# Great \*opening\* lines in songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983 "2004-06-18T03:44:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/61 "2004-06-21T23:57:25Z")
**Enya** - On Your Shore Strange how my heart beats To find myself upon your shore. Strange how I still feel My loss of comfort gone before. **Garbage** - Queer Hey boy, take a look at me Let me dirty up your mind I’ll strip away your hard veneer And see what I can find **Garbage** - Vow I can’t use what I can’t abuse And I can’t stop when it comes to you You burned me out but I’m back at your door Like Joan of Arc coming back for more Yet more **Garbage** - Dumb I never claimed to be your saviour I said I had a dirty mouth Stop analysing my behaviour If you’re too dumb to work it out I’ve got to keep myself together You know I hate to disappoint A masochistic lamb to slaughter Maybe you miss the point But wait, there’s more **Garbage** - You Look So Fine You look so fine I want to break your heart And give you mine You’re taking me over I know…you’re sick of it… **Garbage** - Drive You Home It’s funny how Even now You still support me after all of the things that I’ve done You’re so good to me Waiting patiently And isn’t it sad that you still have to ask if I care I guess I better stop here…for now. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/62 "2004-06-22T06:10:07Z")
How about that queen of Teen Angst, Janis Ian: **At Seventeen** I learned the truth at seventeen that love was meant for beauty queens and high school girls with clear skinned smiles who married young and then retired The Valentines I never knew the Friday nights charades of youth were spent on one more beautiful at seventeen I learned the truth And Carly Simon’s portrait of suburban disfunction: **That’s the Way I Always Heard It Should Be** My father sits at night with no lights on; His cigarette glows in the dark. The living room is still; I walk by, no remark. I tiptoe past the master bedroom where My mother reads her magazines. I hear her call sweet dreams, But I forget how to dream. Yeah, I’m old. StG ---
**Author:** ![BornOfStardust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@BornOfStardust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BornOfStardust)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/63 "2004-06-22T09:49:36Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > The opening lines of this song certainly got my attention the first time I heard it: > > \ > > _Closer_ by Nine Inch Nails Yeah, right? Trent Reznor certainly has a way of doing that. **Hurt** is also that way (as much because of the raw, spare _way_ in which it’s sung as of what’s being sung): I hurt myself today To see if I still feel I focus on the pain The only thing that’s real **Tori Amos** has some kickass opening lines too: “Leather” look i’m standing naked before you don’t you want more than my sex i can scream as loud as your last one but i can’t claim innocence “Waitress” so i want to kill this waitress she’s worked here a year longer than i if i did it fast you know that’s an act of kindness “Muhammad My Friend” muhammad my friend it’s time to tell the world we both know it was a girl back in bethlehem And one of many that I really like from **Radiohead** : “Pyramid Song” i jumped in the river and what did I see? black-eyed angels swimming with me a moon full of stars and astral cars and all the figures i used to see ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/64 "2004-06-22T11:21:45Z")
Great thread! My contributions. “Early one mornin’ while makin’ the rounds I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down I went right home and I went to bed I stuck that lovin’ 44 beneath my head” – **Johnny Cash** - _Cocaine Blues_ "Here in northeast Ohio Back in 1803 James and Dan Heaton Found the ore that was linin’ Yellow Creek They built a blast furnace Here along the shore And they made the cannonballs That helped the Union win the war Here in Youngstown…" – **Bruce Springsteen** - _Youngstown_ (Honourable mention goes to the following lines, even though they don’t open the song: “Taconite, coke and limestone Fed my children and made my pay Them smokestacks reachin’ like the arm of God Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay” Dayum.) “These mist covered mountains Are a home now for me But my home is the lowlands And always will be Some day you’ll return to Your valleys and your farms And you’ll no longer burn To be brothers in arms” – **Dire Straits** - _Brothers in Arms_ "She always brings me what I need Without I beg and sweat and bleed When we’re alone at night Waiting for the call She feeds my skin Sixteen and on the run from home Found a job in Times Square Working Live S&M shows Twenty-five bucks a fuck And John’s a happy man She wipes the filth away And it’s back on the streets again" – **Queensrÿche** - _Spreading the Disease_ “Love is a razor And I walked the line on that silver blade Slept in the dust with his daughter Her eyes red with the slaughter of innocense” – **Iron Maiden** - _The Evil That Men Do_ Well, I guess I could go on. But all of a sudden I feel like putting on tight leather pants and play air guitar in foggy English forrests. With abbeys in the background and stuff. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nitroglycerine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@nitroglycerine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nitroglycerine)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/65 "2004-06-22T20:35:51Z")
"Are you ready, Steve? Uh-huh. Andy? Yeah! Mick? OK. Alright, fellas, let’s **gooooooo**!-“Ballroom Blitz”-Sweet "I Wanna tell you a story ‘Bout a woman I know When it comes to lovin’ Oh! She steals the show She ain’t exactly pretty She ain’t exactly small Forty two, Thirty nine, Fifty six You could say she got it all"-Whole Lotta Rosie"-ACDC “I am Ronald McRaygun, and I want you in my McArmy/ Special orders don’t McUpset me, as long as I gets the McEnemy” -Ronald McRaygun-Dayglo Abortions “I got a six pack and nuthin’ to do. I got a six pack and I don’t need you”-Six Pack-Black Flag “Some people try to pick up girls and get called assholes, this never happened to Pablo Picasso.”-Modern Lovers ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/66 "2004-06-23T18:16:28Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#): > > “Oh waking world of innocence, so brave those first-born cries. > When life begins with needles and pins, it ends with swords and knives.” > > –Tears For Fears, _Swords and Knives_ > > “Time will swallow your precious time. > Like magic, create the future.” > > –Tears For Fears, _Mr. Pessimist_ I think it is cheating to nominate your own lyrics. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/45deac/32.png) [@Evil\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_One)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/67 "2004-06-23T19:00:11Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#): > > “Oh waking world of innocence, so brave those first-born cries. > When life begins with needles and pins, it ends with swords and knives.” > > –Tears For Fears, _Swords and Knives_ > > “Time will swallow your precious time. > Like magic, create the future.” > > –Tears For Fears, _Mr. Pessimist_ It goes without saying that you would like your own work, Roland. Or did Curt write those? ---
**Author:** ![down\_by\_law](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@down\_by\_law](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/down_by_law)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/68 "2004-06-23T22:10:59Z")
got you where i want you, motherfucker, i got five up on your dime. if you wanna peep on somethin’, peep what i got stuck between your eyes. since i don’t believe a word you say, save it for another, baby brother, swallow, time to pay. afghan whigs, “honky’s ladder” ---
**Author:** ![threeorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/69 "2004-06-25T10:44:57Z")
There was a guy An underwater guy who controled the sea **Pixies-"Monkey Gone to Heaven"** While we’re in love We’ll bleed each other dry **Ivy-"While We’re in Love"** ---
**Author:** ![todd33rpm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@todd33rpm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/todd33rpm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983/70 "2004-06-25T12:02:46Z")
From Lyle Lovett’s “An Acceptable Level Of Ecstasy (The Wedding Song)”: “The two-step it drug like a ball and chain While the band was playing something like ‘Moon River’ or ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’” It’s such a great setup for stuff that comes later, like: “Nobody knew That the flowers were furnished by the funeral parlor And the whole thing was paid for by the funeral director Who poisoned the saxophone section” In a _Musician_ interview, Lyle said that the song was inspired by a conversation he and his dad had at a cousin’s wedding…the cousin’s father owned a funeral parlor, and dad was wondering how they’d bankrolled the reception. I’ve also always loved Hoagy Carmichael’s “I Get Along Without You Very Well” (with lyrics by Jane Brown Thompson): “I get along without you very well, of course I do, Except when soft rains fall and drip from leaves, then I recall The thrill of being sheltered in your arms” Breaks my heart every time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-lines-in-songs/250983.md?page=3)