Best opening lines

it's britney, bitch

― Surmounter, Monday, March 23, 2009 1:22 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Simon and Garfunkel?

Billy Bragg / "A New England"

"this is a sad fucking song"

Hi Dad, I'm in JAIL

Simon and Garfunkel?

Billy Bragg / "A New England"

― Shannon Whirry & the Bad Brains, Monday, 23 March 2009 16:11 (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Also: Leaves that are green, Simon and Garfunkel.

"You've only got one finger left, and it's pointing at the door"

"Hey the fuck it's me, buddy
smash the ones who smash the free -
until they're gone, the world will end (yeah)"

I meant S&G version, but yeah, Billy Bragg too.

"The bugger in the short sleeves fucked my wife"

John Cale, Guts

"I am not Jesus though I have the same initials"

Pulp - Dishes

"A long time ago
I looked at myself
and said you, you are my darling."
- Meat Puppets, "Up On The Sun"

I know that this was corrected upthread, and I know that most of the time, Meat Puppets lyrics could just be any goddamn thing, but this is hilarious.

"people of earth, attention."

"I caught it in the face."
--PJ Harvey, "Dry"

That word "broadminded" is spelled S-I-N."
--The Louvin Brothers "Broadminded"

"Someone's got it in for me. They're planting stories in the press."
--Bob Dylan "Idiot Wind"

Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street

And daaavid OTM about "Dishes". That opening line rules. :)

"The Sun Is Up, I'm so happy I could scream"
(The Cure: "Mint Car")

BURN THESE SHEET THAT WE'VE JUST FUCKED IN

SHEETS*

In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

I wrote a poem on a dog biscuit,
But my dog refused to look at it,
And so I got drunk and looked at the Empire State Building,
It was no bigger than a nickel.

Baby cried the day the circus came to town 'cause she didn't want parades just passin' by her,
So she painted on a smile and took up with some clown while she danced without a net upon the wire.

Melissa Manchester, Don't Cry Out Loud.

Disarm the settlers
The new drunk drivers
Have hoisted the flag
We are with you in your anger
Proud brothers
Who do not fret
The bus will get you there yet

Announcer: This is ANOTHER public service
announcement brought to you, in
part, by Slim Shady.
Eminem: (whispered): Tell 'em I don't give a fuck
Announcer: Slim Shady does not give a FUCK...what you think!
Eminem: Tell 'em to suck it
Announcer: If you don't like it, you
can suck his fucking cock!
Eminem: Tell 'em they kissed my ass
Announcer: Little did you know, upon
purchasing this album, you have just
kissed his ass!
Eminem: Tell 'em I'm fed up
Announcer: Slim Shady is fed up with your
shit...and he's going to kill you!
Eminem: Yeah
Announcer: Uh...anything else?
Eminem: Yeah...SUE ME.

It's like a jungle
sometimes it makes me wonder
how I keep from going under

lol geir

Now I rock a house party at the drop of a hat.

***

"Always on the outside, always looking in
I was in a drop-D metal band we called 'Requiem'"

***

BASS!
How low can you go?

***

When you were young you were the king of carrot flowers

Ein bisschen Goethe
Ein bisschen Bonaparte
So soll er ausseh'n
Der Mann, auf den ich warte

?!!?!?!

IT WAS THE BIGGEST COCK YOU'D EVER SEEN

― ilxor, Monday, March 23, 2009 3:54 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

BUT YOU'VE NO IDEA WHERE THAT COCK HAS BEEN

― ilxor, Monday, March 23, 2009 3:55 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

ILXOR got there before me

"In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection." - Silver Jews, American Water
― Famous Athlete, Monday, June 23, 2003 9:54 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark

You surely are a truly gifted kid
But you're only good as
The last great thing you did
And where've you been since then
Did the schedule get you down?
I hear you've got a new girlfriend
How's the wife taking it?

prefab sprout / moving the river

Babs and Clean Willie were in love they said
So in love the preacher's face turned red

I kind of have mixed feelings about 'Haitian Divorce', but that is such a fantastic opening line in how it gets across an idea of these two characters and their relationship in such a concise fashion and how it suggests this image without going into much detail

like, I can picture these two people getting married, shooting each other looks and sniggering, touching each other in front of this silently indignant minister. enjoying being the centre of attention and the idea of what being at the centre of conversation means in their relationship

that's a tape,
that we made…
but i'm sad to say it never made the grade…
that was me!
third guitar…
i wonder… where the others… are…
i sold the guitar today…i never did play much anyway…

"vine street" by randy newman but im talking VDP here -> song cycle

penny lane, there is a barber showing photographs,
of every head he's had the pleasure to know,
and all the people that come and go,
stop and say hello

"In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection." - Silver Jews, American Water
― Famous Athlete, Monday, June 23, 2003 9:54 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark

― Lophar Andreusz DeLeone (admrl), Monday, August 22, 2011 11:45 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"I dreamed about a reefer five feet long"

I tried
but I could not find a way

When your world is full of strange arrangements
And gravity won't pull you through
You know you're missing out on something
Well that something depends on you

I'll have a shower
And then phone my brother up
Within the hour
I'll smash another cup

"When I was back there in seminary school
There was a person there
Who put forth the proposition
That you can petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the lord with prayer
Petition the lord with prayer
You cannot petition the lord with prayer!"

The Doors - Soft Parade

I used to wake and run with the moon
I lived like a rake and a young man

Out of town, my work takes me out of town.
I empty villages, I burn their houses down.
I set up factories, lay out plantations,
And bring prosperity to the poorer nations.

ha this thread starts with a misquote of that Meat Puppets lyric

a lot of these are frankly more like opening verses

A single opening line is one thing, opening lines is another. I guess it depends on if you read the question as 'what are the best lines that open a song' or 'I want multiple people to give me their favourite line that opens a song'.

This may be a poetry-reader's bias, but when I think of 'great opening lines' I tend to focus on the fragmentary or obviously incomplete lines that put the listener in suspense from the get-go. Obviously this metric tends to favor storytelling songwriters ("After three nights in jail..." is a personal favorite for its economy, along with "Maybe we could break your ankle, clean & un-suspiciously?") but straightforward pop lyrics benefit just as much from a compressed opening: "I used to say 'I love you...'" — "Rally up my friends & stand by my bedside!" — "I'm never going back to Jackson."

I don't necessarily disagree, but equally would point out that that's your focus, and some people prefer longer lines that make a more complete picture. Also, I think for a lot of people they're choosing things that have a great instant hook but that also follow up well - mine, I think, would work with your criteria with just the first line (What work? Where? What's happening here? Where's the story going?) but maintains a consistently interesting tone throughout.

yeah, I dunno, I swear I don't *want to* be difficult, it's just that I have a different mental filing cabinet for "songs that open with a string of good lines, each building on the one(s) that came before" and I would put your example (which I am actually not familiar with so who cares what I think really) there, alongside something like this perfectly-paced Silver Jews throwaway I recently rediscovered

MC5 win this forever, right?

Outside another yellow moon has punched a hole in the night-time mist.

- Tom Waits - Downtown Train