Part 55 - Great Opening Lines

Woo hoo.

I am slightly obsessed with great opening lines. Tremendous opening lines. Grand statements, or subtle observations. The absurd, the incredible and sometimes, the fucking bizarre.The great opening film lies are obvious. Godfather Part 1 (“I believe in America...”), Manhattan (“Chapter One. He adored New York City. He idolized…”), Goodfellas (“I always wanted to be a gangster...”) and so on. The list is rather endless. Fight Club (“People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden.”).

In literature, my favourite opening lines include “Call me Ishmael” by Herman Melville in Moby Dick (even though I hated the book) and Salinger’s “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like….” starts The Catcher In The Rye. I also love Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself” in Mrs. Dalloway and the opening line of the Prologue for The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, “Whan that aprille, with hise shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote.”

This list could also run forever. My favourite of all time is “I first met Dean Moriaty after my first wife and I split up” by Jack Kerouac (original publishing of On the Road, not re-released manuscript edition of 2006). I am not exaggerating, this line has held me in its intoxicating depth and scope since the very first time I read it.

It doesn’t work so well in music I think, the amazing opening line. Well, it does, but in a different way. If a film is a book and a book a film, then an album is a film is a book to a film is an album. You see?

Instead of opening lines, you have opening tracks.

I can’t be bothered giving you the ones you read in every rock magazine ever You know, Beatles, the Stones, Radiohead or SunnO))). Here are some not so obvious ones, and Guns N’ Roses.

From Sufjan Stevens (All the Delighted People) to the Wu-Tang Clan (Bring da Ruckus) to Cannonball Aderely (the fucking genius Autumn Leaves). Also love Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N’ Roses and Dragonaut by Sleep. Oh, and Prayer to God by Shellac is brilliant! These songs tell you what you are getting.

They say, Sit back little man/woman, and get ready for a ride. A brilliant opening track, can make or break an album in my book. Nico’s The Fairest of the Seaons! What a song! Slayer’s Angel of Death (Fuck yeah!).

All time favourite opening track is Neighborhood # 1 (Tunnels) by the Arcade Fire. Love it so much.

I think I can go deeper on this.

Maybe it’s due to a short attention span ( I blame the internet, and TV and schooling and the devil’s music) that I look for greatness in track Ones. In all honesty, if it hadn’t had been for Neighborhood # 1 (Tunnels) by the Arcade Fire, I may have never finished Funeral.

(Oh shit, maybe I actually DO take a great deal of stock in first impressions. Maybe first impressions mean a lot and everything!)

NO. I always thought I was better than that. Better than that.

Shallow.

My own words. My own argument and the conclusion is Shallow. Bested by my brilliant and supreme logic.

I’m shallow.

Shallow. Fuck.

If only “Shallow” was a cool Yiddish word for strangulation or “hey that girl with the glasses is really cute”. If only.