by Sebastian Ramshackle III

Created on: December 25, 2006   Last Updated: May 23, 2012

Apart from the killer riff, its opening line that hooks you into a song forever. There's nothing quite like hearing an opening line to a song that you know will burn its way into your consciousness and stay there until you die.

Probably the greatest of all opening lines to songs is that old staple blues shout, 'I woke up this morning....'. (This should not be confused with the opening line of the shortest blues song ever: 'I didn't wake up this morning..') Joking aside, like the best riffs, the best opening words to a song should grab your attention by the neck and shake you up so you know you're hooked like a fish on the line.

It is arguable that the greatest opening lines in songs come from the psychedelic period. This is quite simply because the writers' minds were being freed from convention. Personal favourites include the songs of The Incredible String Band, the first track of whom I heard on a beat-up dansette record player way back in 1968 on a friend's front doorstep. The first track was called 'Maya', and the opening lines are:

The dust of the rivers does murmur and weep
Hard and sharp laughter that cuts to the bone.

From then on, life could never be the same! (And it wasn't...)

Another by the same band that just blows the mind is from the song 'Waltz of the New Moon':

I hear that the Emperor of China used to wear iron shoes with ease
We are the tablecloth and also the table also the fable of the dancing leaves

Once you've heard songs like that, everything else seems to just fade into mundanity!

There was something about the psychedelic period that produced wonderous lyrics (and music!) - maybe it was the psychedelics! Even a band like the Beatles produced greater opening lines during that period than either before or after. Compare, for example, the opening lines from 'I am the Walrus':

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
I'm crying.

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

to the opening lines from either 'I should have known better':

I should have known better with a girl like you
That I would love everything that you do
And I do, hey, hey, hey, and I do.
Whoa, woah, I never realized what a kiss could be
This could only happen to me;
Can't you see, can't you see?

which was earlier, or, from a later period, 'Let it be':

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, Let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

Good though they all be (and much better to listen to all with their respective music bhind them) I think the point is proven....psychedelic opening lines rock!

Learn more about this author, Sebastian Ramshackle III.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.