Definitely this over the ‘poor little rich boy’ lyrics that spoil an otherwise excellent album, and might as well be the Tufton St anthem. @Tiggerlion will disagree, of course.
Apropos discussion elsewhere on the board: the title track of Going for The One opens the album – at the time, for a Yes fan, it really was the shock of the new. It had a count-in! Then some aggressive guitar! Actual boogie-ing on the bass! What the hell had happened??
Great shout. This was the first Yes track I ever heard and the first Yes sleeve I ever saw. I can only imagine what it must have been like for a Yes fan. For me, at age 13 it changed my world.
Nearly all the albums I like a lot have a great opener. Far too many to start naming them. But the one that particularly stands out for me is Speak To Me on Dark Side of the Moon. More a sound collage than a song, it’s effectively an overture, an introduction that previews some of what’s to come (cash registers, Clare Torry etc). I think that’s quite a rare way to begin a rock album (more common in classical music). And I love the way it builds up to a crescendo, from a heartbeat up to a scream, then cuts into the gentle calm of Breathe.
“Nearly all the albums I like a lot have a great opener. ” – yeah I totally agree. In fact, for me a great opener (and probably a great closer as well!) is a basic requirement for a great album.
The Rolling Stones are masters of this. Sympathy for the Devil, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, Rocks Off, Dancing With Mr D, Miss You – all brilliant openers.
Rolling Stones “Let It Bleed”
Patti Smith “Horses”
Weather Report “Heavy Weather”
Love “Forever Changes”
Steely Dan “Can’t Buy A Thrill” and “Countdown To Ecstasy”. Possibly “Katy Lied” too.
Frank Zappa “Hot Rats”
Lee Morgan “The Sidewinder”
The Dukes Of Stratosphear “25 O’Clock”
Country Life gets off to a great start – The Thrill Of It All is a storming tune. Great keyboard intro builds the anticipation, you’re not quite sure where they’re placing the one. Then a patented Manzanera mini-solo/fill with quote marks around it. Bass and drums crash in and we’re off!
Clearly, Roxy were masters at choosing the perfect opening number, whetting the appetite while setting the scene…
My love for VdGG and prog/jazz/Canterbury notwithstanding – there are some days when I think that Roxy Music might just be my favourite band! Yoiks – said it out loud! I’ll be drummed out of the Prog Corps!
Well maybe they were just a little bit prog. After all, there was that audition for King Crimson. IEDHaH appeared on The Best Prog Rock Album in the World …. Ever, nestled between ELP and ELO.
If the lead track of an album is supposed to give you an idea of what is to come, like an overture in the classical milieu, then Shit Creek by The Icicle Works does the job. Bellendery optional.
“English as tuppence, changing yet changeless as canal water, nestling in green nowhere, armoured and effete, bold flag bearer, opsimath, eremite, feudal, still-reactionary: Rawlinson End.”
@hubert-rawlinson Actually it’s Neil Innes’ piano that starts that track, such a wonderful melange of Satie, Poulenc, Zappa and music hall. Here’s the piano track sans Viv
Deep Purple aren’t the sort of band that I normally mention in my posts, but for this thread I feel I should nominate that HUMUNGOUS version of “Highway Star” that kick-starts “Made in Japan”. One could hardly wish for more.
I was enthusing about this one to some mates only a few weeks ago.
It’s an unbeatable effort; how many bands delivered their single best and most complete song, in the eventual house style, as track 1 of their debut album?
There are loads of other opening tracks which are utterly magnificent (Gloria, Nikes, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Gimme Shelter, Debaser, The Man Comes Around, Sure Shot, Highway to Hell, Walk On By, Brutal, Bring The Noise, Search & Destroy, What’s Going On, Cherub Rock, Wanna Be Startin Something, Immigrant Song, Thunder Road, Like A Rolling Stone, etc), but none that function so singularly as an unimprovable day one mission statement for an act.
The only real competition I can think of is Welcome To The Jungle and Straight Outta Compton.
That was actually the first example I thought of. Then I thought of Refugee (Petty). then I Surrender (Sylvian). Then Tyler (UB40), Faron Young (Prefab Sprout), Loser (Beck), Jokerman (Dylan), Natural Mystic (Marley), Badlands (Springsteen), London Calling (Clash), Fantastic Voyage (Bowie), Over & Over (F Mac), Love Comes To Everyone (Harrison), Fascist Groove Thang (H17), Chuck Es In Love (RLJ), Darklands (JAMC), Astral weeks (Van), Gloria (Smnith), Release The Pressure (Leftfield), Clandestino (Chao), Safe From Harm (M Attack), Protection (M Attack), New York New York (Adams), Late In the Evening (Simon), Burning Down the House (T Heads), Broken English (Faithful), Shine On (Floyd) and a whole host of other examples. A flurry even. A veritable plethora! At which point I decided to pick the most interesting one or I’d be here all day and I chose Speak To Me. (Shine On You Crazy Diamond is also mega).
A new band emerges – they need a strong opener to their first LP , something that announces from the rooftops who the band is and what they’re about.
No greater example than (Theme from) The Monkees, the opening track from the LP called The Monkees – # “hey hey we’re the Monkees, people say we monkey around – but we’re too busy singin’ to put anybody down …” #.
Quick list of strong openers:
The Queen is Dead – The Smiths
Black Celebration- Depeche Mode
Don’t Go – Yazoo (Upstairs at Eric’s)
Two Divided by Zero – Pet Shop Boys (Please)
Europe Endless – Kraftwerk (Trans Europe Express)
re Give Em Enough Rope – follow that with English Civil War and Tommy Gunn giving a very fine threefor. Sticking Stay Free at 4 would perhaps be taking the p*ss.
Marillion: both the title track of Script, and Assassing from Fugazi – one a track that goes from a very quiet piano and vocal to full band work-out, showing just what they can do, the other a track that goes from a moody, vaguely Middle Eastern intro to hard rock fury.
Iron Maiden: Churchill’s Speech/Aces High (Live After Death) – scream for me, Long Beach, indeed.
Kate Bush: Running Up That Hill (Hounds of Love) – what a tune, what an album…
Live albums can be made or broke by the intro. “We’re gonna give you Pictures at an Exhibition”, followed by the night of the Newcastle City Hall organ fair blew my little mind.
DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing starts with a great little montage called ” Best Foot Forward”, which then cuts suddenly into the delicious piano motif of “Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt”. A magnificent start which really gets you into the mood! (Or puts you off listening any further, if it isn’t your bag, which is just as useful…)
Someone up there mentioned Dark Side of the Moon, and in general I think Pink Floyd at their peak were the masters of plotting out an album. All their 70s albums start and end strongly. I especially like Animals, bookended by that little acoustic ditty Pigs on the Wing.
(A quick theory – I don’t think anyone in Pink Floyd was a particularly prolific songwriter, and they basically HAD to make the best out of a paucity of material. I think this forced them to maybe think more about spacing out their albums and making the most out of the sequencing to maximise the impact. Not a criticism really, if it maybe sounds that way: I think it’s one of those cases where less is more, and the very fact they didn’t have banks of fantastic songs to draw on was a limitation that actually made them stronger and their albums more unified. The polar opposite would be something like The Beatle’s white album, where it turned into a big unwieldy thing (still great) with almost too much great material to fit on it).
This one is a massive favourite. Punk Rock: by Mogwai.
Coming off Young Team I was very, very excited by the prospect of Come On Die Young, and looked forward to another album full of tunes that sounded like low key Smashing Pumpkins instrumentals circa Siamese Dream.
What I got instead, was a far more spare, less Rockist album that took a little longer to digest but proved all the more wonderful for it. There is much less of the Quiet/Loud formula, the drums are to the fore and the overall sense of space makes it super tense. And it gets off to an absolute flyer with Punk Rock: – that tragic, circling riff overlaid across Iggy Pop’s glorious monologue. The weird dissonance of the words and music. The joy of looking down the tracklist and spotting that the album closes with an entirely different song entitled Punk Rock/Puff Daddy/Antichrist. Do you understand what I’m saying, sir?
It’s an album opener that really took me aback, a band not doing the thing I thought they would do, and it functions brilliantly as a calling card for that record – particularly as it bleeds perfectly into the following track (CODY). I go back to it over and over again, and in some ways I regard its strangeness, its abiding sense of an impending violence that never arrives, and its clear intent to break with the past while also paying tribute to it as weirdly emblematic of that band’s career as a whole.
What with all the kerfuffle about Barclay James Harvest elsewhere, it’s occurred to me that the opening track of their album Gone To Earth, called Hymn, I like very much indeed. A lot, in fact. It reminds me a bit of Give A Little Bit type Supertramp, sort of.
And the essential difference between this and all my other nominations (is anyone taking notes?) is that I don’t like anything else on the album. Or, indeed, anything else I’ve ever heard by them. (Which isn’t much, admittedly.)
Johnb says
Here’s a count. 123fawh.well she was. Just seventeen.
salwarpe says
Definitely this over the ‘poor little rich boy’ lyrics that spoil an otherwise excellent album, and might as well be the Tufton St anthem. @Tiggerlion will disagree, of course.
Rigid Digit says
Oasis Definitely Maybe starts with Rock n Roll Star. Not so much a song, but their manifesto in 5 minutes
noisecandy says
This is pretty good as an opener…
dai says
No the absolute best is Thunder Road
Steve Walsh says
Thunder Road is a good shout but this is pretty amazing too:
And then there’s this:
fitterstoke says
Apropos discussion elsewhere on the board: the title track of Going for The One opens the album – at the time, for a Yes fan, it really was the shock of the new. It had a count-in! Then some aggressive guitar! Actual boogie-ing on the bass! What the hell had happened??
duco01 says
… and there was no Roger Dean cover design, either….
tkdmart says
Great shout. This was the first Yes track I ever heard and the first Yes sleeve I ever saw. I can only imagine what it must have been like for a Yes fan. For me, at age 13 it changed my world.
Arthur Cowslip says
Great suggestion! Yeah this one blew me away as well when I first heard it.
Beeflin says
You Are The Music, We’re Just The Band – by Trapeze
Deep Purple In Rock
Led Zeppelin II
Close To The Edge
ClemFandango says
This one, Remedy is a pretty scorching 2nd track as well
Black Type says
“Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today…”
“Oh, yeah
…In France a man died from a big disease with a little name”
“Still don’t know what I was waiting for…”
*Train wheels gather pace, hooting noises…*
“Super trouper, beams are gonna blind me, shining like the sun…”
Gary says
Nearly all the albums I like a lot have a great opener. Far too many to start naming them. But the one that particularly stands out for me is Speak To Me on Dark Side of the Moon. More a sound collage than a song, it’s effectively an overture, an introduction that previews some of what’s to come (cash registers, Clare Torry etc). I think that’s quite a rare way to begin a rock album (more common in classical music). And I love the way it builds up to a crescendo, from a heartbeat up to a scream, then cuts into the gentle calm of Breathe.
fitterstoke says
This.
Arthur Cowslip says
“Nearly all the albums I like a lot have a great opener. ” – yeah I totally agree. In fact, for me a great opener (and probably a great closer as well!) is a basic requirement for a great album.
Blue Boy says
The Rolling Stones are masters of this. Sympathy for the Devil, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, Rocks Off, Dancing With Mr D, Miss You – all brilliant openers.
Mike_H says
Got a few obvious ones:
Rolling Stones “Let It Bleed”
Patti Smith “Horses”
Weather Report “Heavy Weather”
Love “Forever Changes”
Steely Dan “Can’t Buy A Thrill” and “Countdown To Ecstasy”. Possibly “Katy Lied” too.
Frank Zappa “Hot Rats”
Lee Morgan “The Sidewinder”
The Dukes Of Stratosphear “25 O’Clock”
fitterstoke says
Country Life gets off to a great start – The Thrill Of It All is a storming tune. Great keyboard intro builds the anticipation, you’re not quite sure where they’re placing the one. Then a patented Manzanera mini-solo/fill with quote marks around it. Bass and drums crash in and we’re off!
Mike_H says
Stranded starts well too, with “Street Life”
Black Type says
See also:
Siren (Love Is The Drug)
Manifesto (Manifesto)
Avalon (More Than This)
fitterstoke says
Clearly, Roxy were masters at choosing the perfect opening number, whetting the appetite while setting the scene…
My love for VdGG and prog/jazz/Canterbury notwithstanding – there are some days when I think that Roxy Music might just be my favourite band! Yoiks – said it out loud! I’ll be drummed out of the Prog Corps!
thecheshirecat says
Well maybe they were just a little bit prog. After all, there was that audition for King Crimson. IEDHaH appeared on The Best Prog Rock Album in the World …. Ever, nestled between ELP and ELO.
Mike_H says
Speaking of Caravan, Golf Girl is a pretty good starter for “In The Land Of Grey And Pink”.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Still remember the unalloyed joy when the needle hit the vinyl
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Only surpassed by this
fitterstoke says
Another album appearing on a different thread (Bandstand) and another exceptional opening track:
fentonsteve says
If the lead track of an album is supposed to give you an idea of what is to come, like an overture in the classical milieu, then Shit Creek by The Icicle Works does the job. Bellendery optional.
Freddy Steady says
This is a very good call @fentonsteve
Even McNabb said “Don’t listen to it (the album) all at once.
hubert rawlinson says
“English as tuppence, changing yet changeless as canal water, nestling in green nowhere, armoured and effete, bold flag bearer, opsimath, eremite, feudal, still-reactionary: Rawlinson End.”
Mousey says
@hubert-rawlinson Actually it’s Neil Innes’ piano that starts that track, such a wonderful melange of Satie, Poulenc, Zappa and music hall. Here’s the piano track sans Viv
hubert rawlinson says
Hoist by my own petard. The piano is indeed wonderful, I love the words for the spirit they evoke.
thecheshirecat says
Today, I decided actually to find out what the hell ‘opsimath’ means.
pawsforthought says
In the absence of Moose I’d like to suggest the following –
“Hammersmith Odeon are you ready for the Def Jam tour? Let me hear you make some noise!”
Pajp says
A bit obvious perhaps, but I reckon Start Me Up kicks off Tattoo You in fine style. Some sort of nomanative determinism?
Sewer Robot says
Feeling lazy, so I will just re-post this:
duco01 says
Deep Purple aren’t the sort of band that I normally mention in my posts, but for this thread I feel I should nominate that HUMUNGOUS version of “Highway Star” that kick-starts “Made in Japan”. One could hardly wish for more.
chinstroker says
Iggy had quite a few good ones: Search & Destroy, Kill City, Lust for Life …
Diddley Farquar says
The Doors debut – all guns blazing from the word go. Sensational.
chinstroker says
Oh what about Changeling then, from their finale?
Diddley Farquar says
Not really in the same league but decent.
Bingo Little says
I was enthusing about this one to some mates only a few weeks ago.
It’s an unbeatable effort; how many bands delivered their single best and most complete song, in the eventual house style, as track 1 of their debut album?
There are loads of other opening tracks which are utterly magnificent (Gloria, Nikes, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Gimme Shelter, Debaser, The Man Comes Around, Sure Shot, Highway to Hell, Walk On By, Brutal, Bring The Noise, Search & Destroy, What’s Going On, Cherub Rock, Wanna Be Startin Something, Immigrant Song, Thunder Road, Like A Rolling Stone, etc), but none that function so singularly as an unimprovable day one mission statement for an act.
The only real competition I can think of is Welcome To The Jungle and Straight Outta Compton.
duco01 says
I’d say that Crosby, Stills and Nash set out their stall pretty well with the first track on their debut album, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”.
thecheshirecat says
In full knowledge that some will hate the treatment of the drums …
Gabriel 3: Intruder
fitterstoke says
Excellent choice! Currently my ringtone – those drums cut through any ambient noise when you’re out and about.
Gary says
That was actually the first example I thought of. Then I thought of Refugee (Petty). then I Surrender (Sylvian). Then Tyler (UB40), Faron Young (Prefab Sprout), Loser (Beck), Jokerman (Dylan), Natural Mystic (Marley), Badlands (Springsteen), London Calling (Clash), Fantastic Voyage (Bowie), Over & Over (F Mac), Love Comes To Everyone (Harrison), Fascist Groove Thang (H17), Chuck Es In Love (RLJ), Darklands (JAMC), Astral weeks (Van), Gloria (Smnith), Release The Pressure (Leftfield), Clandestino (Chao), Safe From Harm (M Attack), Protection (M Attack), New York New York (Adams), Late In the Evening (Simon), Burning Down the House (T Heads), Broken English (Faithful), Shine On (Floyd) and a whole host of other examples. A flurry even. A veritable plethora! At which point I decided to pick the most interesting one or I’d be here all day and I chose Speak To Me. (Shine On You Crazy Diamond is also mega).
fitterstoke says
Natural Mystic! Excellent choice!
Diddley Farquar says
Disorder
Station To Station
Airbag
Walking In The Rain
White Light/White Heat
Do The Strand
Like A Rolling Stone
Black Celebration says
A new band emerges – they need a strong opener to their first LP , something that announces from the rooftops who the band is and what they’re about.
No greater example than (Theme from) The Monkees, the opening track from the LP called The Monkees – # “hey hey we’re the Monkees, people say we monkey around – but we’re too busy singin’ to put anybody down …” #.
Quick list of strong openers:
The Queen is Dead – The Smiths
Black Celebration- Depeche Mode
Don’t Go – Yazoo (Upstairs at Eric’s)
Two Divided by Zero – Pet Shop Boys (Please)
Europe Endless – Kraftwerk (Trans Europe Express)
Black Type says
Re: PSB – Being Boring (Behaviour)
Black Celebration says
Yes. A great opener to a great album.
makem.ken says
Wouldn’t It Be Nice kicks off Pet Sounds nicely. And Safe European Home is a cracking way to get Give ‘Em Enough Rope going
Rigid Digit says
re Give Em Enough Rope – follow that with English Civil War and Tommy Gunn giving a very fine threefor. Sticking Stay Free at 4 would perhaps be taking the p*ss.
makem.ken says
I’m sure you’re aware, but Suspect Device is a barnstorming start to Inflammable Material as well
dai says
I think at the time Safe European Home was the most exciting song I had ever heard, but of course they had “no hits”
* 17 UK top 40 hits
Twang says
For all his worthy hippie incense goodness George was one serious breadhead.
dai says
Ha! Yes. And his religious sermons also seemed to allow hard drugs and prodigious infidelity in his personal life.
MC Escher says
Never trust a hippie
Captain Darling says
A few off the top of my head:
Marillion: both the title track of Script, and Assassing from Fugazi – one a track that goes from a very quiet piano and vocal to full band work-out, showing just what they can do, the other a track that goes from a moody, vaguely Middle Eastern intro to hard rock fury.
Iron Maiden: Churchill’s Speech/Aces High (Live After Death) – scream for me, Long Beach, indeed.
Kate Bush: Running Up That Hill (Hounds of Love) – what a tune, what an album…
duco01 says
Weather Report’s “Heavy Weather” gets off to the perfect start with the mighty “Birdland”.
fitterstoke says
Yes! Mercy mercy mercy! Perfect opener.
davebigpicture says
I win!
fitterstoke says
Can’t see it – with what did you win?
davebigpicture says
The Waterboys: Don’t Bang The Drum
fitterstoke says
Thanks. Not sure that you won, tho’…😉
Black Type says
I see your Drum, and raise you a Fisherman’s Blues.
retropath2 says
Live albums can be made or broke by the intro. “We’re gonna give you Pictures at an Exhibition”, followed by the night of the Newcastle City Hall organ fair blew my little mind.
Mousey says
Yep!
myoldman says
Disorder off Unknown Pleasures, the title track of What’s Going On.
Both perfect openers to draw you into their respective albums and take you into totally new sounds that you’d never heard the like of before
pawsforthought says
I was just thinking What’s going on was another obvious choice, and there you go and prove me right. Disorder is also a good choice.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Bri reckons @gary will agree
Gary says
Bri’s very right, bless his little marginalised socks. Fantastic track, amazing album. What a unique drummer! What a unique bass player!
Gary says
Although, if we want to highlight Mr Sylvian’s delicious voice on a strong opening track, this would be my first choice:
jezk says
New Order-Dreams Never End, Age of Consent, Love Vigilantes
drneil says
One of my desert island albums.
retropath2 says
Good call! Clive Gregson has long understood the lure of an early hook. Here’s a much later one he caught me with:
duco01 says
On “Blues and the Abstract Truth”, Oliver Nelson plays his trump card first, with the magnificent “Stolen Moments”.
Arthur Cowslip says
DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing starts with a great little montage called ” Best Foot Forward”, which then cuts suddenly into the delicious piano motif of “Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt”. A magnificent start which really gets you into the mood! (Or puts you off listening any further, if it isn’t your bag, which is just as useful…)
Someone up there mentioned Dark Side of the Moon, and in general I think Pink Floyd at their peak were the masters of plotting out an album. All their 70s albums start and end strongly. I especially like Animals, bookended by that little acoustic ditty Pigs on the Wing.
(A quick theory – I don’t think anyone in Pink Floyd was a particularly prolific songwriter, and they basically HAD to make the best out of a paucity of material. I think this forced them to maybe think more about spacing out their albums and making the most out of the sequencing to maximise the impact. Not a criticism really, if it maybe sounds that way: I think it’s one of those cases where less is more, and the very fact they didn’t have banks of fantastic songs to draw on was a limitation that actually made them stronger and their albums more unified. The polar opposite would be something like The Beatle’s white album, where it turned into a big unwieldy thing (still great) with almost too much great material to fit on it).
Bingo Little says
This one is a massive favourite. Punk Rock: by Mogwai.
Coming off Young Team I was very, very excited by the prospect of Come On Die Young, and looked forward to another album full of tunes that sounded like low key Smashing Pumpkins instrumentals circa Siamese Dream.
What I got instead, was a far more spare, less Rockist album that took a little longer to digest but proved all the more wonderful for it. There is much less of the Quiet/Loud formula, the drums are to the fore and the overall sense of space makes it super tense. And it gets off to an absolute flyer with Punk Rock: – that tragic, circling riff overlaid across Iggy Pop’s glorious monologue. The weird dissonance of the words and music. The joy of looking down the tracklist and spotting that the album closes with an entirely different song entitled Punk Rock/Puff Daddy/Antichrist. Do you understand what I’m saying, sir?
It’s an album opener that really took me aback, a band not doing the thing I thought they would do, and it functions brilliantly as a calling card for that record – particularly as it bleeds perfectly into the following track (CODY). I go back to it over and over again, and in some ways I regard its strangeness, its abiding sense of an impending violence that never arrives, and its clear intent to break with the past while also paying tribute to it as weirdly emblematic of that band’s career as a whole.
pawsforthought says
Great choice (great album)
Freddy Steady says
What on Earth are you (lot) talking about?
How about Don’t Fall by the Chameleons…?
Gary says
What with all the kerfuffle about Barclay James Harvest elsewhere, it’s occurred to me that the opening track of their album Gone To Earth, called Hymn, I like very much indeed. A lot, in fact. It reminds me a bit of Give A Little Bit type Supertramp, sort of.
And the essential difference between this and all my other nominations (is anyone taking notes?) is that I don’t like anything else on the album. Or, indeed, anything else I’ve ever heard by them. (Which isn’t much, admittedly.)
Mike_H says
Pink Floyd started pretty well with Astronomy Domine.
fitterstoke says
Yes, indeed…
Twang says
Got to say it. Aqualung, from the album of the same name.