In a few weeks, I will make my yearly pilgrimage to Charlottesville, Virginia to spend some time with a wonderful group of songwriters. We try out new material, write new songs, co-write, play, and live and breathe music for a week. Last year, there was a discussion about favorite first lines of songs. I recently compiled a list of them and tried to write a song using just first lines (or portions thereof). There are 28. Until I record this, feel free to supply your own melody. Also, help me come up with a chorus!
I would love to hear from you as to your favorite first lines.
The first three stanzas are mine as a way to set up the song.
In the Beginning
The first line indelibly defines a song
A false phrase, attention strays and is gone
So much rests on an introduction
there’s no sex without seduction
The tone is set and all you get is a breath
it’s brevity whether levity or depth
life is short, attention more so
you’ve maybe four seconds or so
Children at first learn how to talk
2nd verse and they begin to walk
all first stanzas could essentially be
here i am pay attention to me!
Please allow me to introduce myself,
Bernadette. Help!
I bet you wonder how I knew
I may not always love you
Yesterday, it was the third of June
busted flat in Baton Rouge
Hello darkness, my old friend.
Crazy, this is the end.
And now the end is near
Why do birds suddenly appear?
Hear the lonesome whippoorwill,
“I found my thrill”
I am a lineman for the county
you were working as a waitress
Because baby now that I found you
Every breath – Midnight at the oasis
I am an Antichrist
she’s a very kinky girl
Strangers in the night
I’m sittin’ on top of the world
Wouldn’t it be nice
Somewhere over the rainbow
Look into my eyes
Hey, ho, let’s go