So what are the greatest opening lyrics of all time? The best opening lines have the ability to take you to a place somewhere in your sub consciousness that isn’t real, just falling into a moment of beauty. You know that bit where your about to fall asleep and you jump up and realise you’re not actually falling off a cliff? Something like that but without the sheer terror.
So, after much debate here are our choices broken down by decade. I’m sure you won’t all agree so feel free to let us know your choices!
1960’s
“Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste”
Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones
The Stones got compared and contrasted to the Beatles for a lot of reasons. Mainly to do with timing, a lot to do with marketing (I’m looking at you Andrew Loog Oldham) and basically because they were both effing great. And whilst the Beatles wrote brilliant personal lyrics none could capture the imagination in the way ‘Sympathy’ did. Singing over a tribal drumbeat Jagger introduces the Devil, the self described man of wealth and taste who would go on to watch the Russian revolution and the assignation of the Kennedys whilst the rest of the band, and eventually the rest of the world, “Woo Hoo”, along with him. The image of a red horned beast from the depths would never be thought of in the same way once this was out, because after all, it was you and me
1970’s
“I am an anti-christ, I am an anarchist”
The Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
Time has a way of diluting shock. We can look back at with a condescending smirk at the public getting their flat caps and bloomers in a twist over the likes of Elvis shaking his hips or 4 scallys from Liverpool daring to let their hair grow past their ears. Yet even with this in mind it’s hard to imagine anyone not being knocked back on first encountering the Sex Pistols.
Anarchy In The UK doesn’t so much as start, it sort of stumbles forward and for a second you can’t be certain they are going to make past the first hurdle. Enter Lydon, manically shouting “Right now…..” before cackling like a homeless drunk holding a hand grenade. Actung Actung!! Listen up you monkeys, things are about to go off.
In the wrong hands the opening couplet could easily come across as contrived, the sort of thing a 6th former might scribble on his lunch box to make himself look interesting. This isn’t about looking interesting though; this is a rallying call, a call to arms, a shout out to all those disenchanted with the old guard and ready for something new. It’s not about being an anti-christ; it’s about being anti all shit that Lydon’s generation had inherited. And whilst the rest of the country were content on being miners or touching minors (allegedly) the Sex Pistols started a revolution that still reverberates today.
Looking back all the filth and the fury the Sex Pistols garnered it’s sometimes easy to forget the true impact of what was going on. This was Chapter 2. And every page filled in after couldn’t have been written without this new beginning.
Listen to ‘Anarchy’ now and not only do you hear the primal grunt of generation awakening; you can also hear the distinct sound of a touch paper being lit.
http://youtu.be/C8szRgIcYlY
1980’s
“I don’t have to sell my soul, he’s already in me”
The Stone Roses – I Wanna be Adored
Are you still reading? Ok, well if you are do me a favour. Close your eyes and start the base line to ‘Adored’ in your head. You hear that? Dum dum dum dum, Dim dim dim dim……Even just thinking about it puts the hairs on your neck up. But this piece isn’t about intros, it’s about lyrics. And when that bass plays on, and after Squire adds his magic to the melting pot it wouldn’t really matter what was said. A lesser band could have rested on that and you wouldn’t blame them for it. But after the foreplay of the instrumental you, the punter, the fuckin hero of the world, get to sing along with chest beating, orgasm that is the opening bars of the eponymous opener. And its fucking brilliant. What does it mean? Who gives a fuck, hes already in me. That’s all you need to know
1990’s
“Slip inside the eye of your mind”
Don’t look back in Anger – Oasis
I could pick many Oasis songs. Because that’s what I do, slag off Phil Collins whilst listening to Oasis. But the start of this is near perfection. The piano chords liberally (and consciously) stolen from Lennon before Noel launches into his open gambit on what became a prelude to putting your arm around your bezzie mate and singing along. Don’t believe me? Try and watch the end of Our Friends in the North without singing along and wiping a nostalgic tear from your eye
2000’s
“Did you see the stylish kids in a riot”
The Libertines – Time for Heroes
To paraphrase a saying, they say if you can’t remember the late 90s you probably were there. Britpop had seen a nuclear explosion of talent emerge which had gripped a nation and forged a sub culture the likes of which we will never see again. However, being a genre which was always more comfortable looking back than forward it was only a matter of time before the wheels fell off and where once was the blister of fusion, would lie a barren post apocalyptic dirge. And so it became that the likes of Embrace and Travis became “indie” flag bearers, whilst So Solid Crew graced the cover of the NME. What with Y2K round the corner hope for civilisation dropped to an all time low whilst suicide rates amongst Kangol hat wearers soared (probably).
Why the history lesson? I just want to express how exciting it was to hear a band like The Libertines after years of boredom. Yes, The Strokes came before them but without wanting to sound to jingoistic, they weren’t ours. Or to be more personal, they weren’t mine. Did you see the stylish kids in the riot? We hadn’t seen stylish kids for years. A riot? Not at a Starsailor gig mate. In one line there was more passion, hope and danger than the previous troop of boy scouts had managed in years. Time for Heroes indeed.
@chrishardy1234
