Friday Music Day

FMD 12/11/2020 – Best First Songs On An Album

20 Comments

I'm 100% stealing this from Algonad's recent FB post, but today's topic is "Best First Songs On An Album". Or however he phrased it.

Personally, I'd nominate "Birdhouse In Your Soul" except for the little problem of the opener on that album. Openers disqualify songs, I think.

So I'm going to go with "Born In The U.S.A." from Springsteen's Born In The U.S.A.. What you got? Also, list 10 random songs from your playlist if people still do that.

20 thoughts on “FMD 12/11/2020 – Best First Songs On An Album”

  2. I think it was SBG that noted that I missed one of my favorites - Running with the Devil. It should get bonus points for being the first doing on their first album.

    1. that is indeed a fantastic lead-off song.

      My contributions:

      The Zombies debut (American release) album leads off with "She's Not There"
      Their second studio album, and, as it turned out, last (Odessy and Oracle), leads off with the utterly fantastic "Care of Cell 44"

      Second, the Beach Boys's Pet Sounds leads off with "Wouldn't It Be Nice".

    2. What's really interesting is that Eruption/You Really Got Me would normally be an album kick-off.

    3. I'm old enough to remember when that album came out. My neighbor had a copy and I remember listening to it and 12 year old me was blown away by side 1, track 1.

    1. I did. I grew up with Born In The USA so for me, that's the best of his albums. But that's not a slight on others.

  4. Takin' A Ride off of the Replacements' Sorry Ma Forgot to Take Out the Trash certainly qualifies. Also first song off of first album. If you didn't know the Replacements before setting down the needle, you most certainly did after that song.

  6. I Can See For Miles - The Who
    B Movie - Elvis Costello and the Attractions
    Holiday Road - Lindsey Buckingham
    Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
    Otherside - Red Hot Chili Peppers

    Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
    Street Fighting Man - Rolling Stones
    Love Song - Tesla
    Sign 'O' the Times - Prince
    Shark Smile - Big Thief

  7. The first one that comes to my mind is "Iron Galaxy" from The Cold Vein

    It's just so good. So many quotable lines. My 2nd favorite rap record ever.

    Vordul Megalah the cannibal ate mics
    Strive, live live, fuck five, I want a hundred and eight mics

  8. Listening to Teenage Kicks this morning reminds me that Gloria from Patti Smith’s Horses is an amazing opener. When I saw her at Northrop, playing this album in its entirety, I literally was laughing with joy and awe when she kicked into that meaty G.L.O.R.I.A part. I wanted to see that performed live for decades.

  9. My list of favorite Rolling Stones songs to lead off an album, because that's what I do:

    1. Gimme Shelter <-- Their best song, period. It's a Keith Richards style tune, Mick is fantastic and it showcases their willingness to use outside folks -- Merry Clayton with the best backup singing effort, ever. It feels pretty fresh to this day and is really 2020, man.
    2. Sympathy for the Devil <-- The studio album version is not as good as the live version on Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!, but it's still pretty great. There's a movie that shows the studio sessions for this song -- it really evolved quite a bit and the Ya-Ya's version is like a different song, entirely. Really something.
    3. Brown Sugar <-- Just a little bit problematic, but great riff, and I said yeah, yeah, yeah, wooooooo!
    4. Paint It, Black <-- With lyrics like this, it should be a slow melancholy song, but instead, it wails. Black as night, black as coal. Don't wanna see the sun, blot it out from the sky!
    5. Rocks Off <-- Not a widely known song relative to the others, but it is perfect for Exile on Main Street, their best album. I cannot listen to EOMS without getting absolutely giddy. The opening riff and Jagger's sneering of "oh yeah" and I have the next 66 minutes blocked out.
    6. Miss You <-- Some Girls is pretty great, Miss You is not the best song on that album and it was really an attempt to sell records, but still not too bad
    7. Not Fade Away <-- Buddy Holly tune (not theirs) -- but this is a rocker and I love Jagger's singing on it, also the first song on their first album. Not fade away, indeed
    8. Undercover <-- not a widely admired album, but one of my favorites outside of the golden era
    9. Start Me Up <-- Not a big fan of this one. However... my favorite version of this song was when I saw the Stones for the first time. It was the very first song I heard them play live. Three notes and a huge flash pot explosion (the heat!) and I screamed like a teenaged girl for the next three minutes.
    10. If You Can't Rock Me <-- The Band's on stage and it's one of those nights, oh yeah! Not in the pantheon of their songs, but I still kind of dig it.

    1. Not sure why this happens to me (the run-on). I am hitting return at the end of each line when I type this, but I ended up with one long paragraph.

        1. That seems to be it. I updated it with the < that's in the button bar, and it fixed it As far as WordPress, and many HTML things, is concerned < and < are not the same

  10. The first song off the first Queens of the Stone Age Album is pretty dang awesome, can't think of the name right now.

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