Classic Albums With Not-So-Classic Opening Tracks

I'd say "Drive My Car" is a bit underwhelming compared with most of the rest of "Rubber Soul".

"Woodface" also leaves better stuff for later by opening with "Chocolate Cake".

i agree with geir

mainly about "drive my car"

Architecture & Morality - The New Stone Age suuucks

US avoided that problem by having the album open up with the far superior I've Just Seen a Face

Neil Young - Trans, opening track is the completely forgettable "Little Thing Called Love". It's a classic album to me!

Excitable Boy. "Johnny Strikes Up the Band" is great but the rest of the record dwarfs it in swagger and dread.

The track sequence for Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers has as many variations as there are releases, but the (supposedly) Chilton-sanctioned order leads off with "Kizza Me", which I always skip.

^^^the intro to Wu Tang Forever is like the most unnecessary, lame thing on the album (next to Black Shampoo and Dog Shit)

― crude interloper of a once august profession (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, October 8, 2010 1:13 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

rmde

Dog Shit is fucking classic beyond classic beyond classic, Shakey Moron

i always found it weirder that some versions of Third start with "For You". xxpost

"Vine Street" on Nilsson Sings Newman is eminently skippable as an opener (& hate it on Song Cycle too which some consider a classic, but I don't)

man, i love vine st. on both of those albums -- and that intro to it on Nilsson is awesome!

haha it's really the opening on the Nilsson album that I hate the most; it gets better after that, but not enough....

Third is exempt, there's no official tracklisting imho

lol Whiney I love dirt dog too but gimme a break even I have my limits

^^^
Why do you think they both started with it then?

xpost re: Nilsson and VDP

re Nilsson/VDP: just no accounting for taste, I guess

Pulp Fiction Soundtrack, diner dialogue.

I have to disagree on "Kizza Me" not working as the album's opener. That C-chord banging off as soon as you hit play and Chilton declaring that he wants to white out, coming after the band's previous two albums flopped and before he really starts cutting some veins open.

kizza me was the first big star song i heard, and it was *not* how i expected big star to sound after having read various reviews/articles.

"Planet Telex" for me.

heresy! 'planet telex' is one of my fav album-openers. those ominously floating keys, followed by that thunderous electric riff!

Goat's Head Soup, It's Only Rock N Roll, and Tattoo You all fit this for me.

xp I've never liked it. Then again maybe I'm being unfair, I'm not a huge fan of the album.

Only one I can think of is Party Line on Face to Face, OK, but hardly essential - especially compared to David Watts and We are the VGPS

For a long time I ignored "Zoo-Music Girl" from The Birthday Party's 'Prayers On Fire'.

heresy! 'planet telex' is one of my fav album-openers. those ominously floating keys, followed by that thunderous electric riff!

Agreed. "Planet Telex" is my fave song from that album by far!

"Harbourcoat" from Reckoning is so rote R.E.M. that I always skip over it. Always wished it started with "Pretty Persuasion."

Goat's Head Soup, It's Only Rock N Roll, and Tattoo You all fit this for me.

But are they classic albums?

(Besides, "Start Me Up" is probably among their Top 5 post-"Sticky Fingers" songs)

Regarding intros, such as the genius one on "Axis Bold As Love" I usually like them, not so much for themselves as for their actual part in the album. Starting the album with an intro is a clear sign to the listener that this album should be taken as cohesive artistic whole and listened to in its entirety as one cohesive piece of art rather than a collection of songs. And I like that approach.

Goat's Head Soup, It's Only Rock N Roll, and Tattoo You all fit this for me.

― Loup-Garou G (The Yellow Kid), Friday, October 8, 2010 5:39 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

^^^^^^^^^^^

And yes, Geir, IMHO, two of those are stone cold classics.

"Tattoo You" is a good album in a lot of ways, but classic? I dunno. It's very much Stones by numbers, just a better go at Stones-by-numbers than most of the rest of their post-1971 albums.

"Heaven" is Stones-by-the-numbers? You crazy.

He's right: it IS by numbers, but they're mostly awesome numbers.

xpost. Yeah, Kizza Me has always struck me as the *perfect* opener. Like if you're not paying attention it sounds like a real song but then it keeps sort of stopping and regrouping, and then the album starts to get weird...

"Airbag" on OK Computer plods.

Most of the first side of Abbey Road is perfectly disposable.

― seandalai, Friday, 8 October 2010 18:30 (Yesterday)

OTMFM

also wtf Planet Telex haters that's like the best track, also Soto, cmooooon

my answer is Blur's album 13. Tender is the christ end already

"Axis: Bold as Love" - opening track "EXP"

― Tom A. (Tom B.) (Tom C.) (Tom D.), Friday, 8 October 2010 17:31 (Yesterday)

Wtf at "Bring the Ruckus" being a weak track. It's a solid opener and a classic

I think the obvious Beatles choice is "Taxman" on Revolver

"Riding with Gabriel Greenburg" on
http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-51701-1110614258.gif

It's like, "OK I'll give you four EPs worth of beautiful acoustic indie-pop loveliness, but first you have to prove to me that you can suffer through three minutes of unlistenable noise."

I wanna change my vote to Who Loves The Sun of the VU Loaded album. It's not a bad song, but definitely less than classic, unlike almost everything else on that record.

Axis: Bold as Love and Rubber Soul are kind of shit all the way through, guys. In fact, Drive My Car is one of the jauntiest songs in that snoozfest.

Kizza Me is a structurally unsound tower of awesomeness!

there are actually some great examples of this but the only one coming to mind at this time is A Thousand Leaves.

maybe Amnesiac.

so much on this thread is like WAHT starting w/ the second post

pointless little instrumentals such as the ones that kickstart Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and This Nation's Saving Grace are great ways to start your classic album off on the wrong foot

As you were posting that, I was about to post this:

Heh, I got two for you, both from fourth grade:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e9/ShoutattheDevilCD2.jpg/220px-ShoutattheDevilCD2.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/88/VanHalen_1984_fcover.jpg/220px-VanHalen_1984_fcover.jpg

"Love Vigilantes" off New Order's 'Low Life' (my favorite album of theirs fwiw).

Nick Lowe, Jesus of Cool: Music for Money - boring and one note, nothing like the rest

Here's one instance where U.S. record company meddling actually improved things--it's sequenced so much better:

U.K. - "Jesus of Cool"
Music for Money
I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass
Little Hitler
Shake and Pop
Tonight
So It Goes
No Reason
36 Inches High
Marie Provost
Nutted by Reality
Heart of the City (live version)

U.S. - "Pure Pop for Now People"
So It Goes
I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass
Tonight
Marie Provost
Heart of the City (studio version)
Rollers Show
They Call It Rock (rockin'-er version of "Shake and Pop")
No Reason
Little Hitler
Nutted by Reality
36 Inches High
Music for Money

"Music for Money" works as the final cut. And the studio version of "Heart of the City" kicks the live version in the balls.

I have the new version w/ the bonus tracks, that U.S. version does look so much better. I loved "They Call It Rock" (IMO "Shake and Pop" felt watered down every since I heard it) and never understood why "Rollers Show" wasnt on the album.

Always thought Armenia City in the Sky one of the weakest things on The Who Sellout, and an odd opener

should be Armenia

I also think Rael at the end is a bit of a letdown too. That album's all about the middle, like a bell curve

Dog Shit is fucking classic beyond classic beyond classic

Always thought Armenia City in the Sky one of the weakest things on The Who Sellout, and an odd opener

Armenia's one of the best songs on Sell Out.

Which is to say, it's one of the best songs.

i always skip 'Love Is The Drug' on Siren.

^ ? waht

i mean, it is classic, i've just heard it too much, and i'm antsy to get to the 1-2-3 punch of End of the Line/Sentimental Fool/Whirlwind