Iconic Opening Lines Iconic Opening Lines / 17
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16 / ICONIC OPENING LINES ICONIC OPENING LINES / 17 Setting the Scene Tom Traubert’s The Sound of Silence Blues (Four Sheets Simon & Garfunkel Iconic Opening Lines to the Wind “Hello darkness, my old friend / I’ve in Copenhagen) come to talk with you again.” At the Tom Waits age of 21, Paul Simon’s chosen spot for Speaking of tear-jerking, even just the songwriting was his bathroom, its opening strings of this 1976 classic are tiled floor providing the perfect echo Into My Arms enough to unstiffen the most rigid of chamber for his guitar and voice. To Nick Cave upper lips. A ravaged-sounding Waits help his concentration, he used to turn Sitting down to write a hopelessly then weighs in: “Wasted and wounded, off the light and sing to – you’ve romantic love song, it was perhaps not it ain’t what the moon did / Got what I guessed it – the darkness. What the most obvious choice to go for the paid for now.” The song tells the sad follows from this iconic line is an opening line “I don’t believe in an tale of Tom Traubert, a heavy- equally classic folk hit, described by interventionist God”. Akin to kicking drinking drifter who finds himself in a Art Garfunkel as “the inability of off an email to your boss with a cold and foreign land from which he people to communicate with each pondering on why men have nipples, will probably never find his way back other … so what you see around you the connection is not immediately home. The chorus of the song are people unable to love each other.” clear. And yet, Nick manages to pull it incorporates the Australian folk song In pop culture, the term “Hello together. In Into My Arms (1997), Nick Waltzing Matilda. Waits says that this darkness, my old friend” is often used tells his lover that if such a God were song reminded him of an Australian as a means of ironically greeting a to exist, he would ask him/her/it “not soldier “far away from home and familiar surge of depression. The to intervene when it came to you”. drunk on the corner with no money, perfect line for the next time you What follows is a near-holy song, lost”. While the opening line hints that dribble some ketchup down your where the singer’s religion is the Tom’s tragedy might be all of his own newly-washed shirt. simple adoration that he feels for his making, it’s impossible not to feel lover. A track that manages to leap heartbroken for the lonely Aussie Common People from intellectual furrowed-brow to pining for a homeland that he may Pulp teary-eyed abandonment. Good save, never see again. In Pulp’s playful takedown of upper- Nick. class pretensions, singer Jarvis Cocker begins by setting the scene: “She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge / She studied sculpture at Saint Martin’s College / That’s where I / Caught her eye.” The song goes on to marvel at the world of this spoilt little rich girl, who wants nothing 18 / ICONIC OPENING LINES ICONIC OPENING LINES / 19 more than to experience the daily Bohemian patriarchy while the airwaves were deceit. Leonard’s letter describes the shitshow of life for folks without a Rhapsody filled with a catchy ballad telling them affair between his girlfriend and his hefty trust fund (granted, the song Queen to stand by their men. Throughout her friend, the subsequent fallout, the phrases this in a more poetic way). It could be argued that Queen’s 1975 life, Tammy always defended the song singer’s attempt at forgiveness. There Why would she want that, you ask? masterpiece has two opening lines. as simple a message of acceptance. If is much debate about whether Famous Because she fancies Jarvis and also The song’s intro ponders “Is this the we’re looking to evaluate the singer’s Blue Raincoat (1971) is truly addressed happens to think that “poor is cool”, real life? Is this just fantasy?” Post feminist credentials, though, perhaps to a former friend or if it relies on the especially when you hold an opt-out intro, the song begins in earnest with we should consider how she lived. old self-as-other metaphor, with card. Originally released in 1995, the monumental “Mama, just killed a Four times divorced, Tammy was no Leonard singing to his past self. the song attracted some unexpected man / Put a gun against his head, Stepford Wife. She married her first Almost as iconic as the opening is the press during the 2015 Greek financial pulled my trigger, now he’s dead.” And husband, Euple, while still in high song’s closing line, lest the listener crisis. Rumours abounded that thus begins the operatic, comedic school and they soon had three kids. forget that they have been listening to the girl in the song was Danae Stratou, rollercoaster which would become one Euple was not the most supportive, a letter set to music: “Sincerely, wife of Yanis Varoufakis, the former of the most famous songs of all time. and eventually Tammy decided to L. Cohen”. finance minister of Greece. Entire documentaries have been made leave him and go earn some money by about lyrical interpretations. Most singing. As she drove away, he told her, commentators agree that the song is “Dream on, baby!” Years later, Euple about a man who confesses to a showed up at one of Tammy’s IS THIS murder, and his subsequent trial. Is it concerts and queued for an autograph. THE REAL all a metaphor for Freddie’s sexuality? And he got one, of sorts: Tammy Is much of the song nonsense? Oh, signed, “Dream on, baby.” LIFE? who cares? As a true classic, Bo Rap is what you make it. Famous Blue IS THIS Raincoat JUST Stand by Your Man Leonard Cohen Tammy Wynette How many songs owe their FANTASY? “Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman inspiration to a restless mind at the – QUEEN …” The classic opening line of witching hour? “It’s four in the Tammy’s 1968 country hit was hard to morning, the end of December / I’m argue with. It’s the rest of the song writing you now just to see if you’re that caused the controversy. What better.” We find Leonard penning a makes womanhood so tough? “… letter to the friend who betrayed him. giving all your love to just one man …” Get ready to munch some popcorn With the rising tide of Women’s Lib of while involuntarily exclaiming the late 60s, feminists saw red. Here things like “He didn’t!”, because they were trying to dismantle the this is a tale of telenovela-level 44 / SONGS TO CRY ALONG WITH WHILE DRUNK AND LONELY SONGS TO CRY ALONG WITH WHILE DRUNK AND LONELY / 45 Gin ’n’ Tears moment of the song is towards the A Case of You end, when the singer realises: “Joe, Joni Mitchell Songs to Cry Along I know you’re getting anxious to close Who even needs alcohol for a quick / Thanks for the cheer / I hope you buzz? Especially if, like Joni, you get didn’t mind / My bending your ear”. all the inebriation you need from a with While Drunk Poor Frank: a man deserted, his only certain special someone. Well, Joni, companions the booze and the bar. time for an AA meeting. In A Case of and Lonely You (1971), that special someone is no longer around and the singer is finding takes hold on our song’s narrator, it hard to kick the habit. She looks passions build and daydreaming turns back on what they had and sees that, to lament (“Where’s my love?”). It all like a bottle of booze, her lover should Lilac Wine tails off to a tearful end, the singer have been issued with a warning label, Nina Simone waiting for a love that we suspect but damn did it all taste good: “Oh, What to do when the love of your life will never arrive. you are in my blood like holy wine / is no longer around? Get sozzled, You taste so bitter and so sweet / Oh, obviously. (Disclaimer: the suggestion One for My Baby I could drink a case of you, darling / to drink excessively does not (And One More And I would still be on my feet.” Set to necessarily reflect the views of all for the Road) heart-rending guitar chords, it seems medical practitioners, just the fun Frank Sinatra like this is one addiction that’s still got ones.) While younger readers may be OK, now it’s Frank’s turn to discover the singer truly in its grip. Perhaps the more familiar with the Jeff Buckley that Whiskey ’n’ Woe is not the Betty Ford Clinic does a special on version of Lilac Wine, he himself sweetest cocktail. In his 1947 cover of toxic exes. described Nina’s 1966 rendition as the One for My Baby … (it was initially only one that matters. Her wavering popularised by Fred Astaire), we find voice really hits home, telling the tale Frank in a bar in the wee hours, of a woman who drinks sweet wine to pouring his heart out to barman Joe. allow herself just a flash of a joy she Frank drowns his sorrows as he recalls once knew: “When I think more than I the memory of his ex-lady. Has Fat want to think / Do things I never Tony sent her to sleep with the fishes? should do / I drink much more that I Intriguing a story as that would make, ought to drink / Because it brings me we can assume this was a more back you.” Interestingly, lilac wine mundane type of break-up.