Please tell me your 7 favorite album openers

[iron yuppie]

I also am troubled by the lack of Thunder Road selections in this thread, because it is the greatest song of all time.

This may be heresy, but I prefer Thunder Road in its piano-only live form. It takes on a whole new poignancy in the simple arrangement, as I have always seen it as a resigned, almost elegiac song rather than a surging anthem.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Some of the live versions and little reworkings he's done over the years are great, yeah. The song, when sung by Bruce, works in any form.

But I'll always take the studio cut. I love the delivery on the album version of "It's a town full of losers, and I'M PULLIN OUTTA HERE TO WIIIIIIIIIIN!" which you don't get on the slower more meditative versions. Like I said, though, I still dig those versions, too.

 

[LemonMelon]

This may be heresy, but I prefer Thunder Road in its piano-only live form. It takes on a whole new poignancy in the simple arrangement, as I have always seen it as a resigned, almost elegiac song rather than a surging anthem.

I see it (and the album as a whole) as the unleashing of a dying spirit of youth, so yeah, solo piano can FOAD.

 

[cobl04]

Thunder Road is overrated on this forum. but that probably has more to do with the fact that after all that i'd heard from you peeps about it, i was crushingly disappointed when i listened to it for the first time.

Backstreets is the most overrated song on that album though, for mine, whereas Meeting Across the River doesn't get enough love.

 

[bono_212]

It's not even possible to disagree with you more right now.

 

[lazarus]

Madonna - Drowned World/Substitute For Love

So good.

7. Metallica - Master Of Puppets(Master Of Puppets)

The first song on Master of Puppets is actually Battery, which in my opinion is Metallica's best album opener, and better than the title track you mentioned.

 

[namkcuR]

The first song on Master of Puppets is actually Battery, which in my opinion is Metallica's best album opener, and better than the title track you mentioned.

I knew Battery was first, it just totally slipped my mind.

I disagree about it being better than the title track, though. The guitar solo in Master Of Puppets is one of my favorite moments in all of Metallica.

 

[Saracene]

In no particular order:

The Who - Baba O'Riley
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V
Muse - Take A Bow
Dead Can Dance - The Arrival and The Reunion
The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

 

[IWasBored]

6.) Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere (I know that's a surprising pick, but that was the song that made me a fan, and I just get incredibly happy every time I hear it now for that very reason)

it is awesome, that's why.

although someone pointed out it bears a terrifing resemblence to the jenny 5409 (is that even what number it is? i think i've only heard the song twice) song, which sadly did diminish some of my love for it.

but it's still a kickass song.

 

[IWasBored]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Come Together yet.

never liked the song much.



not even going to touch cobbler's thunder road comment. like GAF, i'll take any version of it. but the album version...like i said, there's a list of fantastic album openers, and then there's that song. it's kind of like when i was 10 and considered there to be the beatles, and then all other music.

 

[lazarus]

I knew Battery was first, it just totally slipped my mind.

I disagree about it being better than the title track, though. The guitar solo in Master Of Puppets is one of my favorite moments in all of Metallica.

That instrumental midsection of the song is definitely the best part.

I just love how Battery starts with the classic guitar and goes into that anthemic surge. My favorite song on the album is probably Disposable Heroes, but it's a matter of degrees because everything on there is fantastic.

It's probably the best heavy metal album ever recorded.

 

[Nate Dogg]

U2-Where The Streets Have No Name
Kings Of Leon-Knocked Up
Oasis-Hello
Pearl Jam-Go
Queen-Brighton Rock
Tom Petty-Wildflowers
U2-Zoo Station

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Wow, how did I forget about this one:

YouTube - Blur - Tender

 

[lazarus]

I just listened to 13 yesterday and was thinking the same thing.

 

[IWasBored]

if i was going to make a list of most disappointing album openers, that would be on it. i won a copy from a radio station around when the album came out, and didn't listen to it probably for about a year just because i hated that song. i don't hate it so much anymore, but if i wanna listen to that album i always skip it.

also...dropkick murphys' "walk away." um...hmm. openers you always skip thread, yeah we need one of those too.

 

[hardyharhar]

Off the top of my head in no particular order,

The Who - Overture (Tommy)
King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man (In the Court of the Crimson King)
Mott the Hoople - All the Way From Memphis (Mott)
Steely Dan - Bodhisattva - (Countdown to Ecstacy)
Pink Floyd - In the Flesh (The Wall)
The Cure - The Holy Hour (Faith)
Elvis Costello - No Action (This Years Model)

 

[agentorange]

Man, so much stolen thunder.
Some of my list that haven't been mentioned yet, and probably won't be:

u2 - a sort of homecoming
ride - leave them all behind
fleetwood mac - second hand news
pale saints - throwing back the apple
son volt - caryatid easy
destroyer - rubies
counting crows - round here
band of horses - the first song
dillon fence - collapsis
bloc party - like eating glass
kathleen edwards - six o'clock news
the strokes - is this it

 

[cobl04]

great call on Like Eating Glass.

in fact, Like Eating Glass > Helicopter > Positive Tension > Banquet =