starting a love song with "I may not always love you", on God Only Knows, but I have to mention Jarvis Cocker, whose work is littered with magnificent openings. Maybe Razzmatazz: "The trouble with your brother / He's always sleeping with your mother."

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 27 September 2002 21:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

"An' I stole a twig from off the nest and gave it to a bird with nothing in her beak, I had my balls and my brain put into a vice and twisted around for a whole fuckin week"

Marianne Faithfull - "Why'd ya do it"

― Saskia, Friday, 27 September 2002 21:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I am the gum on your shoes, the prostitute who rings your family"
Dubstar - I Will Be Your Girlfriend

― chris j (chris j), Friday, 27 September 2002 21:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I am angry I am ill and I'm as ugly as sin."

Magazine - "Song From Under the Floorboards."

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 27 September 2002 22:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

I WANT SURPRISES! Brand New Lover Dead or Alive

― jean, Sunday, 29 September 2002 21:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

"All of my purple life..."

― Jody Beth Rosen, Sunday, 29 September 2002 22:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I was dreaming when I wrote this/Forgive me if it goes astray"
"I was working part-time in a five-and-dime/My boss was Mr. McGee"
"When you were mine/I gave you all of my money"

we could do this just on Prince songs!

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 29 September 2002 22:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

You're quite right. Dig, if you will, a picture.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 29 September 2002 22:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Hips like cin-dah-rella . . ."

― Ess Kay (esskay), Sunday, 29 September 2002 22:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

"When Doves Cry" definitely wins the Prince category.

"Now you wanna know the reason why I cheated on you..." from "Sweet Surrender" gets my attention like no other.

― A.V. Alexandre (Keiko), Sunday, 29 September 2002 23:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Punctured bicycle..."
"Let me take your hand, I'm shaking like milk"
"There was a guy, an underwater guy who controlled the sea"

And waaaay too many more to mention here.

― Charlie (Charlie), Sunday, 29 September 2002 23:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK!

― My name is Kenny, Monday, 30 September 2002 00:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ooh, what My name is Kenny sed.

(haha & this doesn't count because it's a sample & it's the only voice on the track, but "This is a story / about being free . . ." is fucking amazing.)

― Ess Kay (esskay), Monday, 30 September 2002 01:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Vicious, you hit me with a flower....

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 30 September 2002 01:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

i can't believe no one has posted 'i was like' yet.

― maura (maura), Monday, 30 September 2002 01:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

hah

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 30 September 2002 01:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I've been chasing ghosts and I don't like it" John Cale

― Chris Krohn, Monday, 30 September 2002 02:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Hands up, who wants to die?"

― earlnash, Monday, 30 September 2002 03:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine", Gloria, Patti Smith

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 30 September 2002 07:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sorry I forgot my favourite opening line of the first song (Disorder) on the first album (Unknown Pleasures) of one of my all-time fave bands (Joy Division):

"I've been waiting for a guide to
come and take me by the hand ..."

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 30 September 2002 09:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sorry, my last post only makes sense if you replace the two "the" by two "a".

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 30 September 2002 09:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

YOU'RE AS COLD AS ICE!

― chaki (chaki), Monday, 30 September 2002 09:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Jaz Coleman's implausibly phlegmy cough as the first sound on "Wardance" by Killing Joke"

Are you sure that's Jaz? I don't know why exactly, I've just always assumed that was Youth....

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 30 September 2002 09:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Charlie, I'm pregnant..."

--Tom Waits, "Christmas Card to a Hooker in Minneapolis"

― Jody Beth Rosen, Monday, 30 September 2002 10:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

--Tom Waits, "Christmas Card to a Hooker in Minneapolis"

Erm. FROM. Not TO. I haven't slept.

― Jody Beth Rosen, Monday, 30 September 2002 10:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

Pretty sure, Stew, as he repeats the signature gimmick on later albums like EXTREMIEITES (on "Money is Not Our God"). Could be Youth, I suppose, but I'd always assumed it was Jaz.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 30 September 2002 13:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

My favourites are where the opening line falls in about halfway through a conversation - two particular examples are 'Burning airlines...' by Eno ("When I got back home I found a message on the door") and 'A new kind of water' by This Heat ("I don't know either, what is the answer?"). They just plunge you straight into the song's world and there's no escape, and I love it.

― Rob M, Tuesday, 1 October 2002 12:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

"you're gonna give me immunity"

another devoto line, this time give me everything

― george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 14:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wopbopalubopawopbamboom!

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 18:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

Dig if you will the picture, of you and I engaged in a kiss

U don't have 2 be beautiful 2 turn me on

I was dreamin' when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray

In France a skinny man. Died of a big disease with a little name

― ono, Tuesday, 1 October 2002 18:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I FEEL UPTIGHT ON A SATURDAY NIGHT....."

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 18:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Got me a movie, slicin' up eyeballs"

"He was lying banged and battered, skewered and bleeding, talking crippled on the cross"

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 18:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Oh, the snot has caked against my pants/it has turned to crystal."

"Get off! And get your grandma outta here!"

"Rip them down hold them up tell them that I'm your gun pull my trigger I am bigger thaaaaaaannnnnnnnnn..."

― Arthur (Arthur), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 23:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I GOT SOMETHING TO SAAA-AAAAAAY, I KILLED YOUR BABY TODAAAY......"

Oh, bless you little Glen!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 23:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

". . . . . . . "

". . . . . . . . . . . . .. ..."

". . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . .. . . .*CLICK*"

". . . . . ... . *pufffffffffff*"

". . . sssilence is _sexxy_"

(einsturzende neubauten)

― mistersquiggle (mistersquiggle), Thursday, 3 October 2002 00:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ubu has gotta be up there with Prince:

The girls won't touch me cause I got a misdirection,
and livin at night isn't helpin my complexion...

Or:

I've got these arms & legs that flipflop
flip flop

― Smith, Thursday, 3 October 2002 01:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

four weeks pass...

Either...

"Mother Earth is pregnant again, for y'all have knocked her up for the third time..."

Or...

"Don't everybody like the smell of gasoline
well burn motherfucker burn American dream..."

― Nickalicious, Friday, 1 November 2002 21:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

straight outta compton

― dyson (dyson), Friday, 1 November 2002 21:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

"IIIIIII WANT YOUR SOUL"

― Curtis Stephens, Friday, 1 November 2002 21:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

nice,

also, the beasties: "i looked out the window and seen his bald head, i ran to the fridge and pulled out an egg."

and frank black: "waaaaiiiiiit, isn't it so great, since you learned karate chop chop chop chop"

― dyson (dyson), Friday, 1 November 2002 22:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

a propos of dyson's bald head quote:

"Are you with me on this, people?
Sam with the showing scalp-top..."

Donnie Vliet

― Dougie (citzfan), Saturday, 2 November 2002 00:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

"can I have a taste of yr ice cream?/Can I lick the crumbs from yr table/can I interfere w/yr crisis ? NO Mind your Own Business!!" - Delta 5 (or the Chicks on Speed cover I first heard..)

― daria g, Saturday, 2 November 2002 01:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

I've always been partial to "What's with these homies dissin' my girl/Why do they gotta front?"

― Ally (mlescaut), Saturday, 2 November 2002 03:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

Skipping 90 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Sur le trottoir d'en face une fille riait

― who says no to mentals? (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 26 November 2017 22:24 (six years ago) link

one year passes...

"Anyone caught speaking Esperanto was thought crazy or headed for jail..."

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 3 January 2019 17:20 (five years ago) link

three years pass...

Nww

In little sunrise of goblin eyes
I watch the coupling of the flies
Under waving trees and bumble bees
I strain to amputate my knees

The fall

When it happened we walked through all the estates, from Manchester right to Newcastle.
In Darlington, helped a large man on his own chase off some kids
Who were chucking bricks and
Stuff through his flat window.

― Peter Greenaway's Fleetwood Mac (S-), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 14:44 (one year ago) link

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