Songs that have great opening lines

Aurora Borealis
The icy sky at night
The paddle cuts the water
In a long and hurried flight

“Pocahontas” Neil Young

 

Lookout Mama there’s a white boat coming up the river
With a big red beacon, and a flag, and a man on the rail

Powderfinger - Neil Young

 

I’m a flea-bit, peanut monkey, all my friends are junkies
But that’s not really true

 

Simon and Garfunkel

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

 

Without going on ad nauseam, Neil Young’s lyrical strength has been opening lines. Even stoopid Crazy Horse stompers like “When You Dance...” have a pretty good opening:

When you dance
Do your senses tingle
Then take a chance
In a trance
While the lonely mingle with circumstance

 

From another Mancunian "poet" :-

"Son, I'm thirty, I only went with your mother 'cause she's dirty"

Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro

 

And another (The Chameleons - Second Skin)

"One cold damp evening the world stood still"

 

Gonna take a chance on her/One bullet in the cylinder

Ramones, "Glad to See You Go"

 

It surprised me that this was the first thing I thought of, but that's up there with anything, isn't it?

 

Could you all please identify them? I'm tired of googling up a storm...

 

That is a remarkably good line, I had to look it up and it's something I never heard....

 

I'm a rolling thunder, a pouring rain

 

Yes.

I love this song. I love the bitterness. So majestically told.​

 

I am ready ready as a body can be.

-Written by Willie Dixon performed by Muddy Waters from I'm Ready

 

I'm dazed and confused - Jake Holmes

 

The opening line of "Plaistow Patricia" by Ian Dury and the Blockheads.

I won't quote it here as this is a family friendly forum.

Certainly memorable, more than once I've had to leap out of my listening chair to turn down the volume when we have visitors (1980s technology so no remote control).

 

The warden threw a party down at the county jail,Prison band was there they began to wail.

-Jailhouse Rock ELVIS (1957)

 

Yeah and all of NBAP is stellar.

 

One of my favourite lyricists is Matt Johnson of The The

"I've got too much energy to switch off my mind,
but not enough to get myself organized." (Infected)

"When you cast your eyes upon the skylines
Of this once proud nation
Can you sense the fear and the hatred
Growing in the hearts of its population
And our youth, oh youth, are being seduced
by the greedy hands of politics and half truths" (The Beat(en) Generation)

"It's funny how, as we grow old
We cling to the past as we cling to the air
And feel nostalgia for things that were maybe never there" (Jealous of Youth)

 

“Where have all the flowers gone...”

 

Yes!!

 

Can you judge a man by the way he wears his hair?Can you read his mind by the clothes that he wears?

The Yardbirds-Mr.You're A Better Man Than Me (1965)

 

Well he was born in Oklahoma and his wife's name is Betty Lou Thelma Liz,he's not responsible for what he's doin cause his Mother made him what he is.

-Jerry Jeff Walker Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother(1973)

 

The Doors - People Are Strange ...... "People are strange when you're a stranger"

 

Perfect opening lines to the on slaught coming full force.Thanks for posting.