Jim Croce:
Operator, well could you help me place this call?
See, the number on the matchbook is old and faded
She’s living in L.A. with my best old ex-friend Ray
A guy she said she knew well and sometimes hated
Operator is a terrific example too!
My fave…
“Nibbling on spongecake, watchin’ the sun bake all those tourists covered with oil.
Strumming my six string, on my front porch swing. All those shrimp, they’re beginning to boil.
Wasting away again in Margaritaville…” Jimmy Buffet.
You never close your eyes any more when I kiss your lips
And there’s no tenderness like before in your fingertips.
Doesn’t strictly hit my criteria, but there’s so much in that first opening line.
This violates the opening lyric requirement, but what the heck. This is so evocative and packed in so few words.
Papa was a rolling stone
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone.
The Clash:
I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for that special offer
A guaranteed personality
I wasn’t born so much as I fell out
Nobody seemed to notice me
We had a hedge back home in the suburbs
Over which I never could see
Nick Lowe:
Well, the bride was a picture in the gown that her mama wore
When she was married herself nearly twenty-seven years before
The had to change the style a little but it looked just fine
Stayed up all night, but they got it finished just in time
In the spirit of Another Auld Lang Syne, I can’t believe I forgot this one, though it takes another verse to really get to character.
It was raining hard in 'Frisco
I needed one more fare to make my night
A lady up ahead waved to flag me down
She got in at the light
Harry Chapin, Taxi
It’s five o’clock this morning and the sun is on the rise
There’s frosting on the window pane and sorrow in your eyes
The stars are fading quietly, night is nearly gone
And so you turn away from me and tears begin to come
John Denver - Goodbye Again
She packed my bags last night, pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And Im gonna be high as a kite by then
Elton John - Rocket Man
Like a bird on a wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir.
I have tried in my way to be free.
Like a worm on a hook
Like a knight from some old fashioned book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee
If I, if I have been unkind
I hope that you can let it go by
If I, if I have ever been untrue
I hope you know, it was never with you
Like a baby, stillborn,
like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me.
But I swear by this song
and all I’ve done wrong.
I’ll try to make it up to thee.
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch, he said to me, “You must not ask for so much.”
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door, she cried to me, “Why not ask for more?”
Oh, like a bird on a wire
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Leonard Cohen, Bird on a Wire (1969)
I can’t seem to face up to the facts
I’m tense and nervous and I
Can’t relax
I can’t sleep 'cause my bed’s on fire
Don’t touch me I’m a real live wire
Talking Heads
Lyrics that I think are pure poetry in the context of the song - though these are more wordplay than scene-setting -
A diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along, oh
To a handsome mannered baton
A blind class aristocracy
Back through the opera glass you see
The pit and the pendulum drawn
Columnated ruins domino
Brian Wilson, Surf’s Up (lyrics by Van Dyke Parks)
Nice find with Elton John / Rocket Man. In that vein …
Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground Control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown, engines on
Check ignition and may God’s love be with you
David Bowie, Space Oddity
Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons,
Packed up and ready to go
Heard of some grave sites, out by the highway,
A place where nobody knows
Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
Janis Ian ~ Seventeen
Tommy used to work on the docks
Union’s been on strike
He’s down on his luck…it’s tough, so tough
Living on a prayer ~ Bon Jovi
I knew I’d see her around
I’d be at some party, she’d show up and I’d be walking out
Or across some parking lot hiding behind her sister
I’d look up, she’d be at the red light beside me
In that white Maxima with the sticker on the back
I’d act like I didn’t see her
We’d pay at the same pumps
Flip through the same stations
And slow down for the same curves
Run around with the same crowds
We just needed some time
She could get on with her life and I’d get on with mine
Thought I would be fine, heh, but maybe not
I knew she’d find a way to get over me
But I’d never thought that
Break Up in a Small town, Sam Hunt
How about this…
Scarecrow on a wooden cross, blackbird in the barn
Four hundred empty acres that used to be my farm.
Grew up like my daddy did, my grandpa cleared this land
When I was 5 I walked the fence while grandpa held my hand…
Rain on the Scarecrow, John Mellencamp
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings And learn to fly
Guess?
Beatles