Favorite opening lines

redbird · #1 06-21-2013, 08:36 PM

Sorry (as usual) if this sort of thread has been done to death before, but I thought I'd make a time-passer for your favorite opening lines of Mac songs. Songs from all eras are welcome though I don't have the time right now to mentally rifle through all seventeen albums

Anyway here's mine from the Rumours line-up

"Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night and wouldn't you love to love her?" - Rhiannon

"Have mercy, baby, on a poor girl like me" - Say You Love Me

"I took my love and I took it down" - Landslide

"Now here you go again, you say you want your freedom" - Dreams

"She broke down and let me in" - Never Going Back Again

"Loving you isn't the right thing to do" (and "How can I change things that I feel?") - Go Your Own Way

"Listen to the wind blow, watch the sunrise" - The Chain

"Sweet, wonderful you" - You Make Loving Fun

"Rock on, gold dust woman" - GDW

"Wait a minute baby, stay with me a while" - Sara

"What makes you think you're the one who can laugh without crying?" - WMYTYTO

"Sometimes the most beautiful things ... the most innocent things ..." - Angel

"You look at me with those brown eyes, what are you going to do?" Brown Eyes

"Why don't you ask him if he's going to stay, why don't you ask him if he's going away?" - Tusk

"Can't help it 'bout the shape I'm in" - Oh Well (I know, but they did perform it)

"Standing in the shadows of the man I used to be" - Can't Go Back

"Meet me down by the railway station" - That's Alright

"I'm out of my mind and it's only over you" - Only Over You (I'm not big on the whole song but that's a cool line)

"Looking out for love in the night so still" - Big Love

"Go on, save yourself" - Smile At You

"Well once again she steals away" - Bleed to Love Her

I feel like these lines are either really iconic or get to the point really quickly, or are just interesting ways to start a song. Like the opener of "Sara" places you immediately in the middle of a scene and introduces the element of fascination. Or, you know, some just sound really cool to me. If I didn't know the songs and was only reading the lyric sheet they'd make me want to know more.

michelej1 · #2 06-21-2013, 08:47 PM

I know you're doing FM, but I love:

I'm tired. I'm thirsty. I'm wild eyed, in my misery. SN

Fire still burning, in awhile she'll make it rain. LB

Long and slender, altar in the sky. LB

My love sits like a curse, voodoo from the past. CM (well Dan, really)

I'm falling down inside myself, like a thousand times before. Dan again

Michele

redbird · #3 06-21-2013, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michelej1

I know you're doing FM, but I love:

I'm tired. I'm thirsty. I'm wild eyed, in my misery. SN

I love that one too. And anything vaguely FM related works for me, more to talk about.

GypsySorcerer · #4 06-21-2013, 09:05 PM

After the music ended, there was nowhere to go but down.

Temptation falls in your path.

Could you ever need me?

I hear your heart as you pass through.

If it's me that's driving you to this madness.

MacShadowsBall · #5 06-21-2013, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redbird

"Have mercy, baby, on a poor girl like me" - Say You Love Me

"Now here you go again, you say you want your freedom" - Dreams

"Loving you isn't the right thing to do" (and "How can I change things that I feel?") - Go Your Own Way

"Listen to the wind blow, watch the sunrise" - The Chain

"Sweet, wonderful you" - You Make Loving Fun

Some of my fav's right there.

michelej1 · #6 06-21-2013, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GypsySorcerer

I hear your heart as you pass through.

If it's me that's driving you to this madness.

These are great ones. I'm using FM lyrics in something I'm writing and I didn't think of Under the Skin, but now I will add it to the list.

Michele

johnnystorms · #7 06-21-2013, 11:03 PM

Step into the velvet of the morning

Every night that goes between, I feel a little less

If I could turn the page in time then i'd rearrange just a day or two

redbird · #8 06-22-2013, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnystorms

Step into the velvet of the morning

That reminds me, what does Stevie say in the opening line of her original version of "The Chain"? "Slipped into the ____ of my emptiness" -- is it also "velvet"? I thought I heard an "s" in there somewhere but I can't think of what the word could be. Maybe "dances"? (Pending that, I think "Stepped into the canyons of my loneliness" is a better line, that's a keeper.)

"Velvet of the morning" is a great one too, I've felt those kinds of mornings before.

Dex · #9 06-22-2013, 10:46 AM

I need to reiterate the love for "Wait a minute baby, stay with me a while". That's one of the few that I really get excited about on its own. I hear that line and think "OK guys, this is going to be awesome".

The only other one I can think of is probably "Woman of a thousand years, how are your sons of a time ago?" and maybe "When the white flame in us is gone, and we that lost the world's delight stiffen in darkness", although I know that Dust wasn't actually written by a FM member.

Maybe it's more to do with the fact those three songs are fantastic mood pieces, and the music that wraps around the words just hits me with more immediacy in that sort of song than in other FM songs, most of which are equally strong lyrically.

redbird · #10 06-22-2013, 12:35 PM

Sometimes I wonder what a band with Danny Kirwan and Stevie Nicks together would've been like, lots of hippie mysticism and lyrics nabbed from long dead poets. I also like "The magic of a blackened night, can go so far but not seem right" which I think is my favorite DK song.

Dex · #11 06-22-2013, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redbird

Sometimes I wonder what a band with Danny Kirwan and Stevie Nicks together would've been like, lots of hippie mysticism and lyrics nabbed from long dead poets. I also like "The magic of a blackened night, can go so far but not seem right" which I think is my favorite DK song.

Yes! This thread made me realize that the songs of those two hit me in a very similar way. It's not a comparison I'd ever picked up on before. But I agree completely. DK is just brilliant. Did they ever meet?