most evocative opening lines of songs

Re no Nick Cave:-

quote:

Andy 1912: "I don't believe in an interventionist god"

Now.....in this far away land
Strange, that the palms of my hands
Should be damp with expectancy...

Or...

A seasoned witch could call you from the depths of your disgrace
And rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace
And achieve it all with music that came quickly from afar.................

Peter Hammill - In The Black Room

I was thinking about thinking
but it really didn't get me very far,


Howard Deveoto - SOng from under the Floorboards

I am angry, I am ill and I'm as ugly as sin...


Rikki Nadir - Nadir's Big Chance (1974)


I've been hanging around, waiting for my chance
to tell you what I think about the music that's gone down
to which you madly danced - frankly, you know that it stinks.
I'm gonna scream, gonna shout, gonna play my guitar
until your body's rigid and you see stars.

Look at all the jerks in their tinsel glitter suits,
pansying around; look at all the nerks
in their leather platform boots, making with the heavy sound...
I'm gonna stamp on the stardust and scream till I'm ill -
if the guitar don't get ya, the drums will.

Now's my big break - let me up on the stage,
I'll show you what it's all about; enough of the fake,
bang your feet in a rage, tear down the walls and let us out!
We're more than mere morons, perpetually conned,
so come on everybody, smash the system with the song.

Smash the system with the song!



Finally, not an opening line but an execellent one from 'Every Bloody Emporer' by Van Der Graaf Generator (Peter Hammill, again)

Yes and every bloody emperor's got his hands up history's skirt
as he poses for posterity over the fresh-dug dirt.



Spot the odd one out...

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
Re no Nick Cave:-

quote:

Andy 1912: "I don't believe in an interventionist god"

I missed that...I like Cave, thinks he's the height of cool, but is in fact the Nick Faldo of rock.

quote:

Early one morning I was laying in bed
wonderin' if she'd change it all if her hair was still red

Dylan. Tangled up in blue

BigH -it's Al Stewart

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:
On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime

She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolour in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat

From the late great Kevin Coyne

We know the Pope is too old to rock'n'roll and quite aware that he's got no soul

You see me and I stand outside the Palais de Dance, I'm rattling my bones, I'm pogoing, I'm giving my self a little chance

in these Dynamite Daze

From the superb Kevin Ayres

This is a song from the bottom of a well
There are things down here
I've got to try and tell;
It's dark and light at the very same time,
The water sometimes seems like wine

and from that very same man

It begins with a blessing
and it ends with a curse;
Making life easy,
by making it worse;
My mask is my Master,
The trumpeter weeps,
But his voice is so weak
As he speaks from his sleep, saying
Why, why, why, why are we sleeping!

and once more (a lyric that was very important to me as it explained, in a nutshell, why I could never get a drink in Nantwich)

I walked into this bar
and the man refused;
He said, We don't serve strangers
in blue suede shoes;
We don't give credit, and
We don't give way--
We have to think about what people might say..

My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It's better to burn out
Than to fade away
My my, hey hey.

Neil Young.

One Step Beyond

Hey You, don't watch that watch this...


And a couple from the late great Ian Dury...

Sex and drugs and rock and roll

Sex and drugs and rock and roll
Is all my brain and body need
Sex and drugs and rock and roll
Are very good indeed

Wake up and make love with me

I come awake
with the gift for womankind
you’re still alseep
but the gift don’t seem to mind
rise on this occation
halfway up your back
sliding down your body
touching your behind

Three from 1970/71:

The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68
And he told me all romantics meet the same fate someday
Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe

(Joni Mitchell)

Its four in the morning, the end of December
I'm writing you now just to see if you're better
New york is cold but I like where I'm living
There's music on Clinton Street all through the evening.

(Leonard Cohen)

Janitor of lunacy
Paralyze my infancy
Petrify the empty cradle
Bring hope to them and me

(Nico)

Great years in which to own a record player!

quote:

Great years in which to own a record player!

Still is.

The halo morning has dissolved
The day is gone
And nothing's solved
For you

The sand castles are merely sand
The sea has crawled back
From your hand
Too soon

In fields where Susan sings
The lepper brings
Yesterday
In upon a string

Pearls Before Swine

Lying on the beach with desire
Rocking to the music of the waves
I was in despair
My heart needed repair
My lover had lied to me but
I was bored by what I saw there
Why? Why! Why?
My father was a lighthouse keeper
Watched the waves getting steeper
Watched the ships going down

Incredible String Band

I always wanted to be that lighthouse keeper so much more interesting than IT.

A couple from the Man in Black:

San Quentin

San Quentin, you've been livin' hell to me
You've hosted me since nineteen sixty three
I've seen 'em come and go and I've seen them die
And long ago I stopped askin' why

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An' I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

Boy Named Sue

My daddy left home when I was three
And he didn't leave much to ma and me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.

And one from Kirsty's dad Ewan (MacColl)

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
I Kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

The Outside Of The Inside

God never listened to Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker lived in vain
Blasphemer, womanizer
Let a needle numb his brain
Wash away his "Monkey Music"
Damn his demons, damn his pain

What's the point of Albert Einstein?
What do we need physics for?
Heresy's his inspiration
Which side was he working for?
Curse his devious mathematics
Curse his deadly atom war

There's a message on the wind
Calling me to glory somewhere
There are signs too deep for the dumb
Like perfume in the air
And when I get to heaven
I won't realize that I'm there

Shakespeare, Isaac Newton
Small ideas for little boys
Add them to the senseless chatter
Add them to the background noise
Hard to hear my oratory
Hard to hear my inner voice

Van Gogh, Botticelli
Scraping paint onto a board
Color is the fuel of madness
That's no way to praise the Lord
Gray's the color of the pious
Knelt upon the misericord

There's a message on the wind
Calling me to glory somewhere
There are signs too deep for the dumb
Like perfume in the air
And when I get to heaven
I won't realize I'm there

I'm familiar with the cover
I don't need to read the book
I police the world of action
Inside's where I never look
Got no time to help the worthless
Lotus-eaters, mandarins, crooks

There's a message on the wind
Calling me to glory somewhere
There are signs too deep for the dumb
Like perfume in the air
And when I get to heaven
I won't realize that I'm there

Richard Thompson.

quote:

What's the point of Albert Einstein?
What do we need physics for?

Hmmm ... what a strange lyric ...now whilst I agree that

Einstein was not a handsome fellow
nobody ever called him al
he had a long moustache to pull on
it was yellow
i don't believe he ever had a girl
one thing he missed out in his theory
of time and space and relativity
is something that makes it very clear he
was never gonna score like you and me
he didn't know about
quark strangeness and charm

I also realise

Copernicus had those renaissance ladies
crazy about his telescope
and Galileo had a name that made his
reputation higher than his hope
did none of those astronomers discover
while they were staring out into the dark
that what a lady looks for in her lover
is charm strangeness and quark

but without physics, where would we be - I mean if Newton hadn't invented gravity then we'd all be floating around in space .... and if Ivor hadn't proved that the Earth was indeed flat then we'd all have to listen to our favourite music on Meridian or Musical Fidelity kit .... where would it end?

Robert Calvert BTW

Turn my mic up louder, I got to say somethin'
Lightweight step it aside when we comin'
Feel it in your chest, the syllables get pumpin'
People on the street, they panic and start runnin'

Words on loose leaf sheet complete comin'
I jump on my mind, I summon the rhyme I'm dumpin'
Healin' the blind, I promise to let the sun in
Sick of the dark ways, we march to the drummin'

Jump when they tell us they want to see jumpin'
F*** that! I want to see some fists pumpin'
Risk somethin', take back what's yours
Say somethin' that you know they might attack you for

'Cause I'm sick of bein' treated like I have before
Like I'm stupid standin' for what I'm standin' for
Like this war's really just a different brand of war
Like it doesn't cater to rich and abandon poor

Like they understand you in the back of the jet
When you can't put gas in your tank
These ******* are laughin' their way to the bank and cashin' the check
Askin' you to have compassion and have some respect

For a leader so nervous in an obvious way
Stutterin' and mumblin' for nightly news to replay
And the rest of the world watchin' at the end of the day
In their livin' room laughin' like, "What did he say?"

Amen, amen
Amen, amen
Amen

In my livin' room watchin' but I am not laughin'
'Cause when it gets tense, I know what might happen
The world is cold, the bold men take action
Have to react to get blown into fractions

10 years old is somethin' to see
Another kid my age drugged under a jeep
Taken and bound and found later under a tree
I wonder if he had thought, "The next one could be me"

Do you see the soldiers that are out today
That brush the dust from bulletproof vests away?
It's ironic, at times like this you pray
But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday

There's bombs in the buses, bikes, roads
Inside your market, your shops, your clothes
My dad, he's got a lot of fear I know
But enough pride inside not to let that show

My brother had a book he would hold with pride
A little red cover with a broken spine
On the back he hand wrote a quote inside
"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die"

Meanwhile, the leader just talks away
Stutterin and mumblin' for nightly news to replay
And the rest of the world watchin' at the end of the day
Both scared and angry like, "What did he say?"

Amen, amen
Amen, amen

(Amen)
With hands held high into a sky so blue
(Amen)
As the ocean opens up to swallow you
(Amen)
With hands held high into a sky so blue
(Amen)
As the ocean opens up to swallow you

(Amen)
With hands held high into a sky so blue
(Amen)
As the ocean opens up to swallow you
(Amen)
With hands held high into a sky so blue
(Amen)
As the ocean opens up to swallow you

(Amen)
With hands held high into a sky so blue
(Amen)
As the ocean opens up to swallow you
(Amen)
With hands held high into a sky so blue
(Amen)
As the ocean opens up to swallow you

© BIG BAD MR HAHN MUSIC; CHESTERCHAZ PUBLISHING; ROB BOURDON MUSIC; PANCAKEY CAKES MUSIC; NONDISCLOSURE AGREEMENT MUSIC; KENJI KOBAYASHI MUSIC; ZOMBA SONGS INC;

Am just going through a phase of re-discovering Wilco, so from "Via Chicago"

I dreamed about killing you again last night
And it felt alright to me
Dying on the banks of Embarcadero skies
I sat and watched you bleed
Buried you alive in a fireworks display
Raining down on me
Your cold, hot blood ran away from me
To the sea

I like Jeff Tweedy's sense of humour

Or, on a lighter note from the late, great John Stewart

"I was standing in line at the bank of America
Nobody spoke they were in the House of God"

Have a thoughtful day

Ron

A beautiful song on the new Richard Hawley album Truelove's Gutter begins thus:

'It was your birthday yesterday
Bought a gift to take your breath away
But to be honest I nearly left it on the train
For your lover give some time.'

Nice

Billy Bragg is a favourite wordsmith of mine. He can do smart, funny and sad. The opening verse to Levi Stubbs' Tears:

'With the money from her accident
She bought herself a mobile home
So at least she could get some enjoyment
Out of being alone
No one could say that she was left up on the shelf
It's you and me against the World kid she mumbled to herself'

Bruce

"Imagine there's no heaven"

John Lennon 'Imagine' ...one way or another he know's the truth nowadays.

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:
I always wanted to be that lighthouse keeper ...

But not this one...

Still waiting for my saviour,
storms tear me limb from limb;
my fingers feel like seaweed...
I'm so far out I'm too far in.

I am a lonely man...my solitude is true
my eyes have borne stark witness
and now my nights are numbered too.
I've seen the smiles on dead hands--
the stars shine, but they're not for me.
...

Boom Boom


I lost my heart in a tropical town,
Dancing around with a maiden of brown.
I lost my pants taking one little chance.
Sailor, beware of that Boom Boom dance.

Oh the sil'vry moon was shining oh the Beach at Waikiki
On the night we did the Boom Boom by the sea.
The Lulu birds were singing in the Coca-Cola© tree
On the night we did the Boom Boom by the sea.
I couldn't speak her lingo,
But Oh By Jingo,
When I kissed her lips
I knew then
Why sailor men
Desert their battle ships.
Oh, the coconuts were falling, but they didn't bother me
On the night we did the Boom Boom by the sea.

Sailor, take warning.
Sailor, take care.
Sailor, beware
Of that Boom Boom dance.

A few...
Stood still on a highway
I saw a woman
By the side of the road
With a face that I knew like my own
Reflected in my window

And...
Wednesday morning and five o’clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen
Clutching her hankerchief
Quietly turning the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free

Lots more but these come to mind immediately...

Eloise

One thing I miss is Cold Ethyl and her skeleton kiss
We met last night making love under the refrigerator light
Ethyl Ethyl let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl Ethyl come and freeze me with your charms

One thing - no lie
Ethyl's frigid as an eskimo pie
She's cool in bed
Well she oughta be 'cos Ethyl's dead


Vincent Damon Furnier

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