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Featured Replies

What are some of the best/your favorite album openers of all time?

Some I like:

Cherub Rock - Smashing Pumpkins

Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones

Welcome to the Jungle - GNR

More Than a Feeling - Boston

Baba O'Riley - The Who

Cult of Personality - Living Colour

Good Times Roll - The Cars

Let's Go - The Cars

Immigrant Song - Zep

Come Together - The Beatles

Don't Stand So Close to Me - Police

One of These Days - Pink Floyd

Time of the Preacher - Willie Nelson

2112 - Rush - 2112

Tom Sawyer - Rush - Moving Pictures

Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part I - King Crimson - Larks’ Tongues in Aspic

Sometimes the album opens with a suite of songs and you can’t limit it to one track. Like, say:

We Will Rock You > We Are the Champions - Queen - News of the World

or:

Help > Slip > Franklin’s - GD - Blues for Allah

 

14 minutes ago, UTCzech III said:

Good Times Roll - The Cars

Let's Go - The Cars

Those are both very strong.

Divine Intervention -- Matthew Sweet

I Will Dare -- The Replacements

London Calling -- The Clash

Guitar Town -- Steve Earle

 

Queen (Jazz) - Dead on Time

Ryan Adams (Cold Roses) - Magnolia Mountain

The Black Crowes - (TSM&HC) - Sting Me

Rush - (Signals) - Subdivisions 

Pearl Jam - (Vs) - Go

Led Zeppelin - (Physical Graffiti) - Custard Pie

AC/DC - (High Voltage) - It’s a Long Way to the Top

Radiohead - (OK Computer) - Airbag

 

 

Some of my random favs that haven't been mentioned:

Wilco - "Can't Stand It" - Summerteeth

Old 97's - "Victoria" - Wreck Your Life

Tom Petty - "Wildflowers" - Wildflowers

Steely Dan - "Do It Again" - Can't Buy a Thrill

Radiohead - "15 Step" - In Rainbows

The Beatles - "Taxman" - Revolver

Turnpike Troubadours - "The Housefire" - A Long Way from Your Heart

Death Cab for Cutie - "The New Year" - Transatlanticism

13 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Sometimes the album opens with a suite of songs and you can’t limit it to one track. Like, say:

You mean like runnin with the devil/eruption/you really got me/ain’t talkin bout love?

  • Author

Rush had several great openers.

Just random ones but that set a “new” tone for their respective bands for that particular album:

Peter Gabriel - Come Talk To Me - Us
Black Crowes - Midnight from the Inside Out - Lions (underrated album)
Patty Griffin - Flaming Red
Wilco - Misunderstood - Kicking Television live
Dire Straits - So Far Away - Brothers in Arms
Phosphorescent - Sun, Arise! - Muchacho

6 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

You mean like runnin with the devil/eruption/you really got me/ain’t talkin bout love?

Or like Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull. The whole album is one song. 

Ozzy. Blizzard of Oz. “I Don’t Know”

Metallica. Master of Puppets. “Battery”

Hank Williams Jr. The Pressure is On.  “Country Boy Can Survive”

Just went to YouTube to show my daughter the video on Ozzy. Damn.

Randy Ozzy is best Ozzy

 

9 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

Rush had several great openers.

They always had a very strong opener and a very interesting closer for each album. Loved all of their openers. "Animate Me" from Counterparts and "One Little Victory" from Vapor Trails stand out to me.

Duran Duran's "Rio" is the same way; the title track is a strong song on a strong album. (But the last track on that album is the one all the real Duranies know is their best.)

How has nobody yet said "Smells Like Teen Spirit?" dafuq?

On that same note, or even that same riff, "More than a feelin" by Boston is another great album with a great opening.

Devin Townsend has a lot of strong openers; "Genesis" off of Empath might be my favorite song of his.

"Mine All Mine" off OU812 is a terribly underrated song, and remains one of my favorites of the Van Hagar years. It certainly doesn't fit the "corporate rock" label Van Hagar got plastered with.

"Enter Sandman." again, how has nobody listed this already

Sunscreem, as famous for being lost in "your label just went bankrupt and your album won't see the light of day for 25 years" hell as for being one of the original house dance masters should get credit for "Exodus" that opens Change or Die.

And let's face it, there's no opener like the first movement of Beethoven's 5th.

Edited by Rimbo
formattin, readability, moaaar

Hey hey momma said the way you move, gonna make you sweat gonna make you groove

Also, Nirvana then Big Neon Glitter is a great 1 2 punch

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Gil Bang

 

Nothing is, or will be, better than this. 

3 hours ago, South Austin said:

Two of my favorites from U2:

Where The Streets Have No Name

Zoo Station

Gotta go with I Will Follow.  First song on the first side of the first album and still holds up 40+ years later.

Dark Angel - "Darkness Descends" title track

Slayer - "Angel of Death" from Reign in Blood

Stone - "Sweet Dreams" from No Anaesthesia 

Megadeth - "Wake Up Dead" from Peace Sells...

Oh, that's not obvious enough. How about the Beatles? Or fucking... fucking Beethoven? Side one, Track one of the Fifth Symphony!

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

Oh, that's not obvious enough. How about the Beatles? Or fucking... fucking Beethoven? Side one, Track one of the Fifth Symphony!

Read more (unless this some meme I’m too old for)

4 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Oh, that's not obvious enough. How about the Beatles? Or fucking... fucking Beethoven? Side one, Track one of the Fifth Symphony!

OP was feeling pretty basic. 

On 9/27/2022 at 10:39 PM, Hawndoh said:

What are some of the best/your favorite album openers of all time?

More Than a Feeling - Boston

You know, I was in my car this morning and randomly thought of "Rock and Roll Band" by Boston.  Would have sworn it was the first song on the album (come to think of it, why was it NOT the first song).

On 9/29/2022 at 8:47 PM, South Austin said:

Two of my favorites from U2:

Where The Streets Have No Name

Zoo Station

The beginnings of both those two albums was epic.

28 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

The beginnings of both those two albums was epic.

I even thought Zooropa was a pretty great side one, track one, even though that album was a bit of a step down from the quality of the band's prior body of work.

50 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

You know, I was in my car this morning and randomly thought of "Rock and Roll Band" by Boston.  Would have sworn it was the first song on the album (come to think of it, why was it NOT the first song).

I'm pretty sure they got the track order correct.

25 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm pretty sure they got the track order correct.

giphy.gif

 

19 minutes ago, DougO said:

 

I always liked McCartney's 70s stuff with Wings, and this is a damn good tune.

Old 97’s - (Too Far to Care) “Time Bomb”

Turnpike Troubadours - (S/T) “The Bird Hunters”

The Hold Steady - (Boys & Girls in America) “Stuck Between Stations”

Rolling Stones - (Exile) “Rocks Off”

Counting Crows - (August & Everything After) “Round Here”

Van Morrison - (St Dominic’s Preview) “Jackie Wilson Said”

AC/DC - (Powerage) “Rock N Roll Damnation”

Warren Zevon - (S/T) “Frank & Jesse James”

On 9/29/2022 at 9:05 PM, shakahorn said:

Gotta go with I Will Follow.  First song on the first side of the first album and still holds up 40+ years later.

Nice side topic- first song first side of debut album.
 

On 9/30/2022 at 7:29 AM, smuggs said:

 

Here’s a good start.

5 hours ago, Bullneck said:

You know, I was in my car this morning and randomly thought of "Rock and Roll Band" by Boston.  Would have sworn it was the first song on the album (come to think of it, why was it NOT the first song).

what

4 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm pretty sure they got the track order correct.

☝️😐☝️

this isn't even debatable

 

5 hours ago, Bullneck said:

You know, I was in my car this morning and randomly thought of "Rock and Roll Band" by Boston.  Would have sworn it was the first song on the album (come to think of it, why was it NOT the first song).

 

4 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm pretty sure they got the track order correct.

Every fucking song sounded just like the other ones so the order didn't make a fuck.   They had a unique recipe, and they used it over and over and over.  

Don't know if mentioned yet, but Burning Down the House and Hey Ladies

21 hours ago, DougO said:

 

Goota love a cover that includes our man Flint and Saruman

Joe Jackson form his debut, Look Sharp.

Los Lobos:  Will The Wolf Survive.  What a way to set the tone for a fantastic album.

 

Edited by hullabelew

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