I went home with the waitress,
The way I always do.
How was I to know she was with the Russians, too?
I was gambling in Havana,
I took a little risk.
Send lawyers, guns and money,
Dad, get me out of this.
Warren Zevon - Lawyers, Guns and Money
Saturday night I was downtown
Working for the FBI
Sitting in a nest of bad men
Whiskey bottles piling high
(Hollies, Long Cool Woman)
I don’'t really know Warren Zevon aside from Werewolves of London. I’ll have to check him out! I always love hearing about new artists to listen to. Or, better said, old ones that I just haven’t gotten around to.
She left without leavin’ a number
Said she needed to clear her mind
He figured she’d gone back to Austin
'Cause she talked about it all the time
It was almost a year before she called him up
Three rings and an answering machine is what she got
Blake Shelton - Austin
That Excitable Boy album by Zevon is awesome.
The Dixie Chicks, Goodbye Earl:
Mary Anne and Wanda were the best of friends
All through their high school days
Both members of the 4H Club
Both active in the FFA
After graduation Mary Anne went out
lookin’ for a bright new world
Wanda looked all around this town
and all she found was Earl
Well, it wasn’t two weeks
after she got married that
Wanda started gettin’ abused
She put on dark glasses
and long sleeved blouses
And make-up to cover her bruise
Well, she finally got the nerve to file for divorce
She let the law take it from there
But Earl walked right through that restraining order
And put her in intensive care
Right away Mary Anne flew in from Atlanta
On a red eye midnight flight
She held Wanda’s hand and they worked out a plan
And it didn’t take them long to decide
That Earl had to die
The wedding song, Charlie Robison and Natalie Maines:
Well, you are still here
And I am still here
Whether I ever loved you is
Not perfectly clear
You went a semester to West Texas State
But the freshmen fifteen you gained
Killed all your dates
I guess I still love you if I ever did
And I can see myself having a couple of kids
And we will get by
For the rest of our lives
Well, I am still here
And you are still here
Whether I ever loved you is
Not perfectly clear
Though weight’s not an issue you have gained more
And when I said I do well I slammed all the doors
To a future where I could see Paris in spring
And I wasn’t prepared for the weight of this ring
But we will get by
For the rest of our lives
She’s got a face that shows that she knows she’s heard every line
Tenderly she talks on the phone
There’s a way to walk that says “stay away”
And a time to go around the long way
A girl in trouble is a temporary thing
(temporary, temporary, temporary, temporary)
A girl in trouble is a temporary thing
(temporary, temporary, temporary, temporary)
Romeo Void
Went down to the refinery
The man said, “Son, if it was up to me…”
I use great song lyrics and great first lines of novels to teach my students how to open an essay. It’s amazing how much character, scene, and story you can pack into a few words.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have gotten behind you
No one old you when to run
You missed the starting gun
-Time by Pink Floyd
To be fair to the students, it is much harder to pack character, scene and story into a few words when the character you are attempting to convey is happy, stable, normal (albeit accomplished). Look at how many of the example songs rely on whiskey bottles and seedy bars to convey character and setting. The character-packed first lines are filled with troubled, flawed, lonely and desperate characters (not exclusively, of course!)
Off topic, but Zevon’s final album, which came out weeks before he died of lung cancer, included this gem:
Shadows are falling and I’m running out of breath
Keep me in your heart for awhile
If I leave you it doesn’t mean I love you any less
Keep me in your heart for awhile
When you get up in the morning and you see that crazy sun
Keep me in your heart for awhile
There’s a train leaving nightly called when all is said and done
Keep me in your heart for awhile
Sometimes when you’re doing simple things
around the house
Maybe you’ll think of me and smile
You know I’m tied to you like the buttons on
your blouse
Keep me in your heart for awhile
Hold me in your thoughts, take me to your dreams
Touch me as I fall into view
When the winter comes keep the fires lit
And I will be right next to you
Engine driver’s headed north to Pleasant Stream
Keep me in your heart for awhile
These wheels keep turning but they’re running out
of steam
Keep me in your heart for awhile
“To be fair to the students, it is much harder to pack character, scene and story into a few words when the character you are attempting to convey is happy, stable, normal (albeit accomplished).”
True, and I don’t expect them to achieve what Jane Austen, Alice Walker, or Bruce Springsteen can do with a sentence. But it works. I’ve seen some fantastic writing from kids on both serious and silly topics. The best first line I ever saw was in an essay about eating disorder recovery. I’ve seen witty first lines hit it out of the park on smaller stories about second-grade recess, stage fright, etc.
Bonnie Raitt, Angel From Montgomery
I am an old woman
Named after my mother
My old man is another
Child that’s grown old
If dreams were thunder
And lightning was desire
This old house would’ve burned down
A long time ago
A light shines from my window
Just can’t sleep no more
Lord it hurts so much to be alone
But the real men never do admit it’s them that might be wrong
At least that’s what he told me in his song.
John Starling, He Rode All the Way to Texas
“Ten years ago on a cool dark night
There was someone killed 'neath the town hall light
There were few at the scene and they all did agree
That the man who ran looked a lot like me”
by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkins
No one has mentioned Lonestar.
I’m already there
He called her on the road, from a lonely, cold hotel room, just to hear her say I love you one more time…
My front porch looking in
The only ground I ever owned was sticking to my shoes
Now I look at my front porch at this panoramic view…
Not a day goes by
Got a picture of you I carry in my heart
Close my eyes to see it when the world gets dark…
You walked in
Everybody’s talkin’ 'bout the supermodel world
Cindy, Naomi and that whole bunch of girls…
I think a lot of their songs tell a story, like No News or Tequila Talking, but not in the first line.
I think PG started a great thread.
Bob Dylan, among so man:
house of the risin sun
There is a house in New Orleans they call the rising sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh G-d, I’m one.
^DEFINITELY not written by Dylan.
Though he wrote so many great stories and really knew how to start them:
Early one morning the sun was shining
I was laying in bed
Wond’ring if she’d changed it all
If her hair was still red
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama’s homemade dress
Papa’s bankbook wasn’t big enough
It’s been a really long time since I’ve posted, but this is such a fun topic! As mentioned previously, Paul Simon is a master at this, so I’m going to go with the first one that popped in my head:
Rene and Georgette Magritte
With their dog after the war
Returned to their hotel suite
And they unlocked the door
Easily losing their evening clothes
They danced by the light of the moon
To the Penguins, the Moonglows
The Orioles, and The Five Satins
The deep forbidden music
They’d been longing for
Rene and Georgette Magritte
With their dog after the war
Rene and Georgette Magritte
With their dog after the war
Were strolling down Christopher Street
When they stopped in a men’s store
With all of the mannequins dressed in the style
That brought tears to their immigrant eyes
Just like The Penguins, the Moonglows
The Orioles, and The Five Satins
The easy stream of laughter
Flowing through the air
Rene and Georgette Magritte
With their dog apres la guerre
Side by side
They fell asleep
Decades gliding by like Indians
Time is cheap
When they wake up they will find
All their personal belongings
Have intertwined
Oh Rene and Georgette Magritte
With their dog after the war
Were dining with the power elite
And they looked in their bedroom drawer
And what do you think
They have hidden away
In the cabinet cold of their hearts?
The Penguins, the Moonglows
The Orioles, and The Five Satins
For now and ever after
As it was before
Rene and Georgette Magritte
With their dog after the war
Dylan certainly can set a story from the start:
Pistols shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out “My God they killed them all”