Favorite Song Opening Lines

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I know we’ve done a book opening lines thread recently, but I don’t remember one about songs. The breakup songs thread inspired me to find my favorite first song line:

“Now that your picture’s in the paper being rhythmically admired…”
from Welcome to the Working Week by the inimitable Elvis Costello

It has the additional benefit of being the first song on Costello’s first record, so it doesn’t get any more “opening” than that.

So what’s your favorite opening line?

I’m your only friend
I’m not your only friend
But I’m a little glowing friend
But really I’m not actually your friend
But I am

2

“I’m your only friend, I’m not your only friend, but I’m a little glowing friend…”

From the They Might Be Giants song Birdhouse in Your Soul. :wink:

J/K Ace…

Right now my favorite would probably be:

all these accidents
that happen
follow the dot
coincidence makes sense
only with you, oo-ooh

Bjork, Joga

I have chainmail underwear.

3

"Well he went down to dinner in his Sunday Best,
(excitable boy, they all said)
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest…

-Excitable Boy, Warren Zevon

4

Massachusettes songwriter Peter Nelson (On Signature Sounds Records) is one of the best songwriters I know. He has a song called “If you won’t leave me alone, I’ll find someone who will” - that also is the opening line.

I feel much better since I’ve given up hope.

5

What do you do when it’s falling apart/
and you knew it was gone from the very start?
Do you close your eyes/
and dream about me?

When You Close Your Eyes - Night Ranger.

Still one of my favorites, after all these years.

6

“By the side of a river, A little Tom Tit, sang ‘Tit Willow, Tit willow, Tit Willow’”

7

“Here we stand, here we fall” - Hammer to Fall, Queen

“I was working one night inn my office when a man I had recently killed called me up from a phone near my building” - Turn Around, They Might Be Giants (still the only song I know to feature the word obsequious)

8

“You can’t run away forever, but there’s nothing wrong with getting a good head start”. Jim Steinman, Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through

9

“I met you before the fall of Rome,
And I begged you to let me take you home.
You were wrong…I was right
You said good-bye, I said good night…”
–“It’s All Been Done” by Barenaked Ladies

…and even though they’re not lyrics in the traditional sense, I love the clarinet trills at the beginning of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Christopher Robin Hood - he steals from the rich and gives to the Pooh.

10

“Of words poetic,
I’m so pathetic
that I often have found it best
to let them rest
unexpressed.”

“Spring is here
Spring is here
All is skittles and
All is beer.”

“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.

www.sff.net/people/rothman

11

Damn! Democritus beat me to it!

Okay, so:
“You’re from New York/ You are so relevant/ You reduce me to cosmic tears.”

I think I’m developing the Los Angelinos’ traditional contempt for New Yorkers. Naah. Still contemptuous about LA.

Only you can prevent solipsism.

12

Democritus beat me to “Birdhouse in your Soul”, that is.

“Particle Man, Particle Man. Doing the things a particle can.”

Only you can prevent solipsism.

13

“On a dark desert highway/ Cool wind in my hair/ Warm smell of coolitas (sp?)/Rising up through the air” Hotel California The Eagles

“All my bags are packed I’m ready to go/ I’m standing here outside your door” Leaving on a Jet Plane By whomever did it the first time and Chantal Kreviazuk

“Make up your mind
Decide to walk with me
Around the lake tonight
Around the lake tonight
By my side”
Possum Kingdom The Toadies

“God, I feel like hell tonight/Tears of rage I cannot fight/I’d be the last to help you understand/Are you strong enough to be my man?” Sheryl Crow

Bargain not with the Darkness: in time it will take us all.
Exerpted from The Book of Nod

St. TopazAntares: Patron Saint of Quintuplet Posts. And Patron Saint of Chinese Food.
Courtesy of SwimmingRiddles

14

“I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand,
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain.
He was looking for a place called Lee Ho Fook’s,
Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein.”

Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon of course.

I was very disappointed to discover that Lee Ho Fook’s does not serve beef chow mein. The food there was pretty good, though.

15

the first days are the hardest days
don’t you worry anymore
cause when life looks like easy street
there is danger at your door

GreaTFuL DeaD
uncle johns band

HaVe a GreaTFuL DaY…

16

“Well they blew up the Chicken Man in Philly last night.
and they blew up his house too.”

  • Atlantic City, Bruce Springsteen
17

[sniff]

—Casey Jones, by the Grateful Dead

[chuckle]

—Whole Lotta Love, by Led Zeppelin

Sing glogalimp, sing glugalump,
From deep inside the Wuggly Ump.

18

All alone now, except for the memories.

19

“The Mississippi delta was shining like a National guitar.”

“Graceland”, Paul Simon

"It was Christmas in Prison
And the food was real good.
We had turkey and pistols
Carved out of wood.

And I dream of her always.
Even when I don’t dream,
Her name’s on my tongue
And her blood’s in my stream"

“Christmas in Prison”, John Prine

And this one:
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V

“Did you ever wake up,
Bullfrogs on your mind?”

  • Wm Harris
20

we don’t know what we’re talking about
that’s just words in our libretto
i don’t know if the sum of our stretto
will end up in a terrible shout

Frank Black and the Catholics - Bad Harmony

“Mega the Roo - Patron Saint of Marsupials and Shampoo”
-Ms Riddles