Jesus died in somebody's bin but not mine

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Inspired by the revival of the lyrics meme (you know, that lyrics meme), an old list question favourite -

What are your favourite opening lines to songs?

Comments

Not really one line BUT

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

If you ignore the "Yeah B!" at the beginning of 'Upgrade U', the following interchange is one of the BEST EVER:

Jay-Z: 'Talk your shit? How are you gonna upgrade me, what's higher than number one? You know I used the beat that block? Now I BE'S the block.'
Beyonce: 'I hear you beat the block, but I'm the light that keeps the streets on...'

Just... wow. That floors me every time I hear it! The light that keeps the streets on? That doesn't even make sense! But Beyonce turns it into a devastating smack down of Jay-Z's bragging.

Re: Not really one line BUT

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The line that floors me every time in that song is Beyoncé calmly asserting "I can do for you what Martin did for the people". Just...wow. How do you even go there and pull it off.

Re: Not really one line BUT

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Haha on paper that is SO SHIT. Not sure I've heard the recorded version but I'm not sure I could hear it without cringing.

Re: Not really one line BUT

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

After she has done for you what Martin did for the people, then you will appreciate what she has to say.

Re: Not really one line BUT

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

It's nice to get a mention from Beyonce.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

there's still only one answer to this:

it was the
biggest c0ck you'd ever seen

packets of three by arab strap.

Prefered Arab Strap first line

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

"Burn these sheets that we've just fucked in."

RANDOM TEN

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

1. It's Britney, bitch
2. I been a lot of places, seen a lot of faces - aw hell, I even fucked with different races
3. Ladies leave your man at home: the club is full of ballers and they pockets full grown
4. I got a - FAT PUSSY for a COCKSUCKER! I got a - HIDEOUT for a COP DUCKER!
5. Oh make me over, I'm all I wanna be; a walking study in demonology
6. I'm a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl; you're a bird on the brim, hypnotised by the whirl
7. Those boon times went bust; my feet of clay, they dried to dust; the red isn't the red we painted, it's - just - rust
8. You know I thug 'em, fuck 'em, love 'em, leave 'em - cuz I don't fucking need 'em / Take 'em out the hood, keep 'em lookin' good, but I don't fucking feed 'em
9. Picture me in one of those two-seater things, top down so thoughts of you are in the breeze; and the wind, and the wind, and the wind, and the wind's in my hair
10. I can't believe life's so complex when I just wanna sit here and watch you undress

(that's not in order, I just put the numbers there for neatness)

Re: RANDOM TEN

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

oh and Ashlee! "You can dress me up in diamonds, you can dress me up in dirt."

Re: RANDOM TEN

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I'm totally with you on Courtney Love and PJ Harvey. Those are two fantastic opening lines (not that the others you've mentioned aren't, but those two hold extra resonance with me).

Re: RANDOM TEN

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

6. I'm a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl; you're a bird on the brim, hypnotised by the whirl

YES YES YES.

Re: RANDOM TEN

[koganbot]

Oh make me over, I'm all I wanna be; a walking study in demonology.

Ashlee's done this in concert, which is somehow even more intense (to think about; I've never seen/heard it) than Courtney doing it.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

-'Tumble outta bed and I stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition'
-'You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar'
'-Well I guess I shoulda know by the way you parked your car sideways that it wouldn't last'
-'It's Britney, bitch'
-'Just before our love got lost you said, "I am as constant as a northern star"'
-'Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate, can nature make a man of me yet?
-'You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht'
-'I made it through the wilderness, somehow I made it through'
-'It's 4 in the morning, the end of December, I'm writing you now just to see if you're better'
-'In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream'
-'I, I will be king. And you, you will be queen'
-'Ground Control to Major Tom'
-'Libraries gave us power, then work came and made us free'
-'She was born in November 1963, the day Aldous Huxley died'
-'like his dad, you know that he's had animal nitrate in mind'
-'caught in the middle, caro, we're middle class, we're middle-aged'
-'I am the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar'
-'What are you looking at?'
-'They tried to make me go to rehab, I said "no no no"'
-'Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time, I feel alive'
-'It's been 7 hours and 13 days since you took your love away'
-'Goodbye Norma Jean, though I never knew you at all'
-'For sale, dumb cunts same dumb questions'
-'She came from Greece she had a thirst of knowledge, she studied scultpture at St Martin's college'
-'It was the biggest cock you'd ever seen, but you've no idea where that cock has been'
-'You're struttin into town like you're slingin' a gun, just a small town dude with a big city attitude

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

When you play pass the parcel with human body parts, somebody might get head, but someone will get hurt. (Los Campesinos)

Hello darkness my old friend (Simon & the other one)

What's with these homies dissing my girl? (Weezer)

You don't have to be beautiful to turn me on (Prince)

Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip? (Eminem)

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Also

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air, I know I can count on you (The Source ft Candi Staten)

My girlfriend says that I need help, my boyfriend says I'd be better off dead (Therapy?)

and couldn't talk about lyrics without getting something from Lennon/McCartney:

Joan was quizzical, studied metaphysical science in the home, late nights all alone with a test-tube, ohh-oh-oh-oh...

There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti

[koganbot]

You need to see this.

Re: There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Ha ha. Cheers for that!

[cis.livejournal.com]

I have mostly indie and emogum favourite first lines, i think because the kinds of opening lines that appeal to me are clever-clever, snappy, instant (who cares about lasting emotional effect), scene-setters, and emogum and indie both tend toward that kind of wordiness anyway.

probably top of the list for sheer... perfect-ness would be a bright eyes classic, from 'make war':

"our love is dead but without limit, like the surface of the moon"

YES.

[cis.livejournal.com]

other great scenesetters:
'she dreams of staten island, she never ever dreams of walthamstow' (the french!!)
'in the middle of a gunfight, in the centre of a restaurant, they say: come with your arms raised high' (mcr!)
'i wrote a good-bye note in lipstick on your arm when you passed out' (fall out boy!)
'i've got you: you've got whatever's left of me to get' (mountain goats!)

With proper actual pop it's generally choruses, or throwaway lines in the middle of verses that hook stealthily into your breain, but honourable mention for j. timberlake's underappreciated 'love don't love me':
'five foot nine: she's got legs for days.' legs for days!!! i have always wanted to meet a person i could describe as having legs for days.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I don't like unnecessary fannydangle in lyrics really, and there's a lot of it about. I tend to prefer short, punchy opening lines that manage to convey a lot in as little as possible.

My current favourite is from Multitude of Casulties by The Hold Steady, which isn't even a particularly good song, but begins with him spitting out "she drove it like she stole it" in this disdainful voice and you immediately have a very detailed image in your head. I like prose like that as well, and that would be a great opening line of a story as well, so it's kind of divorced from the song for me.

Things that immediately put me off = clever-clever "oh this will really hook them" opening lines, cf Jarvis Cocker going "I'm not Jesus, but I have the same initials".

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

WHAT. IS THAT REAL. Aargh I hate him.

I'm not sure how I feel about N Cave's much-vaunted "I don't believe in an interventionist god" line. I loved it at the time but there's something a bit too convoluted about it now.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah I don't like that one, but I hate that record anyway.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Yeah that Cave line is gimmicky, but he's generally pretty good at opening lines (The Mercy Seat and No Pussy Blues spring to mind). I'm pretty sure all these betray my tastes in literature rather than my tastes in music - I think I just like opening lines that feel like the beginning of short stories.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking of good couplets or lines and then realising that the rest of the lyrics in the song are better! Which shouldn't disqualify them I guess. But if you're going to quote, say, "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" it seems a shame to confine yrself to the opening!

The Jeremy Vine show voted "Werewolves Of London" the best opening line of all time.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah I keep thinking of songs with great lyrics and thinking of the opening couplet - which is either meh and gives no indication of what is to come, or just doesn't seem as good in isolation.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I also keep thinking of amazing OPENINGS and realising (like the Madonna one on my original quiz) that the weight is in the performance not the line at all.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

And on the other hand, a lot of the best opening lines don't have a great deal of other notable couplets.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

jagger/ferry options posted separately! i am old-skool and proud of it!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

From last year: "I felt you in my legs before I even met you," several songs off the Britney album, "It took too long it took too long it took too long for you to call back and normally I would just forget that except for the fact it was my birthday -- my stupid birthday," one that came up yesterday -- "It's me! The rapper eater! Feed me feed me feed me! No homo." and "ROADRUNNAH ROADRUNNAH!"

Others: "WOO HOO!" "I made it through the wildnerness somehow I made it through," "When I say I'm in love, you best believe I'm in love, L-U-V," "I asked for water, she brought me gasoline," "Well a young man ain't nothin' in the world these days," "U.G.L.Y. you ain't got no alibi YOU UGLY!" "Uh huh this my shit, all the girls stomp your feet like this," "Well she was just 17, you know what I mean"...

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Whose is that rapper eater lyric? It sounds amazing.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Lil' Wayne's remix to "We Takin Over" on his Drought 3 mixtape.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I was thinking yesterday how stunningly amazing I find 'night falls and towns become circuit boards, we can beat the sun as long as we keep moving' at the start of 'Books From Boxes' by Maximo Park, a song I've recently realised is actually AMAZING.

'Got a crush on a pretty pistol, should I tell her that I feel this way?' from 'The Love Song' by Maz Manson is also pretty awesome, in my book.

Jenny Wilson has some fairly brilliant first-liners, too; 'went to the city with all the lights and all the people to love or dislike'

I have a terrible affection for quite a bit of semi-wank Tegan and Sara lines ('I climbed up on rainbow just to see if I'd fall off -I'm a frosted lemon coward and I don't know how' from 'This Is Everything, in particular) and also 'this is the first day of my life, I swear I was born right in the doorway' from 'First Day Of My Life' by Bright Eyes is rather affecting.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, the best opening line ever is actually at the start of 'Brand New Bass Guitar' by Jamie T, when he just shouts 'FVCKING CROISSANT' in a really bad French accent, so it's actually 'FOCKING QUOISSON'

[answeringbell.livejournal.com]

"So what if your jeans are torn? They've been torn since Bros were cool." - Crush

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

"2007. Ladies, it's time to switch roles." (Ciara, 'Like a Boy')

"Spiked heels and skintight jeans, I gotta fist full of love that's coming your way, baby." (The Aloud, 'Graffiti My Soul')

"I hitched a ride with a vending machine repairman" (Sheryl Crow, 'Every Day is a Winding Road')

"Sittin' here stressin' at 2:30am." (Sugababes, 'New Year')

"What kind of fuckery is this?" (Amy Winehouse, 'Me and Mr Jones' - it's the first line if you ignore the vamping at the beginning, so it sort of counts.)

[koganbot]

"They're really rocking in Boston, Pittsburgh, P.A., deep in the heart of Texas, way down in Frisco Bay" (Chuck Berry)

Of course, if someone were to do such lyrics now they'd be hideous, but they were once tremendous, 'cause everyone wants to dance with sweet little sixteen.

[koganbot]

"Well, something must've happened over Manhattan
Who could have spun all the children this time?
Did they ever, could they ever
Expect such a frankenstein?"
--New York Dolls

"Is she really going out with him?"
--Shangri-Las

"When I'm in love you best believe I'm in love L-U-V!"
--Shangri-Las

"Gonna take a chance on her
One bullet in the cylinder"
--Ramones

"I'm so messed up I want you here
In my room I want you here"
--Stooges

"John Hardy was a desperate little man
Carried a razor every day"
--Kingston Trio (with help from trad.)

[koganbot]

Oh, sorry, repeated one from skyecaptain (I think my reading comprehension is distintegrating).

[koganbot]

"I said a hip hop da hippy da hippy to the hip hip hop and you don't stop the rockin' to the bang bang boogie say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogity beat"
--Sugar Hill Gang

"When you get out of the hospital, let me back into your life"
--Modern Lovers

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

The most extraordinary opening to a love song ever is perhaps the Beach Boys' God Only Know: "I may not always love you..."

I've always loved Pulp's litany of insults on Razzmatazz: "The trouble with your brother / He's always sleeping with your mother / And I know that your sister / Missed her time again this month."