Best LP/8-Track/Cassette/CD/ Digital/Opening Song

[Riley]

I first saw them play at the John Anson Ford Theatre in L.A. on June 4, 1988. (Yes, I looked up the date.) They were amazing! Shane kept opening bottles of white wine and passing them around the crowd. I was in the pit, and it was one of the best audiences I've ever been a part of. Just a really fun show. I went to a few more of their concerts after that, but Shane didn't make it which was unexpected the first time and Spider Stacy was doing lead vocals. Joe Strummer joined the band at the other concert I attended. I saw Shane with the Popes in S.F. in the early/mid nineties though which I thought was a brilliant show.

Awesome. I was really curious/wanted to see the Joe Strummer-fronted incarnation of the Pogues. I'd hope they played many Joe/Clash songs, and I imagine the Pogues could've produced amazing arrangements.

On topic, I think Transmetropolitan from The Pogues' debut album, Red Roses for Me, is a great opener, however, The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn, from Rum Sodomy & the Lash, takes the cake, I believe.

I'll be difficult now and endorse the big-band-sound Gridlock as my personal favorite Pogues opener, by far. I would love to have heard the Pogues perform and/or make an entire album with a brass section like on that track.

I once saw a slightly humorous local singer/songwriter/jokester/frat-boy-entertainer use Gridlock as his entrance music, and it was the best part of his act.

 

[Riley]

Okay, I'll post my list (for today). My answers will be completely different tomorrow.

A tiny part of my mind keeps urging me to cite U2's Zooropa, but I'm dismissing that.
I'll also dismiss Massive Attack's Protection as someone else's correct answer (from "High Fidelity").

Today I'm apparently in a mood for opening tracks that build from a minimalist start:

1. Laurie Anderson - From the Air (Big Science, 1982)
It not only announces what will follow on the album, but in all Laurie's future work.

""Good evening. This is your Captain.
We are about to attempt a crash landing.
Please extinuish all cigarettes.
Place your tray tables in their upright, locked position.
Your Captain says: Put your head on your knees.
Your Captain says: Put your head on your hands.
Captain says: Put your hands on your head. Put your hands on your hips.
Heh heh.
This is your Captain, and we are going down.
We are all going down, together."
And I said: "Uh oh.
This is gonna be some day.""



2. XTC - River of Orchids (Apple Venus, 1999)
This studio-constructed round built on a base of plucked strings and water drops easily justified XTC's prior 7 years of (get-out-of-our-horrible-record-contract) silence.



3? Stevie Wonder's Superstition... is disqualified solely on the technicality that it opens Side 2 of 1972's Talking Book.




If it must be disqualified, I offer instead these honorable mentions (pick any for #3):
David Bowie - Five Years (The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, 1972)
Madness - One Step Beyond (1979)
Prince - Controversy (1981) or Sign ‘O’ The Times (1987)
King Crimson - Elephant Talk (Discipline, 1981)
Luna - California [All The Way] (Bewitched, 1994)
Regina Spektor - Fidelity (Begin to Hope, 2006)

Disclaimers: Yes I am old, and my opportunities to sit and carefully listen to whole, new albums have been about nil since 2004. Get off my lawn!

 

[Hriston]

Awesome. I was really curious/wanted to see the Joe Strummer-fronted incarnation of the Pogues. I'd hope they played many Joe/Clash songs, and I imagine the Pogues could've produced amazing arrangements.

They did London Calling. The arrangement was interesting if a bit wheezy, with James Fearnley's accordion doing most of the work done by electric guitar in the original version. They also played I Fought the Law, if I remember correctly.

I'll be difficult now and endorse the big-band-sound Gridlock as my personal favorite Pogues opener, by far. I would love to have heard the Pogues perform and/or make an entire album with a brass section like on that track.

I once saw a slightly humorous local singer/songwriter/jokester/frat-boy-entertainer use Gridlock as his entrance music, and it was the best part of his act.

That is a difficult choice. I agree it's a terrific record, but to me it's not what I'm looking for on a Pogues album which I always felt was about Shane's songwriting. It does set up track 2, White City, quite nicely, which is a beautiful song.

 

[Hriston]

My three for today:

1. Like a Rolling Stone, Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
2. Sunday Morning, The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground and Nico
3. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help from My Friends, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles

 

[doctorbadwolf]

AFI - Strength Through Wounding, Black Sails In The Sunset (absolute culty banger that feels like church in concert)

Live- The Dam At Ottar Creek, Throwing Copper (doesn’t kick the doors down necessarily, but the way it ruminates and

Unleash The Archers - Awakening, Abyss

And I’ll second Welcome To The Jungle. The banshee wail is a great way to open an album.

 

[Parmandur]

And I’ll second Welcome To The Jungle. The banshee wail is a great way to open an album.

Back in 2017, I still listened to the radio, amd I recall getting into my car after visiting my FLGS and picking up Tomb of Annhilation...and that scream started up as soon as I started the car...perfection.

 

[Lidgar]

1. Breath, Pink Floyd
2. Tom Sawyer, Rush
3. Finest Worksong, REM

Honorable Mentions:
Everything it’s Right Place, Radiohead
Red Rain, Peter Gabriel
Whole Lotta Love, Led Zeppelin

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Oh also

Daft Punk - One More Time, Discovery

It just sets the whole mood.

 

[R_J_K75]

The Pixies do not jam (AFAIK).

I had to LMAO at this, no offense @Hriston

(At risk of derailing the thread… when did you see The Pogues, and were they good? I saw them at Chicago’s Old Vic in 1989 and they were brilliant - one of the best shows I’ve ever seen - but Shane missed half the shows on that tour due to being just too drunk.)

Unless the mods jump in, I look at every thread as a conversation and they say the topic of the conversation changes every 7 minutes. So have at it. So......didnt the guy from the Pogues die? But before that fell down the stairs in winter at his house and busted out all his front teeth? Played a few shows then kicked the bucket?

 

[R_J_K75]

Yeah, it seemed like they were still playing pretty much the same set in 2022. I didn't notice them playing a single song off their new albums or any of Black Francis's solo material. Just the crowd pleasers I guess.

I hate when bands dont pull out a few deep cuts and play only hits. I always think of it as OK youre playing the hits to please the fair weather fans but what about the hardcore fans, throw us a bone too.

Joe Strummer joined the band at the other concert I attended.

I was really curious/wanted to see the Joe Strummer-fronted incarnation of the Pogues.

So Joe Strummer, Joe Strummer from the Clash, fronted the Pogues at one point? Ah....

They did London Calling.

I'll take that as a yes...