On Demand
What makes for a great opening song lyric?
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
If it's really clever or really catchy, the first line of a song can get stuck in your head forever. Bill Crandall, the editor in chief of AOL Music, joins us to talk about some of most memorable and ear-catching.
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Comments
I'm not even a Jane's Addiction fan, but I've always been struck by the opening line of "Jane Says": "Jane says, 'I'm done with Sergio. He treats me like a ragdoll.'"
A few more nominations:
The Cure, One Hundred Years: "It doesn't matter if we all die"
The Smiths, Sweetness: "Sweetnes, sweetness I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head"
Leonard Cohen, Everybody Knows: "Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed"
The Indigo Girls, Dairy Queen: "I heard you were drunk and mean down at the Dairy Queen"
Regina Spektor, Chemo Limo: "I had a dream: crispy crispy Benjamin Franklin came over an babysat all four of my kids"
The Clash, The Guns of Brixton: "When they kick out your front door, how you gonna come? With your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun?"
As a kid growing up in the nineties the opening line to R&B greats Jodeci's "Feenin'" gave me insight into how crazy us men are for women:
"Take my money...my house, and my car. For one hit of you, you can have it all baby."
Sang by one of the most distinct voices in R&B, K-Ci Hailey, it is a great way to let your lady know how you feel about her.
Close 2nd. The opening line to Jodeci's "Freek-N-You." Classic stuff.
Good Day Soundcheck staff :)
Stooges' "Search & Destroy":
I'm a street walking cheater with a hand full of napalm
The Smiths, "Hand in Glove": "Hand in glove, the sun shines out of our behinds."
Tenacious D: "You don't always have to f*** her hard...." Dirty, but hilarious.
John, please stop saying "I am THE anti-christ", it's "...AN".
Joni Mitchell:
Just before our love got lost you said...
from A Case of You
"Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine" - a catchy start to both a song and an album, Dylan's Bringing it All Back Home, the first one I ever fell in love with at the age of 12
My all time favorite:
"Uno, dos... One, two, tres, quatro !!"
["Woolly Bully," Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs]
I know it's only a count-off, but I still love it. The actual first line, which many people can't decipher, is "Mattie told Hattie about a thing she saw / It had two big horns and a woolly jaw"
One o'clock, two clock, three o'clock ROCK!
Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock"
"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?" - Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
"Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine," Subterranean Homesick Blues
A catchy start to both a song and an album (ringing it All Back Home) that caught my attention and got me hooked on Dylan at age 12
Graceland by Paul Simon
"The Mississippi delta is shining like a National guitar..."
How about Notorious B.I.G.'s "Who the hell is this paging me at 5:46 in the morning..." c'mon you know the rest ;)
Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you...Julia
- John Lennon writing in honor of his deceased mother
I think The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" is way up there. It's got the rolling drum thing, then "'Show me show me show me how you do that thing / The one that makes me scream,' she said"
"Up in a sterylized room where they let you be crazy . . . "
"I've got sunshine on a cloudy day"
The Temptations
The best opening riff and lyric - Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (slight return)
From Lou Reed's Gimmie some good times:
Hey, if that ain't the rock'n'roll animal himself, what you doing bro.
(Standing on the corner)
one of the best opening lines on so many levels.
The best opening riff AND lyric - Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Steve Miller
Going To Mexico
Pack my bags
I'm not in love, so don't forget it
10cc
"i dreamed about killing you again last night and it felt alright to me."
wilco, "via chicago".
hell of a way to begin what is actually a very sweet song.
life is a mystery; everyone must stand alone.
madonna, like a prayer
"almost cut my hair"
Christopher (#4) I commend you for adding Iggy's great line, which I came here to post, but you got it slightly wrong. It's:
"I'm a street-walkin' CHEETAH with a HEART full of nalpalm!"
The whole song is one of the great lyrics of rock music.
"Don't interrupt the sorrow . . ."
vevets- Venus in Furs
Shiny Shiny- shiny boots of leather...
These are all the best lyrics since the 60s, and mostly 80s & 90s, and in one genre.
All time? Most will be erased by the next issue in 25 years.
The songs of the 20s thru the 40s have some spectacular lyrics, just lesser known today.
And only the rock genre? Reggae, Country and Religious songs, among others, have some great opening lyrics.
Also, "lyrics" seems to divorce the words from the music; there's very little on-the-page "poetry" here, unless you factor in the music, passion and phrasing. We should have a word that describes the entire gestalt.
another:
"What's you're name, who's your daddy? /
Is he rich like me?"
["Time of the Season," The Zombies]
Television, "Marquee Moon":
"I remember how the darkness doubled; I recall lightning struck itself."
"It was all a dream" - Juicy, Notorious BIG
This line IS hip hop. Not to mention the delivery and timing on the beat could not be better.
"Sisters rejoice, sound the big minor chord, with wildly impassioned delight."
- Televison, "Shane"
How about, "I don't know you, but I'm a gonna kill you - sorry we're meeting this way"
"Random Violence" by Peter Stampfel
Or,"In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection."
"Random Rules" by The Silver Jews
Random songs, but obscure, with great opening lines.
Paul,
If you had only knew a tenth of what John forgot about music perhaps you could think of correcting him. First, however, you ought to improve your manners. Kapish?!?
"I am an American aquarium drinker"
Wilco - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
I didn't know where to post this but, I thought of this when you spoke of the passing of Hiley Kristal. Whenever anyone mentions the history of CBGBs, I always hear them speaking of proto-punk and early punk bands like Television and the Ramones. However, CBGBs was also a place that is incredibly historically important for all of the late 80s New York and Connecticut (youth crew) hardcore bands. It was an important venue for a strain of hardcore punk and straight edge (Gorilla Biscuits, Warzone, Youth Of Today, Bold) that, I feel, is the most influential for most of the music that comes out to this day, that aligns itself with those movements. Even the CBGBs photography only had one picture from those years of Youth Of Today.
I just don't understand because it seems that the only bands that are ever mentioned in conjunction with CBGBs are the ones the hipsters and indie-nerds still listen to or consider worthwhile. I'm not trying to complain just because the music that I love is being ignored, that wouldn't bother me, it's just that it's an important scene to remember in history, especially with the ever rising notoriety of straight edge, which really was really galvanized into a "MOVEMENT" at that time.
Sorry for leaving two comments about hardcore in two days! ha ha
"I used to go out to parties and stand around/'cause I was too nervous to really get down."
-Marvin Gaye, 'Got To Give It Up'
"I can't catch no man, hanging out at a discoteque" "Loving is Really My Game" by Brainstorm
"Was every girl on earth molestsed / or am I just bad in bed?"
The Vitamen - "Molested"
"I may not always love you..."
'Look out momma there's a white boat comin' up the river'
Powderfinger - Neil Young
'I woke up in a soho doorway
a policeman knew my name'
X-Ray Spex "Oh Bondage"
Some people say little girls should be seen and not heard/
I say, "OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS!"
and when I was 14: Metallica's "Sanitarium"
Welcome to where time stands still/
No one leaves and no one will
God, what a mess
on the ladder of success
took a step and missed the whole first rung
-- Bastards of Young
by The Replacements
I used to be such a sweet, sweet thing
'till they got a hold of me
-- No More Mr. Nice Guy
by Alice Cooper
To me a great opening line is one I sing to myself, out loud, for a good part of the day.
"Now and then I get horny"
- David Byrne, Independence Day
This thread is closed.
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