Best Opening Line to a Song

"Begin the day with a freindly voice,
A companion unobtrusive..."
Rush- Spirit of the Radio

Saturday night and the bars are packed
The drinks are watered and the decks are stacked
The whores are grinning with their faces cracked
The gamblers cursing at the horses they backed.
 
Saturday night and the bar is jammed
We've got our table and the rest be damned
The waiter's hovering near at hand
We're loaded earlier than we'd planned.
 
Some damn fool is starting a fight
Why does he wait for Saturday night?
 
Tom Paxton

It was the third of September.....Russ

From the 1940s or early 50s:
She's got freckles on her but.......she's nice
And when she's in my arms it's paradise
Oh she smells just like a rose
From her head down to her toes
She's got freckles on her but.......she's nice

Russ Jackson


It was the third of September.....Russ

 
I love that song. I love all their stuff from that era, but this... this is a great song.

"Kick out the jams, m************!"

SeamusD


"Kick out the jams, m************!"

 
Classic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
She was a sex machine, she kept me warm and mean, she was the best damn woman I have ever seen..................

I don't think that's the line?

Nancypalooza


I don't think that's the line?

Oh, sure. Next you're going to tell us that Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "Blinded by the Light" (yes, written by Bruce Springsteen) wasn't about a feminine hygiene product. 

No, that one is.

I've seen the bright lights of Memphis and the Commodore Hotel
And, underneath a street lamp I met a Southern Belle
Well, she took me to the river where she cast her spell
And, in that southern moonlight she sang the song so well

If you'll be my Dixie Chicken, I'll be your Tennessee Lamb
And we can walk together down in Dixieland
Down in Dixieland
 
 
The great Lowell George and Little Feat
 
 

 

Something in your eyes
Makes me wanna lose myself
Makes me wanna lose myself
In your arms.

There's something in your voice
Makes my heart beat fast
Hope this feeling lasts
The rest of my life.

Ahhh...Randy Newman. The man can turn a phrase, but this one always touched me more than any...
 
Since I was a child
I've tried to be what I'm not
I've lied and I've enjoyed it all my life
I lied to my dear mother
To my sisters and my brother
And now I'm lying to my children and my wife
Big Hat, no cattle
Big head, no brain
Big snake, no rattle
I forever remain
Big hat, no cattle
I knew from the start
Big boat, no paddle
Big belly, no heart

We would sweat and moan
Until the need in us was gone
In one anothers arms
All through the night
You would cry out my name
As we were drawn into the flames
What will I do now
Now that your gone
 
Newbury

I hope someday you'll join us. And tha world will be as one.
John Lennon
 
I hope I got that right.
Joe

You looked like a princess the night we met
With your hair piled up high
I will never forget
I'm drunk right now baby
But I've got to be
Or I never could tell you
What you meant to me

I loved you the first time I saw you
And I always will love you Marie
I loved you the first time I saw you
And I always will love you Marie

YOu're the song that the trees sing when the wind blows
You're a flower you're a river you're a rainbow
Sometimes I'm crazy
But I guess you know
And I'm weak and I'm lazy
And I've hurt you so
And I don't listen to a word you say
When you're in trouble I just turn away
 
I loved you the first time I saw you
And I always will love you Marie
I loved you the first time I saw you
And I always will love you Marie

 

 

 

This thread has nicely morphed into

a Randy Newman kind of day.

Every time I think of you
I always catch my breath
And I'm still standing here
And you're miles away
And I'm wondering why you left
And there's a storm that's raging

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

 You ask how much I need you, must I explain?

I tried so hard my dear to show that you're my every dream.
Yet you're afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme
A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue
And so my heart is paying now for things I didn't do
In anger unkind words are spoke that make the teardrops start
Why can't I free your doubtful mind,and melt your cold cold heart

You'll never know how much it hurts to see you sit and cry
You know you need and want my love yet you're afraid to try
Why do you run and hide from life,to try it just ain't smart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

There was a time when I believed that you belonged to me
But now I know your heart is shackled to a memory
The more I learn to care for you,the more we drift apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

-- Hank Williams

From Monty Python...and used as my ring-tone and playback sound on my cellphone...
" I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK,
     I drink all night and I work all day...."

I met a gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis.

And I drank and drank 'till she looked good to me ...

Michael Hoffman

the ancient mariner




In '45 I was stationed in San Francisco and went to a resort for a weekend.
A trio was there Saturday night----just getting started on their own----a guy named Dave Barbour was the boss and his singer was his wife Peggy Lee.  Not bad for a cheap weekend in the mountains south of Frisco.  I was in heaven.

True story. In the 1950s I was running a charter boat out of Pier Five in Bayfront Park in Miami, and one day I had a party that included this really great looking blonde named Rose. Anyway, I started dating Rose, who was staying in Coral Gables.
 
One day an old school friend of mine from New Haven named Marie Fortune, who was a cousin of the Consiglio's from Sally's Apizza, stopped by the boat and said I should go to a party that night at the Fountainbleu Hotel on Miami Beach. I was going out with Rose that night, sowe went to the party. It was in the Presidential Suite, and the host was some guy named Frank Sinatra.
 
Now, many people are likely aware of the fact that Sinatra used to go to Sally's in New Haven whenever he was in the area, and in fact he used to have people bring pies to him when he was in New York, and would have it flown to him when he was in other places. Anyway, that was the Yvonne Fortune connection.
 
So, we're at this party and at one point some guy came over and whispered something to Rose, my date. She excused herself and went off with the guy. I was busy enjoying myself and didn't pay any attention to what was going on. A few minutes later the same guy came to me and told me to follow him. I did.
 
The next thing I knew I was being introduced to Sinatra by my friend Yvonne, and Rose, my date, was there, too. He was pretty nice, and we talked about New Haven and apizza. I told him that while I liked Sally's, and went to school with a couple of Consiglios, The Spot and then Pepe's were my favorites.
 
He then asked me how come I was with Peggy Lee.
 
Boink! No wonder Rose looked familiar

That is such a great story, Mr Hoffman. i missed it the first time through.But I do have a question. Is that all there is?

Please allow me to introduce myself;
I'm a man of wealth and taste

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then the one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.  ("Time" Lyrics by Roger Waters & David Gilmour)
 
Reminds me of so many of my friends trying to make sense of their lives in the early 70's.  Some figured it out, but sadly, others never did.