Best opening tracks?

[Boom_70]

Thick As a Brick - Tull

 

[Football_Bat]

Also, any of the various instrumental intros by Parsons is gold.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

Third Neighborhood #1. Also:

Is There A Ghost -- Band of Horses
Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife, Drive-By Truckers
Regulate -- Warren G
O Tannenbaum -- Vince Guaraldi Trio

Though I think I'm just listing songs that open albums that I like, as distinct from good opening songs.

 

[Deskhack]

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" -- The Police/Zenyatta Mondatta
"Bittersweet Symphony" -- The Verve/Urban Hymns

 

[EStreetJoe]

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" -- The Police/Zenyatta Mondatta
"Bittersweet Symphony" -- The Verve/Urban Hymns

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is Track 2 on Ghost in the Machine.
"Don't Stand So Close To Me" is the opening track on Zenyatta Mondatta

 

[Human_Paraquat]

Begin the Begin, Me and Mia and Radio Free Europe were already mentioned. Here are some others faves:

Blackened — Metallica, And Justice for All
Don't Make Me a Target — Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Go — Pearl Jam, Vs.
I.O.U — The Replacements, Pleased to Meet Me
One Time, One Night — Los Lobos, By the Light of the Moon
Serve the Servants — Nirvana, In Utero
Stuck Between Stations — The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America
Tired of Sex — Weezer, Pinkerton
You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side — Morrissey, Your Arsenal

 

[Deskhack]

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" -- The Police/Zenyatta Mondatta
"Bittersweet Symphony" -- The Verve/Urban Hymns

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is Track 2 on Ghost in the Machine.
"Don't Stand So Close To Me" is the opening track on Zenyatta Mondatta

Arrrrrgh...You're absolutely right...I had the CD in front of me and wrote down the song below it on my list...Total brain fart

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

O Tannenbaum -- Vince Guaraldi Trio

This.

 

[Buck]

Pigs on the Wing

 

[terrier]

I'll try five that haven't been mentioned yet:

"Caribou" - Pixies, Come On Pilgrim (the awesomeness that is Joey Santiago)
"Godless" - Dandy Warhols, 13 Tales of Urban Bohemia (blends seamlessly into "Neitzche" for 12 minutes of divine trippiness)
"East of Eden," Lone Justice (Maria McKee had me at "Should I go north?", before the band played a single note)
"Texture," Catherine Wheel, Ferment (children of Pink Floyd)
"Pioneer to the Falls," Interpol, Our Love to Adore (makes me wish I was a smoker so I could hold up a cigarette lighter for those spare guitar notes in the intro)

And a sixth: "I Wanna Be Adored," Stone Roses

 

[YGBFKM]

"Maggot Brain - Funkadelic, Maggot Brain

A 10-minute song that I wish was longer every time I listen to it. I had never heard it until my brother turned me on to it in January. Literally a week later I happened to be spending the night in Nashville and Gov't Mule, one of my favorite bands, was playing. I grabbed a ticket, and a few songs in, they start playing Maggot Brain. Unbelievable concert moment.

 

[Colonel Angus]

"Mr. Roboto," Styx.

 

[Brian]

As an aside...in the digital music era, will we ever again discus an album's construction the way it is being discussed here?

People so rarely listen to an album the way the artist hoped, does it take away from music?

 

[X-Hack]

Once - Pearl Jam - 10
Aces High - Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Subdivisions - Rush - Signals
Straight Outta Compton - NWA- Title track
Copperhead Road - Steve Earle - title track
tonight tonight - smashing pumpkins - melon collie
we got the beat - the go gos - their debut (it WAS the title track, right?)
owner of a lonely heart - yes - 90125
paper in fire - mellencamp - lonesome jubilee
rain on the scarecrow - mellencamp - scarecrow
heaven knows - Robert plant - now and zen

 

[X-Hack]

A couple more:

bawitdaba - kid rock - devil without a cause. Say what you want about him -it's a hell of a song.

Sun king - the cult - sonic temple

night parade - Robbie robertson - Storyville

 

[PCLoadLetter]

we got the beat - the go gos - their debut (it WAS the title track, right?)

Close - album was "Beauty and the Beat."

 

[EStreetJoe]

we got the beat - the go gos - their debut (it WAS the title track, right?)

Close - album was "Beauty and the Beat."

and according to the track listing at Amazon, Our Lips Are Sealed was the opening track

 

[X-Hack]

I would have sworn "we got the beat" was the opener. In any event, it would have made for a better opening track.