I met a gin soaked, bar room queen in Memphis
*Early one mornin’ while makin’ the rounds
I took a shot of cocaine and shot my woman down *
Some good one here. You could probably toss a dart at a list of John Prine songs and come up with a viable candidate.
I’ll repeat what I offered in the other thread:
I wish to the Lord I’d never been born
or died when I was young.
“I Truly Understand (That You Love Another Man)”
Two more by John Prine:
I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that’s grown old
If dreams were lightning thunder was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago
(Angel from Montgomery)
She don’t like her eggs all runny
She thinks crossin’ her legs is funny
She looks down her nose at money
She gets it on like the Easter Bunny
(In Spite of Ourselves)
The Counting Crows entries reminded me of 'Round Here:
Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog
Where no one notices the contrast of white on white.
Maybe more than one line, but:
- Living on the road, my friend,
was going to make you free and clean
But now you wear your skin like iron,
and your breath’s as hard as kerosene*
Dammit, now I have to go listen to that song again, today
I think many of the opening lines quoted here lead into great songs, so that much that makes the opening lines great is anticipation of what’s to come. Does anyone have examples of great opening lines to otherwise shitty songs?
My father sits at night with no lights on - That’s the Way I Always Heard It Should Be by Carly Simon
The mama pajama rolled out of bed and she ran to the police station - Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard by Paul Simon
“Spring was never waiting for us, girl…”
Just popped into my mind after reading the thread title again:
“Don’t call it a comeback/I’ve been here for years” - LL Cool J.
The answer is:
I’m a streetwalking cheetah with a heart full of napalm…
I’m a flea bit peanut monkey
All my friends are junkies
That’s not really true
As they pulled you out of the oxygen tent
You asked for the latest party
Both right up there.
“I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra.”
(BTW, he’s referring to Nazareth Pennsylvania.)
I was going to offer either Tom Waits or the Pogues, but Prof. Perriwinkle beat me to both.
I’ll guess I’ll have to dip into Joni Mitchell, or Michael “Stew” Stewart (a.k.a. The Negro Problem).
Lucid tenacles test 'n sleeved
'n joined 'n jointed jade pointed
Diamond back patterns.
Captain Beefheart, “Neon Meat Dreame of a Octafish”
By the time I get to Phoenix, she’ll be rising.
Some Neil Young:
*Old man look at my life, I’m a lot like you were.
She used to work in a diner, never saw a woman look finer, I used to order just to watch her float across the floor.
Come a little bit closer, hear what I have to say, just like children sleepin’, we could dream this night away.
Trying to remember what my daddy said, before too much time took away his head.
Comes a time when you’re driftin’, comes a time when you settle down.
*
Sailing hardships through broken harbors/out on the waves in the night