― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 07:27 (twenty years ago) link
"Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" - Van Morrison
"All of your friends are cunts" - Mclusky
"When you have no one no one can hurt you" - Will Oldham
― neil simpson, Tuesday, 24 June 2003 07:58 (twenty years ago) link
― pip, Tuesday, 24 June 2003 08:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Tijn, Tuesday, 24 June 2003 09:39 (twenty years ago) link
- Felt, Declaration.
― flowersdie (flowersdie), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 09:51 (twenty years ago) link
Guns'n'Roses, Use Your Illusion 1
― Jay K (Jay K), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 09:52 (twenty years ago) link
― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 10:24 (twenty years ago) link
isn't that patti smith?
― Michael Dubsky, Tuesday, 24 June 2003 10:58 (twenty years ago) link
from 'you've really got a hold on me
for albums, the start of 'searching for the young soul rebels' is pretty hard to beat
crackly radio montage of holiday in the sun/smoke on the water/rat race/a couple of other things, then
rowland "[incomprehensible shout]"
dexys blokes "YEAH!"
rowland "[another incomprehensible shout]"
rowland (sounding spectacularly brummie) "for god's sakes burn it down"
― adam b (adam b), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 11:10 (twenty years ago) link
― russ t, Tuesday, 24 June 2003 13:05 (twenty years ago) link
― Felcher (Felcher), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 14:38 (twenty years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 17:09 (twenty years ago) link
― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 17:26 (twenty years ago) link
― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 00:12 (twenty years ago) link
― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 02:02 (twenty years ago) link
oh wait...
― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 02:55 (twenty years ago) link
― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Thursday, 19 February 2004 06:44 (twenty years ago) link
uh-oh! i hereby report you to your local misheard lyric thread!
but the actual meat puppets lyric is indeed a classic opening line:
a long time agoi looked at myselfand said, "you, you are my daughter"
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 19 February 2004 07:06 (twenty years ago) link
― Jay Smooth (jsmooth995), Thursday, 19 February 2004 07:12 (twenty years ago) link
― russ, Thursday, 19 February 2004 08:10 (twenty years ago) link
― detroit delinquent (nathalie), Thursday, 19 February 2004 08:16 (twenty years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 19 February 2004 09:23 (twenty years ago) link
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 19 February 2004 11:04 (twenty years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 19 February 2004 11:47 (twenty years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 19 February 2004 12:16 (twenty years ago) link
― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Thursday, 19 February 2004 15:49 (twenty years ago) link
Love, "Live And Let Live"
― Myonga Von Bontee, Thursday, 19 February 2004 21:43 (twenty years ago) link
Nick Cave, "Up Jumped the Devil"
― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Thursday, 19 February 2004 22:16 (twenty years ago) link
― anode (anode), Thursday, 19 February 2004 22:22 (twenty years ago) link
"Grandma sitting in a corner with a person in her hand going 'No no no no no.'It only goes to show."
― otto, Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:09 (twenty years ago) link
― maypang (maypang), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:11 (twenty years ago) link
person? i don't think that's exactly what grandma had in her hand. (or were the frogs releasing clean versions of their albums?)
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:11 (twenty years ago) link
"Here's a penny for your thoughts...incidently, you may keep the change."
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:11 (twenty years ago) link
You Made Me Feel - Trash Can Sinatras
― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:13 (twenty years ago) link
― otto, Friday, 20 February 2004 00:37 (twenty years ago) link
― Stupid (Stupid), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:39 (twenty years ago) link
― chris herrington (chris herrington), Friday, 20 February 2004 03:53 (twenty years ago) link
every thousand yearsthis metal sphereten times the size of Jupiterfloats just a few yards past the earth
you climb on your roofand take a swipe at itwith a single featherhit it once every thousand years
’til you’ve worn it downto the size of a peayeah I’d say that’s a long timebut it’s only half a blinkin the place you’re gonna be
Built To Spill - Perfect From Now On
― Melson (ArchCarrier), Friday, 20 February 2004 09:40 (twenty years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 20 February 2004 15:25 (twenty years ago) link
IT WAS THE BIGGEST COCK YOU'D EVER SEEN
― ilxor, Monday, 23 March 2009 03:54 (fifteen years ago) link
BUT YOU'VE NO IDEA WHERE THAT COCK HAS BEEN
― ilxor, Monday, 23 March 2009 03:55 (fifteen years ago) link
"Back in the days when I was a teenagerBefore I had status and before I had a pagerYou could find the abstract listening to hip hopMy pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop"
excursions, tribe called quest
― the chicano incarnation of benito juarez (primalfixations), Monday, 23 March 2009 04:46 (fifteen years ago) link
"you'll find me in a berlin bar, in a corner brooding" -- kate "saxophone song"
― Surmounter, Monday, 23 March 2009 05:09 (fifteen years ago) link
"I'm not a lover, I'm a fighter, and I will burn your house down, I will eat your children alive, and I will turn your lovers bones into tiny violins to play when you die" -Antartica Takes It "I'm No Lover" (fits in the album openers thread, too)
― the who cares (okamax), Monday, 23 March 2009 05:40 (fifteen years ago) link
I was dreamin' when I wrote thisForgive me if it goes astray
― Popture, Monday, 23 March 2009 10:53 (fifteen years ago) link
"IT WAS THE BIGGEST COCK YOU'D EVER SEEN"I've always HATED that lineehas Always come off to me as look at how risque we can sound whith this opening line to our albumyheah we're fuckin bad
― turtles all the way down (Face of Wolf), Monday, 23 March 2009 10:55 (fifteen years ago) link
I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song,I'm twenty-two now but I won't be for long.
― Mordy, Monday, 23 March 2009 10:56 (fifteen years ago) link
I got a letter from the government the other day,I opened it, and read it, it said they were suckas.
― 2 ears + 1 ❤ (Pillbox), Monday, 23 March 2009 11:23 (fifteen years ago) link
it's britney, bitch
― Surmounter, Monday, 23 March 2009 13:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Ha, I was gonna say Black Steel.
"There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief."--Bob Dylan, All Along The Watchtower
"Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack. I went out for a ride, and I never went back."--Bruce Springsteen, Hungry Heart
"Ice, baby. I saw your girlfriend and she's eating her fingers like they're just another meal."--Pavement, Summer Babe
"She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge."--Pulp, Common People
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 23 March 2009 15:14 (fifteen years ago) link
every night i tell myself i am the cosmosi am the windbut that don't get you back again
― cwkiii, Thursday, 28 May 2020 13:06 (four years ago) link
Feels like I've been through a washing machine
― frogbs, Tuesday, 18 October 2022 03:51 (one year ago) link
There were 87 Advil in the bottle now there's 30 left, I ate 47 so what happened to the other 10?
it's not music but the opening line to Forrest McNeil's Review is one of the best:
"Life...it's literally all we have. But is it any good?"
― frogbs, Tuesday, 18 October 2022 03:57 (one year ago) link
Son, I'm 30I only went with your mother 'cause she's dirty
― as a lyricist he is from hell (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 22:38 (six months ago) link
Teenage angst has paid off wellNow I'm bored and old
― alpine static, Thursday, 16 November 2023 08:28 (six months ago) link
life's a nightmare, i can't stand it
― Fizzles, Thursday, 16 November 2023 08:55 (six months ago) link
Jens Lekman isn't on my mind or radar all that much, but he certainly his regarding the question of best opening lines:
Yeah I got busted.So I used my one phone callto dedicatea song to you on the radio
― Valentijn, Thursday, 16 November 2023 09:47 (six months ago) link
(he certainly is)
― Valentijn, Thursday, 16 November 2023 09:48 (six months ago) link
I love that Jens song, but David Berman should get most of the credit there, and for the chorus too, because those lyrics are based on this bit of Berman's poem "Governors on Sominex":
P.K. was in the precinct house, using his one phone callto dedicate a song to Tammy, for she was the lightby which he traveled into this and that
iirc one of Jens's friends had included these lines (uncredited) in a letter to him, and Jens paraphrased them in the song thinking his friend had written them.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Thursday, 16 November 2023 19:07 (six months ago) link
jens has plenty of candidates for the thread to be fair
― is he disgruntled adrian? (voodoo chili), Thursday, 16 November 2023 20:05 (six months ago) link
It has often been my dreamTo live with one who wasn't there
― Xgau Murder Spa (nikola), Saturday, 18 November 2023 03:17 (six months ago) link
Life is dull, life is grayAt its best it's just OKBut I'm happy to report:Life is also short
― one time gaffled 'em up (one time), Saturday, 18 November 2023 03:34 (six months ago) link
I like opening lines that set the scene.
"You opened my mail apart at the seams / Now you know I live beyond my means"
"The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68 and he told me / all romantics meet the same fate some day / Cynical and drink and boring someone in some dark café"
"I got a letter from the government the other day / I opened and read it / It said they were suckers / They wanted me for their army or whatever"
― Alba, Saturday, 13 April 2024 20:16 (one month ago) link
I like second lines that are critiques of opening lines, like in "Lovergirl" by Teena Marie:
Coffee, tea, or me, baby? Touché au laitMy openin' line might be a bit passé, yes
― henry s, Sunday, 14 April 2024 00:16 (one month ago) link
God knows you ain’t pretty, God knows its true
― bbq, Sunday, 14 April 2024 03:18 (one month ago) link
I think the first 5 seconds of Destroyer's Streethawk are some of the best opening seconds of any album. You could turn it off right there and have a clear idea of what the next 40 minutes are going to entail.
― H.P, Sunday, 14 April 2024 03:33 (one month ago) link
The room, it was lit upMe too, I couldn't sit up.
"Midnight Through Morning," David Blue (1966)
― clemenza, Saturday, 18 May 2024 20:35 (three weeks ago) link
Wayne Marshall - Orgy
"Baby, let's have an orgy"
― boxedjoy, Sunday, 19 May 2024 16:58 (two weeks ago) link