Favorite Opening Tracks on an Album
Submitted by dcstar on Tue, 12/03/2002 - 02:42
Tags:
- Thunder Road/ Born to Run-Bruce Springsteen
- Tangled Up in Blue/ Blood on the Tracks- Bob Dylan
- Five Years/ Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars- David Bowie
- Tears of Rage/ Music From Big Pink- The Band
- Born Under Punches (Heat Goes On)/ Remain in Light- Talking Heads
- The Queen is Dead/ The Queen is Dead- The Smiths
- Baba O'Reily/ Who's Next- The Who
- Astral Weeks/ Astral Weeks- Van Morrison
- Funeral For A Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)/ Goodbye Yellow Brick Road- Elton John
- Race For the Prize/ The Soft Bulletin- The Flaming Lips
- Teenage Riot/ Daydream Nation- Sonic Youth
- Back in the USSR/ The Beatles- The Beatles
- L'Femme d'Argent/ Moon Safari- Air
- I Will Dare/ Let It Be-The Replacements
- Boy in the Bubble/ Graceland- Paul Simon
- Taxman/ Revolver- The Beatles
- Sunday Morning/ VU & Nico- Velvet Underground
- Summer Babe/ Slanted and Enchanted- Pavement
- Venus/ Talkie Walkie- Air
- London Calling/ London Calling- The Clash
- Blitzkreig Bop/ Ramones- Ramones
- Imagine/ Imagine- John Lennon
- Cretin Hop/ Rocket to Russia- Ramones
- Vicious/ Transformer- Lou Reed
- Statesboro Blues/ Live at Fillmore East- Allman Brothers Band
- Smells Like Teen Spirit/ Nevermind- Nirvana
- Brown Sugar/ Sticky Fingers- Rolling Stones
- Subterranean Homesick Blues/ Bringing It All Back Home- Bob Dylan
- Accidents Will Happen/ Armed Forces- Elvis Costello and The Attractions
- Misunderstood/ Being There- Wilco
- Drive/ Automatic for the People- R.E.M.
- Rocks Off/ Exile on Main Street- Rolling Stones
- Everything In It's Right Place/ Kid A- Radiohead
- Caring Is Creepy/ Oh, Inverted World- The Shins
- My Name Is Jonas/ Weezer- Weezer
Author Comments:
Song/ Album- Artist
Great list! Terrific songs!
Of course, I may be a bit biased, since Tangled is my favorite song...
A treat.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Man nice list Dave, like a lot of these, couple that are not on here that I like are, Paint it Black/Aftermath-Stones, and Bloody Sunday/War-U2
How about, uh... well, what about... hmm... well, I usually try to make a suggestion for lists like these, but damn, you've pretty much nailed most of my favorites!
Ah. I got one. How about a Beatles track? Back in the USSR, perhaps? I love that song.
Ooh. And how about Drive from REM's Automatic for the People? That's a good one.
But really, great list here!
Oh yeah, I can't believe there's no Beatles song here. I could actually include most of their openers, but "USSR" is probably their best opener along with "Taxman".
I second that emotion, excellent idea and list. I'd like to mention "Where the Streets Have No Name" off The Joshua Tree by U2. Maybe it's just because I got the album the day it came out and sat on the floor between a friend's very large and expensive speakers to receive my first listen, but I thrill to the way the album opens up. It takes thirty seconds for the ethereal murmurs to resolve into Brian Eno's introductory organ chords, The Edge's guitar starts to ring out at the forty-five second mark and a full seventy seconds into the song Adam Clayton's bass sets it off. Bono is held off until the counter hits 1:45 by which time he has whipped himself into quite a lather. What a great way to lead off their most aspirational album.
But what I really wanted to say was....
One-Two-Three-Foh! The Beatles always led off their albums brilliantly. As the obsessive Allan W. Pollack states: "For the first six albums, it might be on a downbeat or it might be coming off an anacrustic pickup, but in all cases, the scratchy silence of the run-in groove is broken with a clear-cut, sometimes startling sound."[1]
Well, she was just seventeen The movie albums spring to mind for great openers. That awesome guitar chord in "A Hard Day's Night" and the cry for "Help!" The count-off to "I Saw Her Standing There" on their first ever album, Please Please Me , was a brilliant way to kick off a career way beyond compare. The pickup to "It Won't Be Long" on With the Beatles is also tremendously exciting. Say what you will about the Beatles talent, importance, impact, whatever... they always started off their albums at the top of their game.
You know what I mean The mid-career experimental albums (mostly) had background noise out of which a typical Beatles musical opening would emerge. The classic example would be the orchestra/crowd noise that precedes "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". The White Album even has two openers. The kick-the-Beach-Boys-while-they're-down "Back in the U.S.S.R." which emerges out of the noise of a jet engine and the first song on the second record, "Birthday", which has a drums pickup.
And the way she looked was way beyond compare In their final two albums Ringo delivers a vocal pickup to the title cut of Yellow Submarine while "Come Together" starts brilliantly on the downbeat at the outset of Abbey Road . No group has paid closer attention to how their albums are experienced than the Beatles. They were masters of the great first impression. That tends to get lost in the glories that follow.
So how could I dance with another?
Absolutely Awesome Analysis!!!!!