Author Topic: Best album-opening track ever?  (Read 15822 times)

Manotea

  • Where there is doubt...
Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #25 on: 14 October, 2009, 02:26:48 pm »
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fhvw2lwSZ7Y&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Fhvw2lwSZ7Y&rel=1</a>

May not be pin your ears back pyrotechnics but the opening bars always sends a zing down my spine.

Nostalgia, eh?

Edit: though now I understand the rools better I'd go with Wish You Were Here - its just about the only track listed I'm familar with!

mattc

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Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #26 on: 14 October, 2009, 02:36:07 pm »
It has been suggested that you can judge a good LP by
Side 2 Track 1

(Is that really true about the faster speed giving better fidelity?!?)

That's why Singles ran at 45 rpm and why disc jockeys had 12 inch 45 rpm singles. Relax on a 12 inch sounds amazing.

Damon.

Well, purely on 'sonic cathedral' criteria, I'd vote for Relax too (I'm not a Frankie fan, but that and 2 Tribes sounded like something from another planet at the time - Trevor Horn? I imagine CDs had taken over before anything else came along that sounded so revolutionary.)

I thought the speed variations were just to increase capacity. Once again Damon you have educated me in something I shall never find useful.
Has never ridden RAAM
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Martin

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #27 on: 14 October, 2009, 02:39:55 pm »
Release the Pressure; Leftfield (Leftism)

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #28 on: 14 October, 2009, 02:46:40 pm »
Once again Damon you have educated me in something I shall never find useful.

Not useful but fascinating. Thanks, Damon!

d.
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Rhys W

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Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #29 on: 14 October, 2009, 02:47:01 pm »
Race for the Prize by The Flaming Lips.

 Well it's one of the best "heavily compressed drum sounds" opening an album, and a pretty good song as well ("They're just humans, with wives and children.")

 London Calling (off, er, London Calling) is quite an opening statement.

 Another cracking eponymous opener is The Queen Is Dead.

Singing in a minority language will naturally limit your audience, but I regard Moelyci by Steve Eaves up there with the best of Neil Young or Springsteen, and it starts off with a stormer.

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #30 on: 14 October, 2009, 03:10:08 pm »
A bit different:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/W8JLqsbK5V0&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/W8JLqsbK5V0&rel=1</a>

THAT voice followed by those 3 notes. Gets me every time.
Working my way up to inferior.

Really Ancien

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #31 on: 14 October, 2009, 03:11:26 pm »
The two big classical winners from the golden age of Hi-Fi were Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, which opens with 'O Fortuna', the Old Spice music. and 'Also sprach Zarathustra' by Richard Strauss, the Apollo lift off music. These had the big production numbers at the start of Side 1.
Carmina Burana is better on CD though, because the reprise of 'O Fortuna' at the end of the piece is better modulated and tighter.

Damon.

Woofage

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Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #32 on: 14 October, 2009, 03:15:35 pm »
Carmina Burana is better on CD though

Except the version I have has been mixed with the brass too loud and lacks ambience  >:(. Dynamics OK though so I s'pose the producer got something right :-\.
Pen Pusher

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #33 on: 14 October, 2009, 03:19:55 pm »
A bit different:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/W8JLqsbK5V0&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/W8JLqsbK5V0&rel=1</a>

THAT voice followed by those 3 notes. Gets me every time.

Oh yes.  Superb.  Gripped from the very start.
Getting there...

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #34 on: 14 October, 2009, 03:22:45 pm »
"Angel" on Mezzanine or "Safe from harm" on Blue Lines, both by Massive Attack would be my suggestions with a respectful nod in the direction of Martin and "Release the pressure".

Other ideas- "Dream within a dream" from A Secret Wish by Propaganda.

Must focus on work now.
Really must focus....................... :-\


Flying_Monkey

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #35 on: 14 October, 2009, 04:13:08 pm »
Release the Pressure; Leftfield (Leftism)

Oh yes, definitely. Also, completely at random off the top of my head:

'Sure Shot' by the Beastie Boys (from Ill Communication)
'Alone Again Or' by Love (from Forever Changes) - which is so great because of its delicacy rather than its in your face-ness (though it does have great dynamic range)
'Green Onions' by Booker T and the MGs (from Green Onions)
'Party Line and 'David Watts' by The Kinks (the first from Face to Face, the second from Something Else)


redshift

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Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #36 on: 14 October, 2009, 06:05:37 pm »
Malaria, from Oil and Gold by Shriekback.  You know you're in for the weird stuff when you hear it.

I could pick a lot of Rush, but we've already had 2112, so I'll go with Dreamline from Roll The Bones, and Subdivisions from Signals.  I also think Far Cry was a great opener.

Hell's Bells from Back in Black - but I preferred the way that the title track was used to open the film Iron Man.

Jeff Wayne thirded.

Astradyne from Vienna.

I sure there'll be others.  So much is about the context of the album.
L
:)
Windcheetah No. 176
The all-round entertainer gets quite arsey,
They won't translate his lame shit into Farsi
Somehow to let it go would be more classy…

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #37 on: 14 October, 2009, 06:10:27 pm »
Einleitung from Richard Strauss's tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra.

I win.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Pingu

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Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #38 on: 14 October, 2009, 06:32:34 pm »
Where The Streets Have No Name - The Joshua Tree, U2
One Of These Days - Meddle, Pink Floyd
Sat In Your Lap - The Dreaming, Kate Bush

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #39 on: 14 October, 2009, 06:47:05 pm »
Einleitung from Richard Strauss's tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra.

I win.

Yes, you do.

If we're including classical music, then the the opening passage of Sibelius 1st Symphony was the one that most kicked me in the teeth at a concert, with Simon Rattle at the controls of the CBSO in about 1984.

Really Ancien

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #40 on: 14 October, 2009, 06:51:25 pm »
A quick trawl through my vinyl reveals that Sheet Music by 10cc had excellent opening tracks on Sides 1 and 2.
Wall Street Shuffle and Silly Love. For ultimate nostalgia these live versions from 1974 take some beating, let them play out as 10CC did excellent live codas.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/SNYBh4ryl5k&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/SNYBh4ryl5k&rel=1</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Z7rFCOyTI0&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/1Z7rFCOyTI0&rel=1</a>

Damon.

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #41 on: 14 October, 2009, 06:57:22 pm »
Funeral for a Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John introduced me as a teenager to the world of synthesisers.

Haggerty F, Haggerty R, Tomkins, Noble, Carrick, Robson, Crapper, Dewhurst, Macintyre, Treadmore, Davitt.

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #42 on: 14 October, 2009, 07:01:56 pm »
A great start to one of my favourite albums - Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks, Track 1: Tangled Up In Blue.


Chris N

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #43 on: 14 October, 2009, 07:06:53 pm »
I Wanna Be Adored - The Stone Roses

Spinners

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #44 on: 14 October, 2009, 07:07:05 pm »

 London Calling (off, er, London Calling) is quite an opening statement.


Hard to better that!

Beetlebum - Blur (Blur)

The Reflex - Seven & The Ragged Tiger (Duran Duran)

Big Love - Tango in the Night (Fleetwood Mac)

Brighton Rock - Sheer Heart Attack (Queen)

Money - The Adventures of Hershanm Boys (Sham 69)

Animation - Days in Europa (The Skids)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #45 on: 14 October, 2009, 07:22:28 pm »
Lots of rock/pop ones:

"Black Dog" on Led Zeppelin IV (or whatever it's not called)
"Break On Through (To The Other Side)" from The Doors
"Kuff Dam" from Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile White Out
"Reverend Black Grape" from It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah! (another rude Shaun Ryder opener)

and in a slightly different vein,

"Song For Whoever" from Welcome To The Beautiful South.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #46 on: 14 October, 2009, 07:23:48 pm »
Red Rain - So, Peter Gabriel

Can't think of anything else right now that's quite as good as that & not already been mentioned, although

I Zimbra - Fear of Music, Talking Heads is not bad turned up to 11 :)
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

alan

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #47 on: 14 October, 2009, 07:44:29 pm »
There is a danger of seriously over-dosing on nostalgia reading this thread.Some of this stuff would be the soundtrack of one's life.
Those tracks that spring to my mind have already beem mentioned.
Further thought brings to mind artists such as The Shadows,The Beatles,The Hollies.Several Motown tracks would also be included on my list.
All these would be "contenders" but I would find it extremely difficult to single out just one for the accolade of Best Ever Track :-\

onb

  • Between jobs at present
Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #48 on: 14 October, 2009, 08:37:29 pm »
Gimme Shelter on Gimme Shelter ,still sends shivers down my spine
.

Re: Best album-opening track ever?
« Reply #49 on: 14 October, 2009, 08:46:38 pm »
Gimme Shelter on Gimme Shelter ,still sends shivers down my spine

Gimme Shelter: on Let it Bleed

+1 to that elsewise though