[QUOTE=MrDibble) I like openings that make me want to hear how the story goes…[/QUOTE]
Robert Hunter, primary lyricist for the Grateful Dead, was a master at this. He’d give you the basic set-up of the song, and then leave enough space for you to complete the picture yourself.
“We can share the women, we can share the wine.
We can share what we’ve got of yours, 'cause we’ve done shared all of mine.”
-“Jack Straw”
“Well on the day that I was born, Daddy sat down and cried.”
-“Half-step Mississippi Uptown Toodleoo”
“All of my friends, came to see me last night.
I was laying in my bed and dying.”
-“St. Peter”
“I need a chateau, twenty-one rooms, but one’ll do.”
-“West L.A. Fadeaway”
“All the years combine, they melt into a dream.
A broken angel sings, from a guitar.”
-“Stella Blue”
The Misfits - Skulls
the corpses all hang headless and limp
bodies with no surprises
and the blood drains down like devil’s rain
we’ll bathe tonight
The Misfits - Astrozombies
with just a touch of my burning hand
i send my astro zombies to rape the land
prime directive, exterminate the whole human race
Elvis Costello - New Lace Sleeves
Bad lovers face to face in the morning
Shy apologies and polite regrets
Slow dances that left no warning of
Outraged glances and indiscreet yawning
Good manners and bad breath get you nowhere
Shriekback - Malaria
In the dumb fat side
of the heavy, sweaty black
Malaria night
You can tell the shit
from the essence of heaven
Shriekback - Faded Flowers
This is the sound of poisons
the sickness no one knows
No one is crying for us this time
Our shapes are blurring under miracles of snow
The opening lines of this song certainly got my attention the first time I heard it:
"You let me violate you.
You let me desecrate you.
You let me penetrate you.
You let me complicate you.
Help me.
I broke apart my insides.
Help me.
I’ve got no soul to sell.
Help me.
The only thing that works for me.
Help me get away from myself.
I wanna fuck you like an animal…" Closer by Nine Inch Nails
I pulled into Nazereth, feelin’ 'bout half past dead.
I just need to find a place where I can lay my head.
Mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?
He grinned at me and shook his head and no was all he said.
The Misfits
“Last Caress”
I’ve got something to say
I killed your baby today
Doesn’t matter much to me
As long as it’s dead
Mid-level manager says he heard about
Some mulatto girl, shot him in the mouth
And left him in the hotel near the mid-south offices
“Hey” by the Pixies
Dylan has a lot of good stuff. I like Highway 61 too, but this ain’t bad.
“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief,
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief”…
And another Zappa:
“Im a little pimp With my hair gassed back
Pair a khaki pants
With my shoe shined black
I got a little lady . . .
And she walks that street
Tellin’ all the boys
That she can’t be beat”
Times have changed,
And we’ve often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If today,
Any shock they should try to stem
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them.
– Cole Porter, ANYTHING GOES
Well I went home with a waitress/ The way I always do.
How was I to know/ She was with the Russians too?
(Lawyers, Guns, and Money)
Crazy surrealism from They Might Be Giants:
All the people are so happy now/ their heads are caving in
I’m glad they are a snowman with/ protective rubber skin
(Nothing’s Gonna Change My Clothes)
And I have to hand it to Yes for the sheer chutzpah of opening their 1972 side-long (that’s about twenty minutes for you young whippersnappers ;)) epic Close To The Edge with the immortal couplet:
A seasoned witch could call you from the depths of your disgrace
And rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace
(Although when I was in college, I had a big crush on a Wiccan girl and a concomitant drinking problem, so that line actually held great personal significance for me!)
“It don’t matter if your pants are shiny, if your dick is big or your dick is tiny.”
Soul City by Southern Culture on the Skids
When my husband was a teenager, he’d gotten his new CMJ magazine in the mail and was listening to the sampler CD. As this soung came on, he thought it sounded like something his mom might like (It’s got a country/rockabilly/whatever sound to it.), so he put it back to the beginning of the track and told her to come in and listen to this song that he thought she’d like. All of a sudden, the opening lines came out, and he freaked out. Luckily, she had a good sense of humor and just laughed.
I really like from the Kink’s Death of a Clown:
"My makeup is dry and it clags on my chin
I’m drowning my sorrows in whisky and gin "
Moby Grape-Apocalypse:
“As I stood upon the meadow in the summer wind today
Watching while the long grass did it’s afternoon ballet
There came like mountain thunder, the Horseman angel’s cry
Apocalypse is now mankind, your time has come to die”
My They Might Be Giants contributions:
Whistling in the Dark -
“A woman came up to me and said
“I’d like to poison your mind
With wrong ideas that appeal to you
Though I am not unkind””
James K Polk -
“In 1844, the Democrats were split
The three nominees for the presidential candidate”
Ben Kweller - Sha Sha:
“When I was a movie star an asteroid had hit the earth and prematurely ended my career.
I thought out loud but no one heard me saying”
Camper Van Beethoven
Eye of Fatima - "He’s got the Eye of Fatima on the wall of his room.
Two bottles of tequila, three cats and a broom. ’
a little long but The Axe Murderer Song - “Why do lovers park down deserted lanes
Near haunted houses or homes for the insane
Like the deformed son who was locked in a shed
Later escaped when he chopped off their heads”
And now my last artist, Don Mclean
Empty Chairs - “I feel the trembling tingle of a sleepless night
Creep through my fingers and the moon is bright
Beams of blue come flickering through my window pane
Like gypsy moths that dance around a candle flame”
Castles in the Air - "And if she asks you why,
you can tell her that I told you
That I’m tired of castles in the air. "