Showing posts with label Opening Lines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opening Lines. Show all posts

Monday, 21 February 2022

My Top Ten Opening Lines Volume 3


I manage one of these Top Tens about every three years (although this one is slightly late). I collect them as I go along and when I've got enough for a Top Ten, I unleash them on the world.

Volume 1 (2015)

Volume 2 (2018)

In previous volumes, folks have entertained themselves by seeing how many they can get from the lines alone before clicking on the links to see if they're right. That might be a little harder this time...


Pretty big clue above. I wonder if he looks back on the irony of writing that line when he was so young...


Clearly that relationship is doomed.


He certainly helped me make my way through it.


He always was a wrong 'un.


Ditto the above.


Bit obscure that one, but still a great opening line.


Don't do it!


Ditto the above.


If I were ever to phone my brother up, I reckon I'd end up breaking crockery afterwards too.


Thursday, 1 March 2018

Ten Great Opening Lines (Volume 2)


I do love a great opening line, yet it's been almost three years since I did Volume 1 of this particular Top Ten. So here's ten more cracking openers... see if you can identify them from the lyric alone. Click the link to see if you're right. (Except number one: you can have that for free.)


10. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot...

I play this to students as a good example of alliteration in pop songs. Often, the device doesn't work, but it stands out here. Their response?

"What's she singing?"

"Why's she got such a squeaky voice?"

Pff. Kids.

9. Couple in the next room bound to win a prize
They've been going at it all night long

That opening couplet always makes me smile. One day I will do a Top Ten Songs About Hotel Rooms With Very Thin Walls...

8. Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news!

So much joy! And who says "bless my cotton socks" these days? You certainly wouldn't expect it from this bloke... or maybe you would.

7. Do you have the time to listen to me whine
About nothing and everything all at once?

Could very well be the strapline for this blog.

6. Libraries gave us power!

They did, didn't they? They weren't as good for socialising as the internet, but they stopped us from being so easily distracted.

And now they're closing them all down and the CD sections are long gone.

5. I guess I shoulda know
By the way she parked her car sideways
That it wouldn't last

"Women drivers, eh?"

I hope that comment can be taken as me being ironic, not sexist. I certainly don't think the writer of this song was sexist. Quite the opposite. I think his point was more: sometimes it's the little things that drive us apart.

4. I backed my car into a cop car the other day
Well, he just drove off - sometimes life's okay

"Men drivers, eh?"

(I can be as sexist as I want about men and not worry about it.)

3. Have you lost your love of life?
Too much apple pie!

Look, far be it from me to try and sway the voting on JC's ICA World Cup this week, but really... that's so clearly a better opening line than "This and that, they must be the same". (Although I'm guessing C will disagree.)

2. I was born in the wagon of a travelling show...

Weren't we all, love?

Most of us reach an age when we stop dressing like it though...

Mind you, I could do with a couple'a bottles of Doctor Good right now.

1. I hate the arsehole I become every time I'm with you

It's nowhere near the best song on the album, but it's the best opening line he ever wrote. I'm not keeping this one hidden...




Your suggestions for great opening lines will be gratefully received... and put into consideration for Volume 3.



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