Best first line of an album?

the stooges,

the stooges,"search and destroy"

Maybe not as impressive in print as the Arab Strap one -- I mean, he says COCK for Christ's sake, how cool is that? jk -- but you gotta love Elvis' delivery here.

- Beastie Boys

Because not only did this record kick ass in terms of stretching the Beastie's own style of hip hop (in a time when it wasn't all that it is today) they sampled Cheap Trick live at Budokan! Now THAT is an album!

--Sigur Ros, Svefn-g-englar (not too into the lyrics these days!)

From NWA's "Straight Outta Compton"!!!!!

The album's dated not too well these days, but wot an opening declaration!!!!!!

BTW why concentrate on albums alone?!? There's been some brillibobs singles with memorable opening linbes as well... (What a shame I can't remember any at the mo!!!!!)

Old Fart!!!!!!!

Love - 'Forever Changes'

Horses - Patti Smith

Belligerent ghouls run Manchester schools / Spineless bastards all

Farewell to this land's cheerless marshes / Hemmed in like a boar between arches / Her very Lowness with a head in a sling / I'm truly sorry but it sounds like a wonderful thing

I am the ghost of a troubled joe hung by his pretty white neck / Some eighteen months ago I travelled to a mystical time zone / And I missed my bed and I soon came home

Sorry to go on; but thinking about those four opening salvos has just made me want to go home and listen to the Smiths' albums being played one after the other, really loud.

"I wrote a poem on a dog biscuit / And your dog refused to look at it" ('This Is Our Music' - Galaxie 500

"I was surprised / I was happy for a day in 1975" ('Tigermilk' - Belle & Sebastian)

OK, it might sound *so* annoyingly Belle & Sebastian to you, but in 1996 (well, 1997 for me) this breathy, unaccompanied opening line seemed the perfect introduction to a new, joyful, refreshing chapter in pop music. In its own way, as bold a statement of intent as there has ever been.

Yeah, I know. It is indeed FatBobSmith & Co's "Pornography". I apologize.

Silver Jews, "Random Rules" from _American Water_. That's a pretty good one.

The Smiths lines, yes.

"Now, turn on, tune in, freak out, this is a game" - Meat Beat Manifesto, _99%_

"Easily I approach the microphone because I ain't no joke." - Eazy-E, _Eazy Duz It_ (although, in all fairness, it's all about the SECOND line)

"I don't wanna be hostile..." - Tool, _Undertow_

more-in-character answer: second "reel around the fountain"

I LEFT THE NORTH

(BTW the answer to my earlier teaser: the album is XTC's "Skylarking", the song is "Summer's Cauldron", and the first line is "Drowning here in summer's cauldron").

Oh and Jake, strictly speaking the first line is "London, England, consider yourself WARNED!". Which is how I feel most times I'm there :).

Also 'Don't fall in love with me' is quite a nice start to an album about love.

2. Cookie (1): great call on Elvis. Who could leave that one out?

3. Cookie (3): 'yet'. Don't forget 'yet'.

great line great album

"I dreamed I was an Eskimo ..." -- take a guess :-)

"All those whose mind entitles themselves,
and whose main entitle is themselves,
shall feel the wrath of my bombast!"

"It's approaching
600 pounds gas and flesh
Robes in tatters
It's approaching"

"Is there anybody there?
Yeah!"

"Well you tried it just for once, found it all right for kicks/but now you found out that it's a habit that sticks/and you're an orgasm addict!"

Off the top of my head, I'd highly rate "I'm not afraid to say I'm scared" from Sonic Youth's "The Burning Spear" from their debut EP.

The screen door slams/Mary's dress waves
Bruce Springsteen, Born To Run

and a new one

Everything's so easy for Pauline
Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

"I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me"

"there's mothin' more sinister as ministers in dresses" (not couting the opening "bullshit!" ramble

The Wrens: Meadowlands

First line on EC's Armed Forces

Also: "Take the sun from my eyes, let me learn to despise."

"I got my second wind, pimp!"

They Might Be Giants, Lincoln.

"Teen-aged angst has paid off/Now I'm bored and old."

"My my, hey hey/Rock n roll is here to stay."

"Once upon a time/You looked so fine ..."

"It was twenty years ago today ..."

"Back in the day when I was a teen-ager ..."

Lucinda's "Car Wheels ..." album also begins with a beauty: "Not a day goes by/When I don't think about you/You left a mark on me/A permanent ... tattoo."

"Oh, I just don't know where to begin"

--Elvis Costello - "Accidents Will Happen," Armed Forces

FIRE!!! ...."
(Arthur Brown i think)

Once upon a time there was a man called Saul who persecuted Christians
He shows up at the party in a pair of dark glasses his grandfather wore in the war
God is a tender pervert and the angels are voyeurs
Trust me, I'm a doctor
Nobody is evil, nobody is good
I come from the jungle, from Popacatapetl
Take a voyage through the heart of darkness, to the sound of violins
The villains of vaudeville, young lovers' quarrels
If I told the truth I'd like to live my life again
I was born on a dashboard, toothbrush for a head
When you caress your little cat and stroke me with your hand
Ping pong the album, comedy cabaret
I went with a friend of mine I hadn't seen in years to a party
Mad music, sad music, totally bad and crazy music
Appalachian mountain girl, coming home to me
We are the pirates, we sail in silence
The man from the north enters the tube
Moop bears in the thunder, moop bears on the idiot sea

or one of my favorites

i am a patient boy
i wait i wait i wait
my time is water down a drain
- fugazi, 13 songs

'Got me a movie/I want you to know/Slicing up eyeballs...'

"Just bill me for the total cost."

I have no clue what that means, but I know it rules.

erm

"We're the Beta Band and we're nice and clean"

erm

"We blew the doors, didn't we, pissed in their champagne and did a real thing, didn't we, gave ourselves a name and peeled away the shame, I wanted to explode, to pull my ribs apart, and let the sun inside"

erm

"Rat's foot, iron claw, neurosurgeons SCREEEEEAM for more"

erm

"Good evening. This is your captain. We are about to attempt a crash-landing."

erm

"Oh yeah, the world's turned upside-down"

erm

"AMERICAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

"I am on a lonely road and I am traveling, traveling, travlin', travlin'..." (Joni Mitchell, 'All I Want', Blue)

"Soft as snow but warm inside" (My Bloody Valentine, Isn't Anything)

"Forget our fate..." (Mark Hollis)

"When you were young, you were the king of carrot flowers" (Neutral Milk Hotel, 'King of Carrot Flowers', In The Aeroplane over the Sea)

but my absolute favourite:

"Why can't we all just walk away..." (Current 93, 'The Long Shadow Falls', All the Pretty Little Horses)

I'll second this one. Best opening line of a debut album.

also the first line of either/or by elliott smith. the track is 'speed trials'. for risk of misquoting it, i won't try and write anything down

"Welcome to Mu-World, bitch! I’m talking to the person who took [?indecipherable] from me off eBay...plus bitches who...?...without my permission...another shout-out to those bitches who keep my tampons backstage...and especially to the all [sic] haters...I’m about to KUNG-FU YOU!"

alternately, Deerhoof - Reveille:

"The trumpet scatters its awful sound over the graves of all lands..."

OR, Smog - Dongs of Sevotion:

It happens on a side street, maybe
It happens on a main street, maybe
Lion bites a zebra neck

"I was out late the other night, fear and whiskey kept me going." (Mekons - Chivalry)

"And it was just about time for the party to close, when the hinges went to flyin' off the motherfuckin' doors." (The Coup - Everythang)

"I went away to see an old friend of mine/His sister came over, she was out of her mind." (Sonic Youth - Schizophrenia)

Ryan Adams - Strawberry Wine

Pavement - "Summer Babe" (Winter version)

I'm never going back to Jackson