Listening to Jon Batiste’s latest offering, I found the introduction off-putting. Stop the faffing about and get on with it. Same for Janelle Monáe’s The Age Of Pleasure. Hip Hop albums frequently begin with some kind of tedious skit bigging up the artist. To Pimp A Butterfly is an incredibly inventive masterpiece but first you have to get past the worst track, a piece of outdated Dre-influenced G-Funk featuring George Clinton. Rock generally makes an effort to start with a bang. George Martin called a good opener a potboiler, a song full of energy and excitement to grab the listener’s attention. Almost every Beatles album starts with a potboiler but Two Of Us is hardly one of those. Dylan subverted the notion on Blonde On Blonde. Either that, or Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 really can’t be arsed. Self Portrait starts with dreadful All The Tired Horses but the one I can’t stand any more is Hurricane. When I heard In The Midnight Hour on Roxy Music’s Flesh + Blood, my heart sank. For years, I didn’t listen to an excellent Bruce album because I hated the opener so much; Born In The USA.
You get the picture. Any thoughts? Any better examples?
noisecandy says
Joy Division – Atrocity Exhibition
First track on their album Closer. I’ve tried my hardest to get into this track but to no avail. The rest of the album is superb.
Tiggerlion says
I first heard the song live before the album was released. I enjoyed the rhythm. It was different to most Joy Division. Curtis did an arm circular swivel movement to it. Clearly, it introduces the album, “This is the way, step inside,” while warning of the horrors within. In the studio, it sounds less powerful and the freaky guitar noises are a bit affected. Forty-odd years later, the lyric lacks the poetry in so much of Curtis’s work. The bass is great, though. It does its job and, thankfully, is nothing to do with JG Ballard. However, I see your point.
tkdmart says
This track sprang to mind but for a very specific reason.
Picture the scene. Many years ago I took my then girlfriend to her first ever ‘proper’ gig. She was a singing whiz, and studying opera at the Royal Northern College of Music at the time. She liked classical and not much else.
Pat Metheny was playing Manchester Apollo on his First Circle tour. Perfect! I booked tickets and took her. She knew nothing about him or the group. I bigged them up massively. The musicianship, the tracks… she’d love it. Anyway, the lights went down….. And on they came, marching behind a big bass drum.
Tiggerlion says
That is awful but plenty of opera overtures are far worse. I doubt she ran screaming to the hills.
Gatz says
Woodface was a huge favourite of mine in the 90s. A little perspective showed that although it was front-loaded with the best songs it also starts with the worst, Chocolate Cake.
TrypF says
I was thinking of this one too. The excellent Together Alone would be even better if it started with track 2 (In My Command) rather than the more ambient Kare Kare.
Nick L says
I always rather liked the subtle way Kare Kare drew the listener in and then hit you with the more attention grabbing In My Command.
Ainsley says
No, no, no, Woodface closes with two of my favourite CH tracks. Not front loaded
Black Celebration says
Depeche Mode made an album full of perky, new and interesting songs earlier this year.
Apart from the opening track – My Cosmos is Mine – which is a long, slow, droney murmur of a song. If you were unsure you wanted to dip your toe in, this track would confirm your notions of Depeche Mode and you’d say “thought so” and move on.
Lovely with headphones late at night but skippable at all other times. It opens the live shows too – perhaps it’s a way to calm down the audience and build things up.
Tiggerlion says
I have to confess, I haven’t heard it. 😃
Captain Darling says
Yes, this. It’s a great album, but this is not the song that should have started it. However, I did hear a remix of it (by a woman whose name I have sadly forgotten) that included a lot more drums and really packed a punch. That version would have been a great way to kick off the album.
Gary says
I rate Blue Valentine as Tom Waits’ best album, but I have to skip opener Somewhere. I know a lot of people like it, but to me it sounds out of place.
Unusual perhaps for an album to open with its only cover.
David Sylvian does a version too. I’m not fond of that either.
Tiggerlion says
I can understand why he was attracted to a song of hope for the disaffected and excluded. It made him attempt some high notes unwisely. Tom is best when he abandons all hope altogether and makes do with what he’s got.
Mousey says
I love Jon Batiste but yeah, I just want to hear his music, I don’t care about some cosmic DJ character.
Reminds me of Frank Zappa’s “Joe’s Garage”, which starts off with “The Central Scrutiniser”, who not only takes up 3+ minutes of Side One Track One but recurs throughout the album. Interesting the first time, bloody irritating the rest of the time.
Tiggerlion says
Now you are talking!
Simpering wreck says
REM’s otherwise excellent album Up begins with the frankly unlistenable Airportman. I dare you to try it.
Tiggerlion says
R.E.M. have form for poor openings. It’s more simple to list the great ones: Radio Free Europe, then…erm…
Nick L says
Harborcoat on Reckoning is a great opener too. Always thought it worked really well before 7 Chinese Bros.
fentonsteve says
KRS One’s rap at the start of Radio Song has to be up there, too.
myoldman says
That is pretty horrible. I’ve skipped that every time I played the album since it came out. It’s not just the rap either, it’s got a clunky sound to the music
slotbadger says
Oof yes that is a misstep on an otherwise fine album. Makes me think of Prince William dad dancing and twirling his hands in the air
Rigid Digit says
Blur’s Girls And Boys is a fair enough track (OK, but not brilliant) as a stand alone single, but not as the opener to Parklife.
On first hearing of Frank Turner’s FTHC, with Non Serviam I thought I’d bought an Anthrax album by mistake
Tiggerlion says
Boys And Girls is the only track I like on Parklife. 😉
dai says
Top 5 single so a good way to start an album but agree better follows including, for me, their greatest moment
Black Type says
*In response to Tigger’s REM observation*
Begin The Begin, What’s The Frequency…?, Pop Song ’89, Leaving New York, Discoverer. All pretty darn good, imho.
Tiggerlion says
Are they that great? My favourite song that opens an album of theirs is Drive. I’m not it’s the best opener, though.
MC Escher says
BT does rather seem to think so.
I’m with him apart from the last 2 (which does devalue our argument a bit, I admit)
dai says
They did both. Radio Song, yuk. Drive, yes!
fitterstoke says
I put it to you that REM’s best album opener was Feeling Gravity’s Pull. Although I agree with BT that Begin the Begin was a good opener.
(Waits for the backlash…)
Freddy Steady says
No backlash from me.
Nick L says
Nor me, fabulous song, one of their best.
duco01 says
The Bright Eyes (i.e. Conor Oberst) album “I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning” starts with a track called “At the Bottom of Everything”. It’s not very good. The rest of the album is fine.
MC Escher says
It’s the best track on there IMO, especially after the spoken intro. Music, eh?
Max the Dog says
I think it’s a great opener, not the best track maybe ( Landlocked Blues IMO) but it’s interesting. I usually like an acoustic / ambient / spoken word opening track.
Blue Boy says
I love Hurricane, Two Of Us, and Born in the USA as album openers. I even like All The tired Horses. I’m clearly not very good at this, am I?
dai says
Born in the USA is an absolute barnstormer of an opening track, not many better. Maybe @Tiggerlion misunderstood the lyrics 😉
Hurricane awesome too, agree about the horses one. Love Two of Us but maybe there could have been a better opener. Perhaps they could have opened and closed with Get Back (different versions)
Tiggerlion says
It gives me a headache. And the rest of the album is much more like it.
Hurricane had its moment. Carter was eventually released and the charges dropped but it wasn’t the conspiracy Dylan’s song suggests.
The best thing about Two Of Us is the whistling at the end.
😁
hubert rawlinson says
I’m in agreement with Tigs, I always skipped Hurricane after the first few listens.
Max the Dog says
Not a bad song as such, and opinions will differ but I reckon Perfect Skin to be a fairly weak opener for Rattlesnakes. Having said that, I can’t imagine the album starting in any other way.
dai says
Disagree, starting with the hit is always a decent idea
Max the Dog says
That could be the reason, @dai. I was unfamiliar with Perfect Skin as a single when I bought Rattlesnakes. I’d heard Speedboat and Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken on late night radio and was blown away by them. PS was a little underwhelming when I put the album on for the first time and I think that stuck in my head.
fitterstoke says
I disagree, but not because it was a hit. Strangely enough, it was my favourite song on the album.
SteveT says
I agree re Born in the USA – easily my least favourite Bruce song from an otherwise decent album.
Rigid Digit says
Yup – that one and Dancing In The Dark drop it to near the bottom of the Bruce List. Don’t think I listened to the album all through (bar the singles) until the early 90s
Diddley Farquar says
Everybody had that album. It was the first one that engaged me fully, having been unmoved by Darkness On The Edge Of Town, after getting it when the NME voted it best of 1978. BitUSA was full of bangers. Cover Me and I’m On Fire are two of the best. I expect Bruce fans were a bit snotty about everyone jumping on the bandwagon. After that fling I lost interest again despite trying to get into The River and BTR. Someone played The Seeger Sessions and I thought it was great.
Rigid Digit says
Born In The USA was my first encounter with Bruce. It was a couple of years later that the Live 75 to 85 album got my hooked. Born To Run and Tunnel Of Love were the first purchases. Born In The USA is really only on the shelf for completeness purposes
Tiggerlion says
Do you have a complete set of Bruce albums, then?
Rigid Digit says
I think so – the 20 studio albums plus Live 75 – 85 and the 1979 No Nukes set.
(there’s that collector gene in me that just wants full catalogues even if I only listen to them once or twice)
Tiggerlion says
Oof!
dai says
It’s a brilliant pop album. I think I played it more than any other album. Don’t think it’s his best but love it nevertheless
fitterstoke says
Just to be absolutely clear: my comment was about Perfect Skin, nothing to do with Bruce…
Tiggerlion says
That’s fine but what do you think of Bruce?
Diddley Farquar says
He doesn’t think much of his skin?
fitterstoke says
Well, Tiggs, I don’t generally contribute to Bruce threads, adhering to the old maxim – if you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all.
Tiggerlion says
I see. You hate Born In The USA too.
Diddley Farquar says
He can’t say anything good about Bruce at all. That’s the implication. It’s allways more interesting to hear the sordid details of course.
fitterstoke says
Well…I’ve been used to my favourite bands getting a thorough and regular kicking on here. At some point, I decided to take the higher road…😇
Tiggerlion says
😉, Dudley.
chinstroker says
Metal Machine Music?
Tiggerlion says
Great choice! Trouble is all the tracks are equally dreadful.
Bamber says
My immediate response to the title of this thread was a quick search to see if I was right about the opening track to my favourite Lloyd Cole album Don’t Get Weird on me Babe. It was the absolutely appalling Butterfly, a song so bad that I lived with a tape of this album for years that omitted it entirely. I love every other track. If it was possible to delete it from the CD I would. Of course the US version of this album leads with the rock “side”, so they had Butterfly ruin the midsection of this otherwise flawless collection.
I certainly don’t agree with @Max_the_Dog above re. Perfect Skin. It’s a cracker that starts the album with a bit of energy and serves as a manifesto for the literary notions and cool name-drops to come.
fitterstoke says
Yes, indeed – can’t understand why Max doesn’t rate Perfect Skin, to me it’s the quintessential LCATC song…
Captain Darling says
The Wall is of course the greatest album of all time (it *IS*, so there), but I’ve never rated In The Flesh? as an opener. I know it starts the, erm, plot of the album, and it has a lot of sturm und drang, but tune-wise it’s no Comfortably Numb, is it?
Tiggerlion says
I’ll take your word for it. Never heard The Wall.
fitterstoke says
Well done, Tiggs – you’re not missing much. Certainly the worst of the Pink Floyd albums, only kept afloat by one or two good tunes. If ever an album was constructed to sell to adolescent boys in the late 70s US…
…I exaggerate to make a point – but only a little.
Gary says
Worser than Ummagumma, Division Bell and Piper? I think not and beg to differ!
The Wall is a “rock opera”, which is obviously a truly awful thing to be by any standards, but at least it makes sense and is about its writer, which makes it better than any other rock opera, most especially Tommy, plus it’s got Nobody Home on it.
There, I hope that’s changed your mind.
fitterstoke says
Hi Gary, I thought that might lure you out! 🙂
Piper – effectively a different band (and with a brilliant opening track, funnily enough).
Division Bell – I’ll give you that one.
Ummagumma – remains one of my favourites, maybe that says more about me than about the Venerable Floyd…
Tiggerlion says
I like Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. All of it. I think I heard Ummagumma once in someone else’s house aged thirteen. Never again. Division Bell? Nah.
I like Obscured By Clouds, Seamus-less Meddle and Live At Pompeii. To my surprise I also enjoyed Endless River.
I’m not a fan, am I?
Gary says
I am a fan, as you know, and I don’t like Ummagumma (or Piper or Division Bell) but it does have Grantchester Meadows on it. Grantchester Meadows is a lovely song. It calls to mind Grantchester Meadows, which is a lovely place.
See how much loveliness you’re missing out on?
Along with A Pillow of Winds it’s the best representation of Floyd’s “pastoral” side. And, as so often with Floyd, I really like the lyrics. Waters has a natural tendency to use alliteration, assonance and internal rhyme a lot in his lyrics and GM is a good example of this.
Hear the lark and harken to the barking of the dog fox gone to ground
See the splashing of the kingfisher flashing to the water
And a river of green is sliding unseen beneath the trees
Laughing as it passes through the endless summer, making for the sea
fitterstoke says
You’re a Romantic with a capital R, Gary – that’s why I can’t understand your love for The Wall. American RAWK bombast for ver kids, with one or two nice tunes to sweeten the bitter pill…
Also – Narrow Way pt 3 could be the missing Floyd Classic of that era. If Ummagumma had been a triple (ie a double live plus the studio disc), I’d want a live Narrow Way pt3, a live Embryo, a live Interstellar Overdrive and a live Granchester.
Gary says
I actually have a strange relationship with The Wall. I like it and I don’t. I think “Bombastic American RAWK” is a fair assessment. As is “one or two nice tunes”. Though I’d say four: Nobody Home, Hey You, Goodbye Blue Sky and the instrumental one – all more “pastoral” than “bombastic”. I think some of the rock tracks are also great outside the context of the album (Comfortably Numb rightly being the most lauded, Another Brick rightly being a hit, Mother being an excellent song). I like rock and romance!
But most of all I like its ambition. Its scale and depth. Lyrically, I mean. I like that Waters explores his own psyche, what makes him tick, so intensely.
From its inception it was conceived as an album, a show and a film. I think it worked very well as a film, with no need for dialogue, and there aren’t many rock albums you can say that of. And I think the reason it was adaptable to the screen is because it has a good story that makes sense.
I also like that I can strum nearly all of it on the guitar. Not many albums that I can say that of neither. I strum it a lot more often than I listen to it.
fitterstoke says
Tiggs – of course you’re a fan! You just prefer psychedelic whimsy and pastoral bliss to bombast and big gesture rhetoric! And who can blame you?
Tiggerlion says
Thank you. I’ll take that.
garyt says
All of the Prefab Sprout albums, up to Andromeda Heights, start with an upbeat song which is generally the weakest on the record: Don’t Sing; Faron Young; The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll; The World Awake; Waiting for Atlantis.
Gary says
Faron Young is spiffing! I suspect your ears be deranged, sir.
Edit: Actually, having given the matter some thought for quite a few seconds now, you might be right in saying it’s the weakest track on the album, but that’s only because every track is so spiffing.
Tiggerlion says
Jimi isn’t exempt. EXP is ill-advised at best and …And The Gods Made Love has its detractors.
pawsforthought says
Foxy lady and Freedom make it 2-2, though.
Hawkfall says
I like Love’s in Need of Love today, but it’s an odd choice to kick off the album. In fact most of side 1 is fairly low key. They should have started with I Wish and then moved Sir Duke to track 1 side two. But then they never asked me, did they?
ianu05 says
Man I love Love’s in Need of Love Today, took a few years mind
Tiggerlion says
Especially when you consider the previous three albums began with Smile Please, Too High and You Are The Sunshine Of My Life, respectively.
duco01 says
Paul Simon’s “Hearts and Bones” is a great album, but it starts with its weakest track, “Allergies”.
I’m not saying that “Allergies” is rubbish. It isn’t. I just don’t think it’s as good as the other tracks.
Tiggerlion says
It took me a very long time to appreciate Hearts And Bones and I blame Allergies.
*Itchy emoji*
Bingo Little says
Fortunately, it has one of the best track 2s of all time. So good.
Thegp says
I suppose a lot of people on here will not care for any of this album, but Morning Glory by Oasis kicks off with the Gary Glitter cover..
Tiggerlion says
Indeed it does. I didn’t realise that Gary Glitter got a royalty for every copy sold. I feel soiled.
Thegp says
Although they didn’t know he was a nonce at the time, was always surprised they never reissued it later with this song taken off. Or re-recorded
Tiggerlion says
Apparently, he made a cool million from royalties and 200k from suing Oasis for breach of copyright.
😵
I think you win the thread, gp.
deramdaze says
Tricky business all round but I suspect I’d be more likely to listen to a Gary Glitter song than Oasis.
0.01% v. 0.00001%.
Woah! I’ve just thought. Liam Gallagher would think the latter is the bigger.
Tiggerlion says
Funnily enough, cross pollinating threads, Russell Brand served as best man at Noel Gallagher’s wedding to Sara MacDonald in 2011.