Entertainment For Lively Minds
"It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty delta day..."
Posted by Raymo on 17 July 2009 - 6:13pm.
If that isn't the best opening line of a song ever written, I'd like to know what is.
- More from Raymo.
- Login or register to post comments
-
It's very good
But "I was born in a crossfire hurricane" is at least its equal, I reckon.
Actually, I'm not having that
What is a crossfire hurricane, either literally or metaphorically?
This is a Crossfire hurricane
Crossfire hurricane
Gives you terrible blisters. No wonder he howled at his ma.
Crossfire hurricane, n.
I just read that "I was born in a crossfire hurricane" refers (or might refer) to Keith Richards' claim that he was born during a particularly fierce bombing raid over London during the Blitz.
It's not the most ludicrous suggestion I've heard for an unusual lyric. And I wouldn't care if it was utterly meaningless - a great line is a great line.
Cheers
I'm not sure if it is an example of a great opening line or rather a briliantly sung opening line. Or maybe, I should stop taking life so seriously.
Answers own rhetorical question.
And how dusty is the delta anyway?
Eh?
Does that song make any narrative sense?
It's a good record, but I've always really struggled to understand exactly what the heck is going on in it!
I've often pondered that very question
and my answer is that it makes perfect narrative sense, except that there is one very big gap in the narrative: we're never told what Billie Jo & the narrator were throwing off the Tallahatchie Bridge shortly before Billie Jo's suicide. Oh, and we're never told why Billie Jo killed himself either.
If, as many believe, what they were throwing off the bridge was an unwanted baby, then both mysteries would be solved in one go, but Bobbie Gentry has, I think, denied that, hasn't she?
The Ode (edit)
Bob Harris had singer Rachel Harrington on his country programme earlier this year and she seemed to have some knowledge of the song. She said that there were originally many more verses but the record company got her to cut it down.
No doubt in those lost verses, some answers lie.
Thanks Raymo & Carl
I can sleep easy again!
Billie Joe
It could have been an engagement ring. Or a portion of the narator's mother's cooking, because judging by the endless list of food groups in the song, they couldn't have managed another morsel between them.
Pretty damned dusty, no?
I've never been there, but aren't there lots of references to dusty roads & the like in songs about the Mississippi delta? Bobbie Gentry was from Mississippi, wasn't she? I reckon she would know if it was dusty or not.
I will probably go to my grave claiming that:
"The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways..."
is the greatest ever opening line, especially when combined with it's follow-up.
"Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays"
Waves
A wonderful line - but I think Mary's dress waves......
Don't go there...
...
I've always preferred "One soft infested summer me & Terry became friends" from the same record.
Then there's "I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
walking through the streets of Soho in the rain"
And for economy of expression : "Phone rings, baby cries, TV diet guru lies - good morning honey", which has my vote as "best opening line in contemporary country music"...
"It's Roy Orbison, singing for the lonely -
Hey, that's me and I want you only..."
It's just a brilliant lyric, start to finish.
I've always been rather keen on...
"I am angry, I am ill and I'm as ugly as sin"
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom*...
you just know that a record that starts with that is going to be ace.
* An accurate transcription is beyond me I'm afraid.
Joe Tex...
...did a good version of Ode To Billie Joe.
http://funky16corners.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/two-soul-odes/
"And yes I believe in what we had...
but words are in the way"
Andrew Taylor c.1984
"Pistol shots ring out in the bar room 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!" ..."
Puts you right there in the middle of the scene.
And on the subject of Pistols:
"I am an anti-Christ..."
That was as good an introduction as any band has ever made, methinks.
I agree about "Hurricane"
that's a great opening line. Equally good - and equally novelistic is: "Upon the white verandah, she wears a necktie & a panama hat" from the same album.
The great thing about the opening to Billie Jo, though, is that it is definitely the first line of a song - it wouldn't work as the first line to a novel, somehow, it would be too pedestrian.
'I never
thought it would happen with me and the girl from Clapham'
'Sometimes you're better off dead There's gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head'
'I love a good bum on a woman it makes my day'
'Bless my cotton socks I'm in the news'
"Well, the Dog act got drunk again last night..."
"It's safe in the city, to love in a doorway, to wrangle some screams from the walls"
"I just got into town about an hour ago. Took a look around to see which way the wind blows"
"Hey you, don't watch that, watch this!"
"Fish white belly. Lump in the throat. Razor on the wire. Skin and bone"
"Help! I need somebody!"
"Of course this land is dangerous! All of the animals are capably murderous"
I hand you my ball and chain, you just hand me that same old
refrain...
Let me ride on the wall of death one more time.
Hello darkness my old friend...
Emmanuel Zacchini Senior, the human cannonball...
Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone, but Judy left the same time...
So here I am once more in the playground of the broken hearts
Marillion revival anyone?
Son, I'm thirty...
... I only went with your mother cos she's dirty
Surely, 'it was a hot afternoon on the LAST day of June...'
- the sun was a demon!
I love that song
It's wonderful isn't it?
Almost hypnotic.
"I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving
England is mine, and it owes me a living"
"Saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
walking through the streets of Soho in the rain."
I like.
Werewolves
Sorry, these opening lines get quoted and praised all the time; but surely they're really only great in the context of the couplet that comes after them:
"He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook's/Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein"
"I see trees of green,
Red roses too"
But my favourite is:
"Never been a millionaire
And I tell you, mama, I don't care.
Never gonna own a racehorse
Or a fast black mid-engine Porche.
Don't think I'll own a private jet -
On the stock exchange I'm no threat."
You walked into the party like
you were walking onto a yacht
Make me a deal and make it straight
All signed and sealed, I´ll take it
Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans,
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens,
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood,
Where lived a country boy name of Johnny B. Goode...
God made Chuck Berry and Chuck Berry made rock n' roll!
Not only a fantastic opening lyric.....
.....it's probably one of the best guitar intros ever too!!
Hand In Glove
The sun shines out of our behinds
Oh it's not like any other love
This one's different
Because it's us
Two good opening couplets
'The Hangman's in the noose
The prisoner is loose'
Neil Finn, Twisty Bass
'When you wish upon a star
That turns into a plane'
The Replacements, Valentine
Iggy
"I'm a street-walkin' cheetah with a heart full of napalm" - Search & Destroy
Well she was just 17, you know what I mean?
Sheer bloody poetry
Or, alternatively,
"It's the kind of night that's so cold when you spit
It freezes before it hits the ground
When a bum asks for a quarter, you give a dollar
If he's out tonight he must be truly down"
Cowboy Junkies - Cause Cheap Is How I Feel.
"Tonight...
...you're mine completely/You give your love so sweetly."
" "
Walk Don't Run, by the Ventures
I Love New York - Madonna
"I don't like cities/But I love New York/Other places make me feel like a dork"
Only joking! How about :
"Antiques! Every other sentiment an antique/As obsolete as warships in the Baltic" - Faron Young, Prefab Sprout
Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news
.
Parklife
As someone pointed out on a recent thread:
'Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as Parklife'
Lloyd Cole: The King of opening lines/ verses
Unhappy Song
'They were married in june
She was gone before the leaves were even turning,
She said 'Well, I knew he was a fool, but I
Somehow thought my welfare concerned him,'
Must the one always have to change
Whilst the other must always remain
Must the cards all be dealt facing down?
Turn away, turn away, turn your blue skies to grey'
Thunder shook loose hail on the outhouse again
'Permafrost' by Magazine. Howard Devoto has so many brilliant lyrics.
"It was the 3rd Of September....
... that day I'll always remember...."
The Stones
Are possibly the best scene-setters in the business:
Admired as icons, venerated as the embodiment of rock and roll and yet curiously underestimated as writers.
Even their minor work is strewn with gems. Such as this from Sway - one of my favourite Stones songs:
Did you ever wake up to find
A day that broke up your mind?
Destroyed your notion of circular time
http://open.spotify.com/track/4u8GXyEn0cuMPME6DpQuRx
Opening Stones
I was marvelling at Stones openings the other day; not just the lyrics but the music too - an exciting chord, an interesting groove - they were never content to just launch into the first verse. "Gimme Shelter" was surely the peak, but "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Honky Tonk Women" are two other great examples of how to spark an interest from the first second.
Couldn't agree more
'Here I lie in my hospital bed...'
Paul Simon
"America" is a poem, an essay, a novel - in around 3 minutes.
All of it is brilliant but the opening line is replete with hope and redolent of loss and the rest of the first verse recapitulates the entire oeuvre of Dylan and Springsteen
"Let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together"
"I've got some real estate here in my bag"
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies
And we walked off to look for America
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/born-4th-july#comment-141468
I second that emotion
Though my favourite lines come later:
Kathy, Im lost, I said, though I knew she was sleeping
Im empty and aching and I dont know why
Any budding songwriter should lock themselves in a room with that one for days on end and just study it.
He may now be a grumpy old sod
With string visible under his chin, but he knew how to set up a song : "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school", "The Mississippi delta was shining like a National guitar", and loads more besides. But very best of all is "Couple in the next room/Bound to win a prize/Been going at it all night long/I been trying to get some sleep/But these motel walls are cheap/Lincoln Duncan is my name & here's my song".
"Don't Worry Baby" - The Beach Boys
"Well it's been building up inside of me
For oh I don't know how long
I don't know why
But I keep thinking
Something's bound to go wrong
But she looks in my eyes
And makes me realise
And she says don't worry baby..."
The Smiths (again)
"From the ice-age to the dole-age there is but one concern, I have just discovered some girls are bigger than others".
I'm sure we've had a similar thread recently, but..
'I don't believe in an interventionist God'
' When they pulled you out of the oxygen tent/You asked for the latest party'
Every second counts/when I am with you
I think you are a pig/You should be in a zoo' :-)
'Begin the day with a friendly voice, a companion unobtrusive'..
gets coat.
That's the spirit
"One likes to believe in the freedom of music
But glittering prizes and endless compromises,
Shatter the illusion of integrity"
Yup...
Talking of shattering one's illusion of integrity...
here's the thinking man's crumpet... RUSH!
Note: can I just point out that there are women singing along and enjoying themselves in the above clip.
Note 2: Alex really shreds during the solo here, and incorporates some tasty whammy bar action that Geddy seems to really get off on. Rush f**kin' RULE!
And they've got touring so worked out
They do their laundry onstage. Cool dude!
I got a bundle of Rush interview cds a few months back - they're nothing like the po-faced band you'd expect. Takes me way, way back...
I'm not a huge fan of the song, but...
...'I may not always love you' is a fantastic opener.
I'm more of an "It was the 3rd of September" man,
but this I like: concise and earthy
You fucked it up
You should have quit
Till circumstances
Had changed a bit
(Aimee Mann's first lines to "Long Shot", first track on "I'm With Stupid")
My fave Richard Thompson song:
"She said "Darling I'm in love with your mind.
The way you care for me, it's so kind.
Love to see you again, I wish I had more time".
She was laughing as she brushed my cheek
"Why don't you call me, angel, maybe next week
Promise now, cross your heart and hope to die".
One From The Sainted Lucinda...
...and a couple from the Motown canon :-
"Go find a jukebox and see what a quarter will do"
"People say I'm the life of the party, 'cause I tell a joke or two"
"As I walk this land of broken dreams
I have visions of many things
Love's happiness is just an illusion
Filled with sadness and confusion"
Laurie Lingo & The Dipsticks
"It was a sunny day, the 6th May
In a Scammell hauling bricks..."
Now that's the sort of contribution
I come here to find. I always remember Wordsworth's bon mot
"I've measured it from side to side
It's two feet long and three feet wide"
"I've been in this town so
"I've been in this town so long that back in the city I've been taken for lost and gone and unknown for a long long time - "
(*huge deep breath*)
"There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder..."
"Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street..."
"She was born in November 1963
The day Aldous Huxley died"
(which, as any fule kno, was the same day JFK was shot)
(That bit in brackets wasn't part of the lyric by the way)
22.11.63
Was also the day that C.S. Lewis died; and unfortunately the day that Phil Spector hoped that lots of cheery folk would buy his brand new Christmas album...
Werewolves of London
I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand,
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain.
He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook's,
Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein.
Werewolves of London again
Might be worth scrolling up a bit.
Based on the number of votes cast here
I think WWOL might just be the winner
Simple and to the point
Clash - Clampdown
What are we gonna do now?
Sprinsteen: Atlantic City
"Well, they blew up the Chicken man in Philly last night,
They blew up his house, too,"
Atlantic City boardwalk, July 1991, Sony Walkman, I couldn't have been happier.
How many ways can one, simple song be done?
spotify:user:hoeyp:playlist:64smW9pq6yIBkaSbF82ToO
Sorry, playlist
http://open.spotify.com/user/hoeyp/playlist/64smW9pq6yIBkaSbF82ToO
I know Jarvis Cocker divides opinion amongst the Massive, but...
"I met her in the museum of paleontology / And I make no bones about it..." First line of 'Leftovers' from the new record.
Also "She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge / She studied sculpture at St.Martin's College.." has got to be one of the great opening lines - he sustains it for the whole song too.
Jarvis has many compelling opening lines. I think he's a brilliant lyricist. One of his generation's finest.
I am not Jesus
but i have same initials
Another great one...
Similarly, I must mention Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. Many fantastic opening lines and lyrics - one of my faves being:
He had a stroke at the age of twenty four
It could have been a brilliant career...
There are many others...
For perpetual 16 year olds
"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 you're body's rigid and you see stars!"
As an album opener and a song opener, it's a statement of intent and you couldn't say that you hadn't been warned!
THAT
is a GREAT song, moment, album - brilliant choice!
"1 - 2 - 3 - 4!!!"
PS: "Institute of Mental Health, Burning" is an equally great Track 2, in my humble etc.
I plant the kind of kiss
That wouldn't wake a baby
On the self same face
That wouldn't let me sleep...
Yes, I know you all hate Elbow.
That's very good
I'm Elbow indifferent in general but Mirrorball is a wonderful song.
From the self same LP
How dare the premier ignore my invitations, he'll have to go
I love Elbow, me.
Starlings
makes me cry.
Goddamnit.
God said to Abraham, "Kill
God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe said "Man you must be puttin' me on"
Genius
The one and only Arab Strap CD I bought
Started with a song, so the interweb informs me, the CD having long snce found its way into a Sally Army recycling bin, called Packs Of Three. The opening line:
"It was the biggest cock you'd ever seen, but you've no idea where that cock has been."
That's poetry, that is.
Daddy was a Cop...
On the east side of Chicago...
Early one morning while makin' the rounds
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down
I've Got News for You
Well you said before we met,
That your life seemed kinda tame,
When I took you to a nightclub,
The whole band knew your name!
(Apologies - I've probably quoted this one before)
You talk like Marlene Dietrich
... And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
Your clothes are all made by Balmain
And there’s diamonds and pearls in your hair, yes there are.
That elusive name in the 2nd line
I never knew that was the name becaue I could never make it out. Not that I really feel any more enlightened as I don't hvae a cluse who Zizi Jeanmaire was.
Obviously not that bothered as I never tried to find out, but still nice to know after all these years.
Born 1924
She was famous for her title role in Carmen, in London, in 1949.
(I had to check Wikipedia - what did we do before the internet?)
We just made up the answers
to sound wise and educated. No-one could check us out :-)
Hey Joe...
Where're you goin' with that Gun in your hand.
OK, now for some reasons...
What I really like about the opening line to Ode to Billie Joe is that it has the merits of a novelistic first line (like some of the ones by Dylan mentioned above) and yet it is definitely the first line of a song rather than a novel.
"I was born in a crossfire hurricane" is a great line in a song because it sounds great, but, as pointed out above, it doesn't actually mean anything. Whereas "Pistol shots ring out in a bar-room night" is a great opening line because you know exactly what it means & it puts you right in the middle of the action.
But Bobbie Gentry's line does both. It hooks you onto the story and (partly, I think, because of the alliteration of "dusty, Delta day") it sounds great when sung.
Got a wife
and kids in Baltimore, Jack, I went out for a ride and I never came back.
Sums it all up, really.