Songs that have great opening lines

With a backpack full of yesterdays
on a freeway full of smoke and haze
where the power lines and fault lines double cross
I left our yellow porch light on
no one will notice no one's home
no one else will notice what was lost

I lost my home when the deal went bust
to the so-called security and trust
I planned my life the way they said I should
I sent my wife and kids ahead
I'm right behind you, so I said
I'll be there when I get there if that's good

from: The Flatlanders - "Homeland Refugee" (Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore)

 

I wanna live with a cinnamon girl
I could be happy the rest of my life
With a cinnamon girl

 

I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE AND I BRING YOU ... FIRE!

 

post #15 on page 1 of this thread.
Thanks.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

First cut on the new Ian Hunter album begins with:

"Imagination, it's all in the mind,
Why doncha come up and see me some time?"

 

Crank her over once again.
Put your face into the wind.
Find another road where you've never been.

Gypsy Rider - Gene Clark

 

Hallways and staircases every day to climb
To go up to my white walled room out on the end of time
Where I can be with my love , for she is all that is mine
And she'll always be there
My love don't care about time.

She Don't Care About Time - Gene Clark ( with the Byrds )

 

Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame


I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus



It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don't matter, anyhow
And it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don't know by now

 

My favorite opening couplet from The Boss...

Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night
Blew up his house too

 

An obvious one, unless I missed it (and I'm not even a fan):

"It's been a long time since I rock and rolled" - Led Zeppelin - Rock & Roll

Some others of my favorites:

"Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima" - Kraftwerk - Radioactivity

"I'd sell your heart to the junkman, baby, for a buck, for a buck/If you're looking for someone to pull you out of that ditch, you're out of luck, you're out of luck" - Tom Waits - God's Away On Business

"Don't bother saying you're sorry, why don't you come in?/Smoke all of my cigarettes again" - Pulp - Like A Friend

"I got nasty habits/I take tea at three" - Rolling Stones - Live With Me

"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" The The - Jealous of Youth

"Well they tell of a pie up in the sky waiting for me when I die/But between the day you're born and when you die, they never seem to even hear your cry" - Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come

"The past primadonna in buttons and bells is speaking what's left of her mind as they audience rebels" - Elvis Costello - Do You Know What I'm Saying

 

"Look out, Mama, there's a white boat comin' up the river/ With a big red beacon, and a flag, and a man on the rail" - Neil Young: Powderfinger
"A seasoned witch could call you from the depths of your disgrace/ And rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace" - Yes: Close to the Edge

By the way, I saw Neil Young and Crazy Horse at MSG last night. Truly amazing. For about the first 2/3 of the concert, my thought was: "He really means it". For the last 1/3, I thought: "maybe he doesn't". The sound was surprisingly good for MSG, as well.

 

i'm a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm

 

High and lonesome/Be on your merry way

Jimmy Reed, High and Lonesome

 

Roxy Music - Avalon / Avalon:
Now the party's over, I'm so tired.
Then I see you coming out of nowhere,
much communication in a motion,
without conversation or a notion
Avalon.

Sets the scene wonderfully. Goes so well with the smooth atmospheric sophisticated sound.


Pink Floyd (or if he'd have you believe it at the time, Roger Waters) - Post War Dream / Final Cut:
Tell me true, tell me why, was Jesus crucified
Is it for this that Daddy died?
Was it for you? Was it me?
Did I watch too much T.V.?
Is that a hint of accusation in your eyes?
If it wasn't for the nips
Being so good at building ships
The yards would still be open on the clyde.

Takes a whole 49 seconds to get to this, and it comes through so crisp and clear. Definitely powerful.

Beats International ft. Lindy Layton (Norman "fat boy slim" Cook's old group) - Dub Be Good To Me / Let Them Eat Bingo:
Tank fly boss walk jam nitty-gritty
You're listening to the boy from the big bad city
This is jam hot
This is jam hot
(it's actually taken from a Johnny Dynell track)

It was iconic, everyone knew it, and it wasn't even theres!!!

 

"Don't stand around like friends at a funeral, eyes to the ground. It could have been you" (Neil Finn) - Never Be The Same - Crowded House

 

Just follow the stairway/To this lonely world of mine

Aparment #9, written by Bobby Austin-Johnny Paycheck, sung by Tammy Wynette

 

Last night your shadow fell upon my lonely room
I touched your golden hair , I tasted your perfume
You were so real
I could feel your eagerness
But when you raised your lips for me to kiss..................

I Had Too Much To Dream - The Electric Prunes

 

Roger Waters - Radio Waves / Radio K.A.O.S:
This is K-A-O-S. You and I are listening to KAOS here in Los Angeles.
Let's go to the telephones now and take a request...

What a concept so well executed. Never been to the US of A, or to the City of Lost Angels, but I can just image this on a real radio station.

 

Don't necessarily agree or not with the notion but still a very potent line

"God is a concept by which we measure our pain"
God, John Lennon

"The first thing I wanna say is, mandate my ass"
B Movie, Gil Scott Heron

"Look for awhile at the China Cat Sunflower, proud walking jingle in the midnight sun. Copper dome bodhi drip a silver kimono like a crazy quilt stargown through a dream night wind"
China Cat Sunflower, R Hunter (Grateful Dead)
as an aside read long ago that Hunter had the lyrics to China Cat transposed to him, telepathically I suppose, by a cat that had sat down next to him while he was tripping, sitting on a park bench in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park, probably early 67, maybe the Human Be In day.

'"Rusted and ropy, dog eared old copy, vintage and classic or just plain jurassic all words to describe me"
Dog Ear Years, Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)

 

"Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He got an ice pick
That made his ears burn"

No More Heroes - The Stranglers

 

Nice story, but certainly not the correct location and probably not true.

Hunter says, regarding the rhythm of the song:

We all know that Hunter means by "in a rather hypersensitive state" that he was tripping.

Hunter says regarding the words:

From the GD Annotated Lyrics site

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/china.html

 

"Spring was never waiting for us, girl. It ran one step ahead...."

 

"Cut this picture into you and me
Burn it backwards, kill this history..."
"Sweet Adeline" Elliott Smith

 

"You got me all screwed up
So much I can't even turn 'round

The Outfield from the album Playdeep

 

This one always evokes a great image for me:

Bella donna's on the high street
Her breasts upon the off beat
Portobello Belle - Mark Knopfler


Kliph