# Best opening lines (song edition) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930 "2010-11-08T17:29:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/21 "2010-11-08T19:53:02Z")
I’m ashamed to admit, the first lyric that came to my mind is… _Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame! Darling, you give love… a bad name_. I’ve been playing too much Rock Band/Guitar Hero over the past few months. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/22 "2010-11-08T19:55:02Z")
So I stood by the roadside, the soles of my running shoes gripping the tarmac like gunmetal magnets. - Roger Waters ---
**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/23 "2010-11-08T20:08:46Z")
It was April the Forty-first, being a quadruple leap year - **Wet Dream** ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/24 "2010-11-08T20:24:24Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#): > > I absolutely love the word picture Neil Diamond paints in the first verse of “I Am, I Said”: > > L.A.'s fine, the sun shines most the time > And the feeling is laid back > Palm trees grow, and **rents are low** Boy, does _that_ ever date this song! “Well I’m a-runnin’ down the road, trying to loosen my load, I’ve got seven women on my mind Four that want to own me, two that want to stone me, and one says she’s a friend of mine.” -Eagles, “Take It Easy” ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/25 "2010-11-08T20:34:31Z")
Livin’ on the road my friend, was gonna make you free and clean, Now you wear your skin like iron and your breath’s as hard as kerosene. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/26 "2010-11-08T20:44:43Z")
I lit a thin green candle to make you jealous of me. But the room just filled up with mosquitos, they heard that my body was free. Leonard Cohen - One of us cannot be wrong ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/27 "2010-11-08T20:49:20Z")
“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” Patti Smith - _Gloria: In Excelsis Deo/Gloria_ ---
**Author:** ![Promethea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/28 "2010-11-08T21:33:32Z")
Oooh! How could I forget: “Not everyone in New York would pay to see Andrew Lloyd Webber - may his trousers fall down as he bows to the Queen and the Crown.” Chocolate Cake by Crowded House ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/29 "2010-11-08T21:47:19Z")
The screen door slams Mary’s dress sways Like a vision she dances across the porch As the radio plays Roy orbison singing for the lonely Hey that’s me and I want you only _-Thunder Road_ ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/30 "2010-11-08T21:50:43Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Jeremiah was a bullfrog! For the win. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/31 "2010-11-08T21:53:39Z")
“Science is real!” - _They Might Be Giants_. “Bent double like old beggars in sacks Knockkneed and cursing or coughing like hags Men marched on sleeping some without boots Fatigue drunken deaf still to the hoots Of breaking gas shells Dropping softly behind But limped on bloodshod All went lame all went blind” - _10,000 Maniacs_, “The Latin One.” ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/32 "2010-11-08T21:56:24Z")
> [@Promethea](#): > > Actually, most Costello tracks have fantastic opening lines. Agreed. My current favorite song of all time: “He thought he was the King of America where they pour Coke-a-cola just like vintage wine.” _Brilliant Mistake_, Elvis Costello. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/33 "2010-11-08T21:59:31Z")
_There must be some way out of here" said the joker to the thief_– **All Along the Watchtower** ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/34 "2010-11-08T22:02:48Z")
I’ve always been partial to Smokey Robinson’s “I don’t like you, But I love you.” I could also go the rest of my life without ever hearing another song that begins with “I was walking down the street” or, even more so, “Woke up this morning”–though I’ll give the Doors credit for beginning a _closing_ verse (in “Roadhouse Blues”) with “Well I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer.” That gives it a little bit of a fillip. I also like “To live _free_, you have to _live_ free, / To _be_ free, you have to be _free_”–but since that’s from a song I wrote, I’m really a little prejudiced… ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/35 "2010-11-08T22:12:36Z")
Oh, I’ll play this game for FOREVER… _My eyelids said four-thirty but the radio clock said six and I was thinking of a reasonable excuse_ - Louisiana Lowdown _I see red it hurts my head guess it must be something that I read_ - Red Lenses _Code monkey get up get coffee code money go to job_ - Code Monkey ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/36 "2010-11-08T22:16:34Z")
_In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey!_ - Loser _There are those who think that life has nothing left to chance_ - Free Will _We’ve got nothing to fear but fear itself? Not pain not failure not fatal tragedy?_ - The Weapon ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/37 "2010-11-08T22:18:16Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > _There must be some way out of here" said the joker to the thief_– **All Along the Watchtower** There’s too much confusion here … probably because I’m a Cylon. By your command. ---
**Author:** ![pythonzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@pythonzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pythonzzz)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/38 "2010-11-08T22:28:00Z")
I met him in a swamp, down in Degoba Why are there so many songs about rainbows And what’s on the other side? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/39 "2010-11-08T22:53:27Z")
You are the crown of creation, You are the crown of creation, And you’ve got no place to go! – _Jefferson Airplane_ (The song has no place to go after that either, but it’s a great opening.) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930/40 "2010-11-08T22:57:34Z")
_Yeah, Here comes Amos. Now Amos Moses was a Cajun. He lived by his self in the swamp. He hunted alligator for livin. He just knock 'em in the head with a stump._ Jerry Reed [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-lines-song-edition/559930.md?page=3)