great first lines (songs)

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

great first lines (songs)

El Presidente · Disco Brad

While I think of some better ones I'll start with this one.

"it's just gone noon, half past monsoon, on the banks of the river Nile.."

joel · Findin' Fundin

I was down in Savannah eatin' cream and bananas
When the heat just made me faint

(I began to get crosseyed
I thought I was lost
I'd begun to see things as they ain't.
As the relatives gathered to see what's the matter
The doctor came to see was I fine.
But the doctor said give him jug band music,
It seems to make him feel just fine)

Magnificent.

joel · Findin' Fundin

To save paichukka the trouble ...

'Well the kids are all hopped up and ready to go
(They're ready to go now)'

joel · Findin' Fundin

'I don't have time to stand here with you, fighting about the size of my dick
I've got a meeting to get to, and a gun to pick up first'

Ballboy 'I Don't Have Time to Stand Here with You Fighting About the Size of my Dick'

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Another opening line with the word "banana"

Banana chips for you!
Banana chips for me!
In the afternoon, Banana chips and tea.
Sliced bananas lightly fried with coconut oil.
mmm...
They're just a little bit sweet.

Banana Chips - Shonen Knife

By the way when you read that Ween lyric in the first post, it's even funnier than listening to it.

joel · Findin' Fundin

El Presidente wrote:

Another opening line with the word "banana"

Banana chips for you!
Banana chips for me!
In the afternoon, Banana chips and tea.
Sliced bananas lightly fried with coconut oil.
mmm...
They're just a little bit sweet.

Banana Chips - Shonen Knife

That's great. I guess I should listen to some Shonen Knife ...

joel · Findin' Fundin

'Oh why do you catch my eye then turn away?
I thought we said all the things we had to say
Shaun said he saw you holding hands with your new friend
How does it feel to know you've just won again?'

Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft, Wedding Present

joel · Findin' Fundin

'Well I gotta get drunk and I sure do dread it
'cause I know just what I'm gonna do
I'll start to spend my money callin everybody honey
And I'll wind up singin the blues'

I Gotta Get Drunk, Willie Nelson

Club Dogsbody · Veteran Member

I'll offer two, linked in terms of vintage and in that they each mention not-much-loved places in the Home Counties.

If you ever have to go to Shoeburyness
Take the A road, the OK road that's the best
Go motorin' on the A13

Sup up your beer and collect your fags -
There's a row going on down near Slough.

I can confirm as a local that Shoebury's alright though. And please don't call it Shoeburyness, or we'll know that you're either a) not from Essex, or b) Billy Bragg with a map out.

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Club Dogsbody wrote:

I'll offer two, linked in terms of vintage and in that they each mention not-much-loved places in the Home Counties.

If you ever have to go to Shoeburyness
Take the A road, the OK road that's the best
Go motorin' on the A13

Sup up your beer and collect your fags -
There's a row going on down near Slough.

I can confirm as a local that Shoebury's alright though. And please don't call it Shoeburyness, or we'll know that you're either a) not from Essex, or b) Billy Bragg with a map out.

Genius choices!

I'll add one from The Pogues

"One summer evening, drunk to Hell, I sat there nearly lifeless"

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

Funny but good
"Oh the snot has caked against my pants / it has turned into crystal"

Classic
"She's got everything she needs, she's an artist and she don't look back"

Classic British
"It's time the tale were told, of how you took a child, and made him old..."

Blues
Seen the arrow on the doorpost, saying, "This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans to Jerusalem."

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

These are great. Many thanks.
to save paichukka the trouble
...I should probably also add

Well she got her daddy's car and she cruised through the hamburger stand now
(seems she forgot all about the library like she told her old man now)

-- Edited by brazo de natillas at 10:30, 2007-03-21

Muppet · Je suis l'état et l'état c'est moi

For sheer creation of atmosphere, try:

"Yeah, I can see it now, the distant red neon shivered in the heat.
I was feeling like a stranger in a strange land.
You know, where people play games with the night; God, it was too hot to sleep."
(Robbie Robertson)

For total pretentiousness, you can't beat Babylon Zoo's:

"Pungent smells, they consummate my home; beyond the black horizon, trying to take control..."

And to ensure we keep the Bristol flag flying, what about Gary Clail's:

"What is it in the nature of man that makes us HATE and CHEAT and STEAL and KILL?"

El Presidente · Disco Brad

brazo de natillas wrote:

to save paichukka the trouble

If we're gonna steal Paichukkas best lines we shouldn't forget the likes of (although the 2nd line is much better)

"well I've been up and I've been down, in different countries, different towns, and everywhere I've seen the same old ****e..."

(apologies if I got the words wrong)

As for Gary Clail, I saw him once and the bass was so powerful when I went to the toilet, the metal latrine was vibrating violently in sympathy!

Club Dogsbody · Veteran Member

If you want a bit more Billy, or you're simply waiting for the great leap forwards:

It may have been Camelot for Jack and Jacqueline
But on the Che Guevara highway filling up with gasoline
Fidel Castro's brother spies a rich lady who's crying
Over luxury's disappointment
So he walks over and he's trying
To sympathise with her but he thinks that he should warn her
That the Third World is just around the corner

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

can i ask Mr Bra's what the purpose of the language exercise is?

"This world is big and bad and half insane,
Take me where real animals are playin'"

and on the more overblown side here's another Smiths' one:

"In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway 'Merican dream/
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines"

(actually that was Springsteen)

and the Happys:

"Son, Im 30
I only went with your mother cause she's dirty"

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Golcar CC wrote:

Mr Bra's

and the Happys:

"Son, Im 30
I only went with your mother cause she's dirty"

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

Here's a great song of God's vengeance, best heard performed by the sweet-singing Kitty Wells....

There's a call that rings from the throne it springs
To those now gone astray
Saying "Come ye men and your load of sin
There at the alter lay"
You do not seem to heed of the chains of greed
your conscience never tires
Be assured my friend if you still offend
He will set your fields on fire

El Treasurorio · Senior Member

One for Dogsbody:

Let me take you to the place
Where membership's a smiling face,
Brush shoulders with the stars.
Where strangers take you by the hand,
And welcome you to wonderland -
From beneath their panamas...

El Presidente · Disco Brad

El Treasurorio wrote:

One for Dogsbody:

Let me take you to the place
Where membership's a smiling face,
Brush shoulders with the stars.
Where strangers take you by the hand,
And welcome you to wonderland -
From beneath their panamas...

I don't know why (same vintage, same first 2 words maybe?), but that one made me think of this one, by The Cure

"Let me take your hand, I'm shaking like milk."

-- Edited by El Presidente at 12:54, 2007-03-21

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Another one for Club Dogsbody

"I know it's out of fashion, and a trifle uncool, but I can't help it, I'm a romantic fool"

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

Witness the birth of Heavy Metal in these Led Zep lines...

Ah-ah Ah, Ah-ah Ah

We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!

Sorry I know it's great lines rather than terrible but I cuddnae resist...

how about Elvis Costello with

"Oh I just don't where to begin ...

-- Edited by Golcar CC at 14:43, 2007-03-21

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

Always liked this Frank & Walters opener:

Fashion crisis hits New York
I saw a blind man
He was eating his fork

which goes on in this vein:

(He said that's what you had
To do to be cool
You eat your cutlery instead of your food)

-- Edited by Golcar CC at 12:29, 2007-03-22

Club Dogsbody · Veteran Member

El Presidente wrote:

Another one for Club Dogsbody

"I know it's out of fashion, and a trifle uncool, but I can't help it, I'm a romantic fool"

The Dogsbody reckons that song's the dog's bollox. Club Tropicana, though, dear oh dear...

paichukka · ...Ding!

Some great artists at work here, with The Smiths, The Jam, Ween, The Beach Boys et al. Not you dogsbody.

Given the number of Smiths suggestions, I venture:

Belligerent ghouls
Run Manchester schools
Spineless swines
Cemented minds

There's some great Smiths clips on YouTube BTW. That boy could play guitar. Check them out and lose an afternoon of global productivity...

Our Bob got a mention or two. But surely nothing (yes, this is a challenge for you Golcar) can top:

You've gotta lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down you just stood there grinnin'

Magnificent. Or if you're feeling a bit fruity:

If you want a lover, I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love, I'll wear a mask for you

Then there's the trick of putting your best two lines at the very beginning of your album:

I wrote a poem on a dog biscuit
And the dog refused to look at it

Others forthcoming I'm sure. This thread could run and run...

-- Edited by paichukka at 18:49, 2007-03-21

-- Edited by paichukka at 18:54, 2007-03-21

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

paichukka wrote:

I wrote a poem on a dog biscuit
And the dog refused to look at it

Ah. Galaxie 500.
I hope this thread runs and runs. I reckon I can get most of next term out of it.

paichukka · ...Ding!

I got a black widow spider for a momma, lord
Got a diamond back rattler for a pa

Townes don't rate his parents...

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

paichukka wrote:

I got a black widow spider for a momma, lord
Got a diamond back rattler for a pa

Townes don't rate his parents...

I like that one too.
In the Rotherham bleak category, I also like Townes's:

Hey mama, when you leave, don't leave a thing behind
I don't want nothin', I can't use nothin'

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

Kinda really like this:

In a cabin, in a canyon, excavating for a mine,
Lived a miner, Forty-Niner, and his daughter Clementine.

also have always loved the "so ah kissed her/little sister" line later on... smashing rhyme...

Can this thread be extended to include great rhymes...

If so i'd nominate the chorus of dylan's knocked-off-in-2-minutes-there's-another-beatles-song-for-you "I wanna be your lover" where he gives it..

I wanna be your lover, baby, I wanna be your man.
I wanna be your lover, baby,
(so far so what - but then he pulls off this rhyme)
I don't wanna be hers, I wanna be yours.

either crappy or absolutely fantastic - you'll have to decide for yourself.

Can I ask Brazo again how he will incorporate these into his lessons?

brazo de natillas · King of the divan

Golcar CC wrote:
Kinda really like this:

In a cabin, in a canyon, excavating for a mine,
Lived a miner, Forty-Niner, and his daughter Clementine.

Can I ask Brazo again how he will incorporate these into his lessons?

That's a winner too.

Yep you can. Apologies for cut and paste from a private message reply.

It's mostly a quickish filler, trying to do something with songs other than whole song gapfills or error correction or reacting to the text..
I'll try and get two or three activities out of it at different levels:

Maybe an unscrambling thing or something on pronunciation with rhyming words for pre-intermediates.
The intermediates will get a parts of speech type thing to come up with their own variations-
Well my noun's on fire while she verbs noun, and if you ever verbed what it's like to be pronoun

The advanced lot will get a gapfill, then 'tell me what happens in the song from now on'...

The kids will get a competitive activity. Not sure what.

I also want to do something similar with worst couplets ever...

El Presidente · Disco Brad

"What a drag it is getting old"

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Time to bump this thread back towards the top.

"When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun"

paichukka · ...Ding!

Not too difficult to spot the smackhead in that picture...

Fine band, mind.

Date: Mar 28, 2007

El Presidente wrote:

Time to bump this thread back towards the top.

"When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun"

TUNE! Annoyed I didn't think of that one myself.

From the same period:

Why must you record my phone calls?
Are you planning a bootleg L.P?
Said you've been threatened by gangsters
Now it's you thats threatening me.

The Specials.

Muppet · Je suis l'état et l'état c'est moi

(That was me by the way)

El Presidente · Disco Brad

Muppet wrote:

(That was me by the way)

But does your version go

Â

"oh oh the guns of Bristol?"

Muppet · Je suis l'état et l'état c'est moi

El Presidente wrote:

But does your version go
"oh oh the guns of Bristol?"

No, it doesn't.

Incidentally I know this is a "first lines" thread and not a "great lyrics" thread, but is there any finer set of Clash lyrics than this song? In factare there any greater lyrics to any song in history?

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

Can't remember where I saw these lyrics but they're great - i'd like to hear the song...

Come on kids, roast chestnuts are great, Once you find the right vendor - they just need salt, Chocolate can help too.

Golcar CC · Bezalgo

Neko Case - she's a case apart, but it's an intriguing start to a song you must admit:

My true love drowned in a dirty old pan
Of oil that did run from the block
Of a falcon sedan 1969
The paper said '75
There were no survivors
None found alive