Best opening line to a song?

[InsaneApache]

My muther sed, that I never should, play with the naughty ,rude, girls in the wood.

Ivor Biggun.

[Bruce Rioja]

My my, in a foul mood tonight eh cocker!

I do apologise. I've got toothache from hell that's now keeping me awake.

[H. Pedersen]

Kudos to DSB and Bruce for Beck and the Gin Blossoms respectively. Shame about them.

May I add "I am he is you are he is you are me and we are all together."

[Idiot Wind]

:
Someone also had Dylan - he had a lot of good ones like "They're selling postcards of the hanging..."

Dylan was doing wacky stuff from way back, like:

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more,
Well he puts his cigar out in your face just for kicks
His bedroom window, it is made out of bricks
The National Guard stands around his door.

Dylan is immense......no prizes for guessing where my name comes from

[BWFC_Insane]

:
Someone also had Dylan - he had a lot of good ones like "They're selling postcards of the hanging..."

Dylan was doing wacky stuff from way back, like:

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more,
Well he puts his cigar out in your face just for kicks
His bedroom window, it is made out of bricks
The National Guard stands around his door.

Dylan is immense......no prizes for guessing where my name comes from

I'd forgotten all about Desolation row. Although I'm not sure that "They're selling postcards of the hanging..." is a really explosive first line. The song though itself is immense.

This is perhaps a more evocative opening gambit...

Johnnys in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
Im on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says hes got a bad cough

[David Lee's Hair]

My votes already gone for Werewolves of London, but Dylan wise I do like....

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

[BWFC_Insane]

My votes already gone for Werewolves of London, but Dylan wise I do like....

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Great song. One thing I've never quite gotten my head around is how Dylan managed to get all the facts of the case so spot on?

[Bruce Rioja]

Problem is, Brucie, not many opening lines ARE all that great.

Aye that's very true is that, enfieldwhite, certainly when taken in isolation. One of my favourite songs of all time is Mr Jones by Counting Crows. The opening line is "Down at the New Amsterdam, just staring at this yellow-haired girl". Means nowt really, but then when added to "Mr Jones strikes up a conversation, with a black-haired Flamenco dancer, she dances whilst her father plays guitar, she's suddenly beautiful, and we all want something beautiful, and man I wish I was beautiful", you then have the foundations for the song.

Going back to songs that you could really relate to at a certain point in your life, this confused 14 year old found himself particularly relating to "Is she really going out with him?" by Joe Jackson, and especially its opening line of "Pretty women out walking with Gorillas down my street".

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Problem is, Brucie, not many opening lines ARE all that great.

Going back to songs that you could really relate to at a certain point in your life, this confused 14 year old found himself particularly relating to "Is she really going out with him?" by Joe Jackson, and especially its opening line of "Pretty women out walking with Gorillas down my street".

Comes back to my point about an arresting image. Hear it with the menacingly understated backing and his nasal (whiny?) voice, and you have a beginning that you KNOW you want to hear followed up.

[Batman]

sumer in the city and the air is still

[Bruce Rioja]

Problem is, Brucie, not many opening lines ARE all that great.

Going back to songs that you could really relate to at a certain point in your life, this confused 14 year old found himself particularly relating to "Is she really going out with him?" by Joe Jackson, and especially its opening line of "Pretty women out walking with Gorillas down my street".

Comes back to my point about an arresting image. Hear it with the menacingly understated backing and his nasal (whiny?) voice, and you have a beginning that you KNOW you want to hear followed up.

Oh, absolutely.

[enfieldwhite]

Problem is, Brucie, not many opening lines ARE all that great.

Going back to songs that you could really relate to at a certain point in your life, this confused 14 year old found himself particularly relating to "Is she really going out with him?" by Joe Jackson, and especially its opening line of "Pretty women out walking with Gorillas down my street".

Comes back to my point about an arresting image. Hear it with the menacingly understated backing and his nasal (whiny?) voice, and you have a beginning that you KNOW you want to hear followed up.

Oh, absolutely.

So, can I have touch too much, or what?

[Bruce Rioja]

Problem is, Brucie, not many opening lines ARE all that great.

Going back to songs that you could really relate to at a certain point in your life, this confused 14 year old found himself particularly relating to "Is she really going out with him?" by Joe Jackson, and especially its opening line of "Pretty women out walking with Gorillas down my street".

Comes back to my point about an arresting image. Hear it with the menacingly understated backing and his nasal (whiny?) voice, and you have a beginning that you KNOW you want to hear followed up.

Oh, absolutely.

So, can I have touch too much, or what?

Of course.

[enfieldwhite]

Going back to songs that you could really relate to at a certain point in your life, this confused 14 year old found himself particularly relating to "Is she really going out with him?" by Joe Jackson, and especially its opening line of "Pretty women out walking with Gorillas down my street".

Comes back to my point about an arresting image. Hear it with the menacingly understated backing and his nasal (whiny?) voice, and you have a beginning that you KNOW you want to hear followed up.

Oh, absolutely.

So, can I have touch too much, or what?

Of course.

I shall travel to Munich content!

[CrazyHorse]

I met her in a club down in old Soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like coca-cola

[InsaneApache]

I'm suprised that this aint come up;

"We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song".

Another classic.

[bobby5]

Suzanne divorced her husband
She got the keys to the car and the home

[enfieldwhite]

I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste, a flannel for my face,

Squeeze - 'Tempted'

[bw@bw]

My votes already gone for Werewolves of London, but Dylan wise I do like....

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Great song. One thing I've never quite gotten my head around is how Dylan managed to get all the facts of the case so spot on?

Just effing awesome

But not the only one of his to be so

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Restricting it to just the opening line, you have to say it's quite a feat to get to number one when your first seven words are "Tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty".