I've had a bit of a fad on examining song lyrics of late, and whilst I don't think it's essential to the writing of a great song to have great lyrics (for example The Stones' Satisfaction), it certainly helps. Those that I'm most drawn to are the ones that paint a vivid picture, and it is often the first couple of lines which help to set the scene for the whole song, to draw the listener into this little snapshot of a life.
Here are 10 examples of opening lines which I am particularly fond of, for differing reasons. In a couple of cases it's simply that they make me laugh:
1. Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence
Hello darkness my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again
2. The Jam - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
The distant echo - of faraway voices boarding faraway trains,
To take them home to the ones that they love, and who love them forever
3. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Mother, mother, there's too many of you crying,
Brother, brother, brother, there's far too may of you dying
4. Stevie Wonder - Living for the City
A boy is born in hard time Mississippi
Surrounded by four walls that ain't so pretty
5. Fountains of Wayne - Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim
Michael and Heather at the baggage claim, tired of playing the waiting game
Every bag has got a different name, Michael and Heather may never get home again.
6. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Ohio
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio
7. Arctic Monkeys - When the Sun Goes Down
So who's that girl there? I wonder what went wrong so that she had to roam the streets
She don't do major credit cards, I doubt she does receipts. It's all not quite legitimate
8. The Beatles - Penny Lane
In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs, of every head he's had the pleasure to have known
And all the people that come and go, stop and say hello
9. Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro
Son, I'm thirty. I only went with your mother 'cos she's dirty
And I don't have a decent bone in me. What you get is just what you see, yeah
10. Ben Folds - Bitch Went Nuts
The bitch went nuts. She stabbed my basketball
And the speakers to my stereo
So those are my 10, though I could have come up with a lot more. How about yours?
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