MetaChat - Best opening shots in music?

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29 April 2009

Best opening shots in music? I got to thinking this morning, driving the girls to school...And The Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope has two of the greatest song openings ever, in my opinion. What others can you think of? My, albeit short, list inside.→[More:]Give 'Em Enough Rope opens with one of the greatest Side A/Track 1's ever - Safe European Home. That one drum shot followed immediate rock and roll riffage....then Tommy Gun with it's crazy battle march drum opening.

The only other one that jumped to mind in my hectic morning was the Rolling Stones' Street Fighting Man. that opening chord...wow.

Of course, that reminds me of the other fantastic opening chord of rock...The Beatles "Hard Day's Night" has spawned online discussion for ages about just WHAT chord is being played!

So...what other fantastic opening moments do you know of?

post by: richat at: 08:20 | 23 comments

90 percent of Bruce's Born To Run has totally iconic openings - Thunder Road, Born To Run, She's The One....

Welcome To The Jungle by G n' R, way too obvious...Axl Rose screaming like an insane monkey over a nazi riff from Slash...

AC/DC practically made it's entire career off big opening chords...

Blondie's Eat to the Beat album is loaded with big drums and guitar openings...

posted by Lipstick Thespian 29 April | 08:30

oh! one more - Lipstick Thespian's full-length is a magnum opus on this topic. The first track, Oceana, starts off with a wicked tonal smackdown of electric mandolin processed through a dub fader combined with breaking waves and a dog/dolphin backing chorus.

Shit is deep.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 29 April | 08:32

"New Day Rising" followed by "The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill" at the beginning of Hüsker Dü's New Day Rising is the strongest one-two punch I can think of.

It's like being bombed into rubble... and then having the rubble bombed into dust.

posted by Joe Beese 29 April | 08:39

Ah yes...Oceana...how could I have forgotten! That dog/dolphin combo...WOW.

posted by richat 29 April | 08:40

Jane's Addiction - "Stop".

posted by rainbaby 29 April | 08:41

ooooooooooh, good one, Rainbaby! Seconding Stop and throwing in Mountain Song and Ocean Size for good measure.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 29 April | 08:45

heh heh... "Welcome to the Jungle" reminds me of this skit I used to imagine: "Rock n Roll Poetry Hour".

Some stuffy tweed-jacket-with-elbow-patches type sitting in a wing chair pompously introduces, "And now... W. Axl Rose shall recite the poetry of Dylan Thomas."

Axl comes out in his 1987-era stage clothes, bandanna and all, approaches the microphone, clears his throat, and then screeches, "Do not go gentle into that good night... BITCH! You're gonna DIIIEEEEEEEE!"

posted by Joe Beese 29 April | 08:49

I'll add in "Lunatic Fringe" by Red Rider, with it's double-pulsed bass hits leading up to one of the best pickslides in rock.
Also have to mention the awesome intro riff from Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold".

posted by rocket88 29 April | 08:58

Patti Smith - Horses; first album, first song, first lyric -- pure blasphemy. "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine." THAT is the kind of powerful statement that makes careers.

posted by Ardiril 29 April | 08:59

The dissonant chords that open Hendix's "Purple Haze" comes immediately to mind.

posted by flapjax at midnite 29 April | 09:16

You are kidding? Teenage kicks, except you really need to hear the snare drum. I mean you really need to hear the snare drum. Someone help me out here, please.

posted by GeckoDundee 29 April | 09:58

Yup, Teenage Kicks is another for sure. I'm not that familiar with all of these, but...I like the list so far!

posted by richat 29 April | 10:04

This is till something totally visceral for me.

*waves to pompomtom*

posted by goshling 29 April | 10:49

ha! That Teenage Kicks song sounds like a boy version of the Go-Go's!

posted by Lipstick Thespian 29 April | 10:59

That God song is fantastic - thanks for turning me on to this band.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 29 April | 11:01

"All the Young Dudes" always does it for me.

*Reeet...DUNdahDun dah DUn a dun a duuuun"

Also the opening scream in "Sugar Baby Love" by the Rubettes.

"Bop shewaddle! Bob shuwattywhattya ahhh!"

And of course, "Good Grief Christina".

LipstickThespian: Check out Nouvelle Vauge's cover of Teenage Kicks. It's pretty darn cool for a French bossa nova band.

posted by The Whelk 29 April | 11:11

Hey Little Girl

posted by rollick 29 April | 11:15

'Reflections' is pretty high on my list.

posted by box 29 April | 11:28

Beethoven, Symphony No. 5

Little Richard, "Tutti Frutti." "Womp-bomp-a-loom-op-a-womp-bomp-bomp!"

R.E.M., "These Days"

The Beatles: "Day Tripper," "Paperback Writer," and "Revolution"

The Clash: "Death or Glory," "I Fought the Law," and "London Calling"

The Connells, "Slawkjawed"

The Who: "Baba O'Reilly," "I Can See for Miles," "The Real Me," and "Won't Get Fooled Again"

posted by kirkaracha 29 April | 13:36

This one by the Dandy Warhols is about as kickass as you can find. . .makes me want to be in the band.

posted by danf 29 April | 14:21

Something in that Dandies song really reminds me of The Stones' "gimme shelter".

posted by richat 29 April | 14:49

Just flipping through my Vox audio liberry...

Quicksand - Thorn in My Side
Meat Puppets - Scum (album version - this video doesn't start with quite as much punch)
Smile - Staring at the Sun
Failure - Heliotropic (though Fantastic Planet almost demands to be listened to as a whole album—and on continuous loops, as the end of the album dovetails with the beginning)
And now for something completely different: Ookla the Mok - Arthur Curry

random sample hold the one you need

posted by Eideteker 29 April | 15:51

HELLS BELLS

posted by Ike_Arumba 29 April | 19:48

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