Opening Lines
Largehearted Boy links to The Onion's AV club feature on Tom Petty's best song opening lines. Nice piece. But let's expand it a bit.
Best Paul Westerberg/Replacements opening lines: (at this very moment...)
1) Customer - "I'm in love with the girl who works at the store where I'm nothing but a...Customer!" (You think that's not impressive? Well, watch the f-----! clip!)
2) Color Me Impressed - "Everybody at your party, They all look depressed..."
3) Sadly Beautiful - "From the very first day that you were born..."
Best Robert Pollard solo opening lines: (at this very moment...)
1) Chance to Buy an Island - "Chance to buy an island- I'll sell it to you."
2) Make Use - "A bold night for my new rock shirt..."
3) Dayton Ohio 19 Something and 5 - "Isn't it great to exist at this point in time?"
I'd do more now but I need to get out in the heat to sweat off some fat. Throw your top three of your fave songwriter in the comments....
6 comments:
One more chance to get it all wrong!- PW
Dayton ohio is a gbv track, no?
the one that comes to mind most immediately is "Waking up feeling good and limber" from the song "one big holiday" off of 'it still moves' (my morning jacket), not so much for the line itself, but the delivery: following one and a half to two minutes of slow-burn build-up, the band positively explodes into the first chorus like a gang emerging into the sun from the bank they've just robbed. even better live.
umm...not that it makes a big diff, but the word "chorus" above should be replaced with "verse". stupid internets.
GBV....Pollard....it's all cozy-tozy to me, stinkie....
"I was surprised, I was happy for a day in 1975..." (B&S "The State That I Am In")
"Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock as the day beings..." (The Beatles, "She's Leaving Home")
"Woke up one morning saw a rooster struttin' by my house.." (GBV, "Don't Stop Now")
just noticed that these 3 songs all establish a time (1975, morning, morning)... strange... (guess that particular literary device works for me...) best one is the GBV... for the imagery and the way the line transitions to the chorus "six pack rings round his neck, cock of the block, don't stop now don't stop now ..."
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