Best first line (music)

[Dinsdale]

Yesterday I was driving to the golf course. Getting psyched to see Joan Jett this Saturday, I was cycling through her CDs and what should come on but the first song on the first side of her first solo album.

I don't give a damn bout my reputation!

After I cranked that mother and screamed along for a few miles, I started thinking that was just about as awesome of a debut as I could think of.

So what are some of your faves?
I'm not asking about best first albums, or even best first songs - give me your best first lines!

My runner up may well be:

Now that your picture's in the paper being rhythmically admired
and you can have anyone that you have ever desired
all you gotta tell me now is why, why, why, why
welcome to the working week!

Of course, a part of my fondness for my runner-up might result from memories of one of my fave local bands (The Rave). Saw the week the Shah of Iran was deposed, and they opened with that tune, dedicating it to the Shah...

[Jackknifed Juggernaut]

Radiohead - Airbag - "In the next world war, in a jackknifed juggernaut, I am born again."

[E-Sabbath]

KICK IT! (Beastie Boys: Fight For Your Right To Party)

[Mr. Moto]

"Well I woke up Sunday morning, with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt..."

Kris Kristofferson

[enomaj]

Fuck tha police coming straight from the underground.
A young nigga got it bad 'cause I'm brown.

-Fuck tha Police by N.W.A.

L. L. Cool J is hard as hell...

-Rock the Bells by L. L. Cool J. This one's in the delivery.

[Finagle]

Jim Steinman: "You can't run away forever, but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start."

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by Prince, Little Red Corvette

I guess I shoulda known, by the way she parked her car side-ways, that it wouldn't last.

This one came to mind first.


As did this one:

Originally Posted by The Beatles, I Saw Her Standing There

She was just seventeen - you know what I mean

Which I think pretty much wins it...

[Labdad]

Patti Smith: "Jesus died for somebody's sins - but not mine!" The opening line from "Gloria" on her amazing album Horses.

[Dinsdale]

Wow - some pretty good ones
I especially like the Patti Smith and the Beatles.

Re: the one who shall not be named, wouldn't that have to be something off of For You? (It's been a while, so I can't provide the line.)

[Thudlow Boink]

Hey, you!

-Madness, One Step Beyond

[Frodo]

There's a madman in the corner of your eye

-Iron Maiden, Chains of Misery

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

"I feel like a quote out of context, withholding the rest" - Ben Folds Five, Best Imitation of Myself

[woodstockbirdybird]

I've always liked "Nothing to do to save his life, call his wife in" ("Good Morning, Good Morning", The Beatles, on the off chance somebody doesn't recognize it).

[Finagle]

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown: "I AM THE GOD OF HELL FIRE AND I BRING YOU ... FIRE"

[ashman165]

"It's murder on the dancefloor, but you better not kill the groove; Dj, gonna burn this goddamned house right down." Sophie Ellix-Bextor

I don't know why. It's just amusing to me to think of a bunch of people actually dancing around people getting killed. Either that, or I haven't had enough coffee yet to make a good choice. /shrug

[Labtrash]

"I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand, walking through the streets of Soho in the rain."

Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon

[Cornelius Tuggerson]

I'm a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm
Iggy Pop - Search and Destroy, from the unforgettable Raw Power

[cjepson]

If I thought about it, I'd probably come up with some better ones, but for some reason, the one that popped into my head was:

"'Can I have your autograph?' he said to the fat blonde actress"

(Velvet Underground, "New Age")

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by Cornelius Tuggerson

I'm a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm
Iggy Pop - Search and Destroy, from the unforgettable Raw Power

Oh, good call.

[Voyager]

Two from Dylan:

I ran out most hurriedly, and joined the John Birch Society

and

God said to Abraham, kill me a son

[woodstockbirdybird]

Originally Posted by WordMan

Oh, good call.

Gotta concur. Another favorite is Elvis Costello's "Tokyo Storm Warning":

"The sky fell over cheap Korean monster-movie scenery
And spilled into the mezzanine of the crushed-capsule hotel"

[thwartme]

First line, first song, first album:

"Madman drummers bummers and Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat/In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat" - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Greetings From Asbury Park, "Blinded By The Light"

I've always thought that it took some serious guts to kick things off with that song.

thwartme

[RealityChuck]

"Please allow me to introduce myself . . . . "

[kelly5078]

Hey hey mama said the way you move
Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by Voyager

Two from Dylan:

I ran out most hurriedly, and joined the John Birch Society

and

God said to Abraham, kill me a son

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government...

Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues

[Frodo]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

"Please allow me to introduce myself . . . . "

+1

[Dinsdale]

Guys, please remember the OP asked for 1st lines of 1st songs on 1st albums.

(Yeah, I know JJ was in the Runaways...)

[Finagle]

Originally Posted by Dinsdale

Guys, please remember the OP asked for 1st lines of 1st songs on 1st albums.

Nope. The OP discussed the first line of the first song of a first album and then asked for the best first lines which is, at best, ambiguous.

And seriously, who even knows what position a song was on an album any more. I'm willing to participate in a Cafe Society thread, but I'll be darned if I'll do research for one.

[RealityChuck]

Well, if we count the US version of the album, here's a first line of a first album:

"I tripped the light fandango."

[MadTheSwine]

Originally Posted by labtrash

"I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand, walking through the streets of Soho in the rain."

Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon

Play It All Night Long-Zevon

"Grandpa pissed his pants again
He don't give a damn
Brother Billy has both guns drawn
He ain't been right since Viet Nam"

[Musicat]

Why don't we do it in the road?

[ArizonaTeach]

Originally Posted by labtrash

"I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand, walking through the streets of Soho in the rain."

Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon

Yep. This is the winner (literally).

[MadTheSwine]

Originally Posted by Musicat

Why don't we do it in the road?

That's the 4th line, silly.

[Ferd Burfel]

"Welcome back my friends
To the show that never ends."

Karn Evil #9, Emerson, Lake & Palmer

[infinitii]

"Never was a Navy brat
But my father was yeah
He warned me not to make
Friends with weather"

Meg & Dia, "One Sail"

[Frostillicus]

"One soft infested summer me and Terri became friends
Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in"

Bruce - Backstreets

[Just Ed]

Led Zeppelin - Good Times, Bad Times:

In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man
Now I've reached that age I've tried to do all those things the best I can

The Doors - Break on Through

You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day

I love the bravado of Jet- Last chance:

You ain't nothing to me if you got nothing to say
I don't know what you got that I can use anyway

[Idlewild]

I am fond of Fake Palindromes by Andrew Bird, which opens with:

"my dewy-eyed Disney bride what has tried
swapping your blood with formaldehyde?
Monsters?"

Andrew Bird's lyrics tend to be deliciously wordy in general.

For sheer impact, Regina Spektor belting out: "I kissed your lips and I tasted blood" at the start of Your Honor works for me.

Um. I guess those are the ones that stick out to me from my recent playlists. I don't know about best.

[cactus waltz]

It was Christas eve, babe
In the drunk tank

- the Pogues, Fairy tale of New York



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


- Joy Division, Disorder (first line, first album to boot)

[furt]

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back

[Gatopescado]

Left his great job behind....

Jayhawks

Has special meaning for me, as does most of the rest of the song.

[outlierrn]

I met a gin soaked barroom queen in Memphis
-Stones


Well I was rolling down the road in some cold blue steel
I had a bluesman in the back and a beautician at the wheel
-ZZ Top

[Alessan]

I am he as you are he as you are me as we are all together

- The Beatles


In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines

- Bruce Springsteen

[GargoyleWB]

"Mother do you think they'll drop the bomb" - Pink Floyd. It really stands out when listening to the album through as a whole, coming after a quiet fade out interlude.

"It's been 7 hours and 15 days" - Sinead O'Conner (props to Prince for writing, he's great at first lines)

[woodstockbirdybird]

Originally Posted by cactus waltz

It was Christas eve, babe
In the drunk tank

- the Pogues, Fairy tale of New York

Hell yeah.

[Emily Litella]

I'm in the phone booth it's the one across the hall
If you don't answer I'll just ring it off the wall....

Blondie's Hanging on the Telephone

[Gangster Octopus]

"I'm alone"

The Metro, Berlin

[Bob Ducca]

I offer up two from Wilco:

"The ashtray says, we were up all night."
-Shot in the Arm

and

"I dreamed about killing you again last night, and it felt alright to me."
-Via Chicago

[filling_pages]

I've been saying let me out of here before I was even born...
("Blank Generation", Richard Hell and the Voidoids)

She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean, she was the best damn woman that I ever seen...
("You Shook Me All Night Long", ACmuthafuckinDC)

[woodstockbirdybird]

Originally Posted by Emily Litella

I'm in the phone booth it's the one across the hall
If you don't answer I'll just ring it off the wall....

Blondie's Hanging on the Telephone

To be fair, that was actually written and originally performed by The Nerves.