The "first line" thread...

[Armistice]

On the theory espoused somewhere in one of these threads by someone that a killer first line is essential to a song (stick your hand up if you're the person whose theory I'm exploring...), here is a thread to post your best first lines...

Actual completed / recorded songs only please. Here'a few of mine to kick it off:



"Hey panda girl, didn't anybody tell you that tears and mascara don't mix?" (Tears And Mascara)


"Her friends said she was pretty, she couldn't see it herself"
(Damaged)


"Babe the lights went out too soon, I'm not afraid of the dark"
(I'm Not Afraid Of The Dark)


"Her bags are packed, the car is loaded, a 30 year old Toyota she got for a song"
(AM Radio)


"I think you are quite a treasure, I think you're almost worth the pain"
(We Are Not The Same)



All can be regularly heard down at the pub in Sydney, Australia we play at... so far no-one's signing me up to a publishing deal... matter of time, surelly!


Don't leave me hangin' out here guys... who's up?

 

[StevenJacksonMu]

"Up Above My Head there is blue sky, below my feet there is dark, somewhere in the middle there is me lost in thought". ( Up Above My Head)

"Look at you, now look at me, the Earth and sky and the space in between".
(Please Tell Me Why)

"My God is greater than your God, Taller than your God !"
(My God)

"A man adrift at sea dreams of a place that he would rather be"
(Upon The Sea)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td0JjeEZvfo


Great thread by the way !!!!

 

[grimtraveller]

OK, here's a few;



"Tonight I am a panda, existing in your zoo
I’m limited by my surroundings
but expected to perform for you…."
{Am I the way you imagined me ?}

"Claudie Mac sat at the back
contemplating heart attack"
{Without the consent of the Queen}

"I once kissed somebody’s hand in a dream~once~
but I can’t recall who or whether it had meaning"
{Elizabeth dream mint crisp}

"The fellas are pairing off with the blokes,
the ladies are doing likewise"
{Marjel}

"I saw this woman on my TV talking about Sarajevo
She said the 1st world war had started there – I really did not know"
{Not unlike a highland moth}

"Flash of colour, flash of death,
private hells and inner needs"
{Riot in Ephesus head}

"Without a speech, without a word,
without their voices being
heard"
{Start the revolution without me}

"Round & round goes the washing machine
And it’s filled with the memories of summer"
{Washing machine}



One thing I've often observed about lyrics is that on their own, written down and without the context of the song, they so often look daft. But once they've got an arresting melody or are in a great bit of music, even if they're lame, they can be transformed into something that sometimes, actually seem pretty good.

 

[sharonclowe]

this is fun!! Thanks Armistice! I enjoyed reading the disjointed variety of opening lines. Here's some more to add to the collection so far:

"Sifting through memories....like bills you forgot to pay"
(You Promised Me)

"Wish I knew what you were thinking...are we dead or still alive"
(Don't Let Me Down)

"I'll be nice to your momma....and I'll rub your back"
(Guitar Girl)

"You think I'll play the part of a lonely girl with a broken heart, tonight"
(Blue Eyes Blues)

"One last cigarette before I go, one step closer to the door"
(No More)

"He said, 'Can I have your attention, please....I don't think you comprehend the complicated nature of my compulsive needs'"
(Too A.D.D. to be O.C.D.)

 

[sharonclowe]

"Hey panda girl, didn't anybody tell you that tears and mascara don't mix?" (Tears And Mascara)

"Tonight I am a panda, existing in your zoo
I’m limited by my surroundings
but expected to perform for you…."
{Am I the way you imagined me ?}

I just wanna know if these pandas are related?!! (sorry guys, couldn't help it!)

Actually, they sound like very interesting openers! Makes me want to hear the song.

 

[Armistice]

I just wanna know if these pandas are related?!! (sorry guys, couldn't help it!)

Actually, they sound like very interesting openers! Makes me want to hear the song.

Possibly... my panda is a purely fictional female Australian one... I think Grim may actually have a real panda suit he dresses up in though, and "performs"... sounds kinky! I can say this, of course, because it's 2.24am in London and I'm guessing he's not currently awake to come and belt me, although he was here an hour ago, so who knows!

Hey GT I vote for "Elizabeth Dream Mint Crisp" as best title so far!

And "Too ADD to be OCD" sounds interesting!

 

[Milnoque]

OK I'll Play:

It seems to me the water in the river just can't win
(Water)

I got some money in my pocket and a shiny set of keys.
(Sweet Anne Marie)

I don't know nothing 'bout the government. Got no notion what the future holds for me.
(Make Me Free)

OK so I don't write great first lines.

 

[itaughttremonti]

"The rain makes the street the pallette for its view
And your heart get's swept down in the flow"
-Cherish The Rain

"Tell me how can I talk to you, when you aren't listening
Tell me how can I make you go, when you refuse to leave"
-Tell Me

 

[grimtraveller]

"Hey panda girl, didn't anybody tell you that tears and mascara don't mix?" (Tears And Mascara)

"Tonight I am a panda, existing in your zoo
I’m limited by my surroundings
but expected to perform for you…."
{Am I the way you imagined me ?}

I just wanna know if these pandas are related?!!

Could be........my panda is from around August 1993. I was watching telly on bank holiday monday that year and I was watching this documentary about zoos and the camera panned to this panda. It struck me how we don't really don't know anything about how animals feel in captivity and so began my little ditty about animals in a zoo. Then I got to comparing them with our sometime situations in life and it got progressively 'angrier'. The music I wrote for it was the first thing I ever wrote on a guitar. It had this funny chord (think of a barre F but without the barre) in it, it sounds all Spanishy. I couldn't find it in any chord dictionary so I thought I'd made it up ! Years later a friend told me what it possibly was ~ some long convoluted name with 'Bb' and 'diminished flat eleven' or something like that. I forgot it as soon as he told me ! Chord names sound so regal. But one finger on a string has a name...

Hey GT I vote for "Elizabeth Dream Mint Crisp" as best title so far!

When I was a kid, we used to eat Elizabeth Shaw mint crisps, these minty chocolates. Tasty ! The song starts off recording a couple of shadowy dreams I had once that had left me sweating. I elaborated on the rest and it finished up as an apocalyptic nightmare. I like it, anyway !

By the way, I highly rate "Tears and mascara". As a song, I mean.

 

[Armistice]

By the way, I highly rate "Tears and mascara". As a song, I mean.

Thanks GT..

You should hear it live... I use my Boss RC-50 looper to turn it from a simple pop song into a screaming 8 minute prog rock epic with mulitple interweaving guitar melodies and vocal lines, a simple kick drum beat and a big, big, finish... sounds like 15 people on stage instead of just the two of us.

We like it anyway! I must take a stereo feed from the mixer next time we rehearse and see what it sounds like.

Going to re-record that at some stage featuring some of the other melodic content..

 

[up-fiddler]

My turn?

"I look into your eyes and I fall inside and wish that I could stay forever there."
Since I Fell Into Your Eyes

"There are many sad ways from our childhood days we use to get from Point A to Point B." The Harley Davidson Song

"Red beans and rice on a Saturday afternoon make me look twice at the mirror in my spoon." Mississippi

 

[Armistice]

What?

No more panda tunes?

Surely grimtraveller and I aren't the only panda afficionados?

Get to it!

 

[sharonclowe]

What? No more panda tunes? Surely grimtraveller and I aren't the only panda aficionados? Get to it!

Oh dear, you just had to go and provoke the Panda lover in me....(Sharon has had two glasses of wine this evening and is now free associating)

Red beans and rice on a Saturday afternoon make me look twice at the mirror in my spoon."

...my Panda from 1993 in a zoo...we don't really don't know anything about how animals feel...compared with our situations in life...this funny chord...'diminished flat eleven' or something .....sounds all Spanishy...Elizabeth Shaw mint crisps...minty chocolates....shadowy dreams that left me sweating.

Must be sung to a country western rhythm....basic G, C, D pattern (with a miscellaneous augmented 5th thrown in for good measure!)....

"Got my Panda crunked up, on Spanishy stuff...those red beans & rice are a trip"

Fortunately, I can't come up with the chorus for this one...

 

[Manslick]

Songs you never heard

Here is a list of what I can remember

 

[ido1957]

I don't know if it's my best but I like this song's intro line:

Her smile was like a shining star on a moonlight summer night

 

[RAMI]

I still miss you, but my aim is getting better.

-Me.

 

[grimtraveller]

Panda~monium.

I still miss you, but my aim is getting better.

That kind of lyric in a song is just top notch ! Especially as an opening line. It reminds me of one that I used recently {I co~opted it from a sentence I saw in a book}"You folk are my second favourite people/ but my favourite ones are everybody else"
{Hard Knee}

Great white, please don't bite

When I lifted my head off of the bar

Manslick is one of those writers that says that lyrics mean nothing, yet has such a wonderful and often hilarious turn of phrase that I don't believe him !

panda afficionados

Funnilly, I don't particularly like pandas. My son once fell into a red panda enclosure at the zoo, having been told not to lean over the fence or touch it. The zookeepers were less worried about the animals mauling him (they're not really PANDA pandas) than puzzled as to how the fence didn't electrocute him !

 

[Armistice]

My son once fell into a red panda enclosure at the zoo, having been told not to lean over the fence or touch it. The zookeepers were less worried about the animals mauling him (they're not really PANDA pandas) than puzzled as to how the fence didn't electrocute him !

Hey, they're cute... do they come in extra small?

 

[rayc]

I cheated on a few that haven't had the recordings finsihed but, generally, these can be heard on soundclick because no pub would have me or my songs - Sydney or the Gong!
Oh, some a collabs...

To be honest the Names are better than the 1st line in many...

Burn the Witches - His struggle, his shame, his hate and lies

Wake Up -I didn't wake up this morning

The Master -The sheets were grey where the body had lain,

Thanatos - Thanatoginous my friend what know you of wine and roses?

My Circus - Come to my circus, my city, my sewer,

Backstreet - Hidden, luminous, backstreet warriors, metamorphosised denizens of the deep.

Not So Long Ago - Not so long ago I had a lover and it seemed that nothing could go wrong

The Time - Our time is short but it it’s been full, we’ve waited all our lives

I Turned To this - When I remember you, there is nothing I can do: I crawl within my shell, I seek the night.

Paper Globe - Even a construction paper globe, slowly turning beneath a strobe,

Country Death - Now Kane said unto Able “Hey come out to the stable”

Listen Like Brian - Oh, now wouldn’t it be nice, If you still believe in me.

Cracked Glass - Plastic sheets of moonlight reflected in cracked glass eyes of neon illuminates suicides who never learnt to fly.

Revolution Blues - Now Livin' in the crossfire is sometimes short on joy,

Kennedy Avalon - Jack locked Jackie in Camelot; chaste, and always on view

Solong Shuffle - Where's the ambassador? Look up into the sky.

Cafe Oceanic - No country kitchen curtains or pictures on the wall the menu’s been painted on the glass

After the Burning - And the pain is everlasting, though I know it has no value.

Wah Wow - Life becomes a portrait: feel no passion, feel no pain

Patch of Ground - Thousands of hectares put down to tobacco, thousands more to sugar cane too

Mercedes #1 - No chasing wild things through a jungle of bricks, doesn’t matter if the rains don’t come.

Old Letters - Bleary windows make it so hard for the sun to brighten the rooms

Full Circle - The razor’s edge is getting even finer, you always try to walk the middle line

Sandpaper Castles 1811 - I'll build a sandpaper castle, beneath the noonday sun,

Black Dog - Black dog wants to go out for a walk even though it’s cloudy outside

Heart Shaped Bruise - Every time you lie, every time you cheat

Players' Worktime - Well we got nowhere with laisse faire before but there’s talk of legislation now to dispossess the poor.

Softdance - On the lounge with the Lizard King; once the viper, now has no sting

Whisper - I whispered softly to no one I didn't wait for a reply

 

[moresound]

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT here goes........

Dinosaur Love - I got a dinosaur love for you baby,I'm A Tyrannosaurs Rex. I'm coming for you baby, you ain't seen nothing yet!

I don't think we'll make it - It's a cold grey day today and the screams aren't so loud today.

Dog Style - When I was young I went downtown and bought a little puppy hound and ever sense that fateful day I can only do it just one way we did it dog style.

Guitar Warrior - I was born on the air just like the notes I play.

Give me my gorilla back - Me I'm a lucky guy and I'll tell you why.

Mop up the floor with you - I'm going to mop up the floor with you.

Dilithium Crises - First mate now where is your logic.

Frank Zappa is dead - Frank Zappa is dead.

Do instrumentals count???? ????