Best Album Openers...

"Greetings from Sh**tsville" the opener of an incredible debut album Earth vs the Wildhearts.
By way of introduction the listener gets all the classic Wildhearts elements: riff heavy opening, lush hooky chorus, great lyrics but a chorus that rules out radio play (often the case with the best Wildies tunes) and the bonkers musical deviations and weird bits that all fans would come to expect.

 
Biffy Clyro

Captain on the Live at Wembley Revolutions album.

Great band live not so keen on the studio stuff though.
They headlined sonisphere in 2011 and there was this whole 'Why they headlining a metal festival?' Me being an impressionable 16 year old Uhmed and Ahhed about if I wouldn't venture to the saturn stage to see them
3 of my friends decided against, one of my friends was desperate to go, being a good friend I agreed.

What a decision, they are absolutely exceptional, especially live.
 
They headlined sonisphere in 2011 and there was this whole 'Why they headlining a metal festival?' Me being an impressionable 16 year old Uhmed and Ahhed about if I wouldn't venture to the saturn stage to see them
3 of my friends decided against, one of my friends was desperate to go, being a good friend I agreed.

What a decision, they are absolutely exceptional, especially live.
I first saw them live in 2011 as well when they were the main warm up for Foo Fighters at Milton Keynes bowl. That was a hell of a day with fantastic weather as well.
 
Red Rain - So - Peter Gabriel
Running up that Hill - Hounds of Love - Kate Bush
Welcome to the Jungle - Appetite for Destruction- GnR
Shine on u Crazy Diamond - Wish u were here - Floyd
Sunday Morning - Nico - Velvet Underground
 
Bruce Springsteen on Like A Rolling Stone.

The first time that I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother, and we were listening to, I think, WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody kicked open the door to your mind, from “Like a Rolling Stone.” And my mother, who was no stiff with rock & roll, she said, “That guy can’t sing.” But I knew she was wrong. I sat there, I didn’t say nothin’, but I knew that I was listening to the toughest voice that I had ever heard. It was lean, and it sounded somehow simultaneously young and adult, and I ran out and I bought the single. I played it, then I went out and I got Highway 61, and it was all I played for weeks. Bob’s voice somehow thrilled and scared me. It made me feel kind of irresponsibly innocent. And it still does. But it reached down and touched what little worldliness a 15-year-old kid in New Jersey had in him at the time.

Dylan was a revolutionary – the way that Elvis freed your body, Bob freed your mind. He showed us that just because the music was innately physical, it did not mean that it was anti-intellect. He broke through the limitations of what a recording artist could achieve. Without Bob, The Beatles wouldn’t have made Sgt. Pepper, maybe the Beach Boys wouldn’t have made Pet Sounds,the Sex Pistols wouldn’t have made God Save the Queen, U2 wouldn’t have done “Pride (In the Name of Love),” Marvin Gaye wouldn’t have done “What’s Going On,” Grandmaster Flash might not have done “The Message,” and the Count Five could not have done “Psychotic Reaction.” And there never would have been a group named the Electric Prunes, that’s for sure.



 
and honourable shouts for

Sure 'Nuff 'n yes I do - Captain Beefheart, Safe As Milk

Getting High - Ian Brown, Golden Greats

By The Way - Ed Kuepper, Character Assassination
 
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