Your favourite Costello first lines of a song

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Fri May 14, 2004 10:22 am

Oh yeah, I knew that was coming. I still don't think it's a good opening, though.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri May 14, 2004 10:35 am

You're absolutely right of course.

The thing is, Elvis has so many brilliant opening lines.

I like the opening line of the new song Needle Time.

"I wish that I didn't hate you least as much as I do"

Bitter and twisted Elvis. I doubt he wrote this on the piano after the Impostors shows when he was writing the songs to North!

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Fri May 14, 2004 10:51 am

"Abel was Able..."

That will definitly rank amongst the best

normabuel · Post by **normabuel** » Fri May 14, 2004 11:27 am

The best first line may be THE first line:

"Now that your picture's in the paper being RHYTHMICALLY ADMIRED and you can have anyone you have ever desired, all you have to tell me now is why, why,why?"

I'm surprised no one picked:

"Bad lovers face-to-face in the morning, shy apologies and polite regrets."

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Fri May 14, 2004 11:34 am

I have to agree with No Action -

but what about ....

So This Is Where He Came To Hide
When He Ran From You
In A Private Dectective's Overcoat
And Dirty Dead Man's Shoes

or

I feel like a boy with a problem

pip_52 · Post by **pip_52** » Fri May 14, 2004 11:49 am

Dont ask me to apologize
I wont ask you to forgive me
If Im gonna go down
Youre gonna come with me . . .

Forever doesnt mean forever anymore . . .

Poppet · Post by **Poppet** » Fri May 14, 2004 12:05 pm

oooh! no action!

opening lines, then *CRASH, SMASH*

i'm off to put it on now. tks!

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Fri May 14, 2004 12:24 pm

I love the New Lace Sleeves opening as well and also from Trust...........

How does it feel now you've been undressed
By a man with a mind like the gutter press
So disappointed to find it's no big sin
Lying skin to skin

Goody2Shoes · Post by **Goody2Shoes** » Fri May 14, 2004 12:46 pm

"She looked like she learned to dance
from a series of still pictures" from Satellite

I'm also with Pip on the opening line from Riot Act

ChokingOnMyPrideandPity · Fri May 14, 2004 2:57 pm

I've been on tenterhooks, ending in dirty looks, listening to the muzak, thinking bout this n that.

We're all going on a summer holiday
Vigilante's coming out to follow me.
Heard somebody say they're out to collar me.
Anybody wanna swallow me?

All the bedroom lights go out
As the neighborhood gets quiet
Everything in heaven and earth is almost right
But there's a wife who's wondering where her husband could be tonight
And when the phone rang only once she took a dreadful fright

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Fri May 14, 2004 6:15 pm

ChokingOnMyPrideandPity wrote:We're all going on a summer holiday
Vigilante's coming out to follow me.
Heard somebody say they're out to collar me.
Anybody wanna swallow me?

I LOVE THAT. So perfect.

Wait... swallow me? What does that mean?

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:13 am

I agree with MBA's prediction...so sorry to bump this thread up, but 'new contender'...

'I wish that I didn't hate you, least not as much as I do...and squander all my contempt for a little nothing like you!'

Needle Time

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:22 am

laughingcrow wrote:I agree with MBA's prediction...so sorry to bump this thread up, but 'new contender'...

'I wish that I didn't hate you, least not as much as I do...and squander all my contempt for a little nothing like you!'

Needle Time

verbal gymnastics wrote:I like the opening line of the new song Needle Time.

"I wish that I didn't hate you least as much as I do"

Bitter and twisted Elvis. I doubt he wrote this on the piano after the Impostors shows when he was writing the songs to North!

Snap!

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:32 am

ha, whoops Im hurrying through 6 weeks of posts pretty fast - must have missed that. Sorry Verb mate, but Im in 100% agreement wiv ya!

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:56 am

Just because I wrote it first doesn't mean that you can't also think it's a fave. It shows good taste on your part!

Copenhagen Fan · Post by **Copenhagen Fan** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 10:22 am

He's a fine figure of a man and handsome too

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Sat Jun 19, 2004 7:57 pm

Most of the best ones have already been submitted, but I echo Welcome To The Working Week, Hand In Hand, New Lace Sleeves, Shot with His Own Gun, Loved Ones, Home Truth, Tokyo Storm Warning, Satellite, All This Useless Beauty, Tart...ten will do. Here are ten more:

The sun struggles up
Another beautiful day
And I felt glad in my own suspicious way

December 1965 in Caracas
When Arnie La Flamme took his piece of the pie
When he packed up the casino chips, the IOU, and the abacus
And switched off the jukebox in "A Fool Such As I"

Enter Madam X painted in a shocking pink spangled dress
Her teeth are perfect but her mouth is loose

Outside my window
Not long before sleep arrives
They come with their sirens
And they sweep away all the boys
Busy draining the joy from their lives
The never said their prayers out loud
(makes me think of Richard Thompson songs like "Streets Of Paradise", "God Loves A Drunk", "Down Where The Drunkards Roll" etc.)

See how the elements obey
Eyes are blue
Skies are grey
Nothing I do can make you stay
I'm glad it will rain today

Georgie grew to hate her name
It sounded like a tiny man

Romeo was restless, he was ready to kill

Thank you for the flowers
I threw them on the fire
(And I burned the photographs that you had enclosed
GOD they were ugly children
So you're the little bastard of that brother of mine
Trying to trick a poor old woman
'Til I almost had a weakness

You turned to me
And all at once
I knew I was betrayed

Almost blue
Almost doing things we used to do
There's a girl here and she's almost you
Almost all the things that your eyes once promised
I see in hers too

Copenhagen Fan · Post by **Copenhagen Fan** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 6:12 am

A handfull of backhanders and a bevy of beauty...........

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 6:15 am

"Now there's newsprint all over your face, well, maybe that's why I can read you like a book"

Copenhagen Fan · Post by **Copenhagen Fan** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 6:16 am

You can take a powder you can take a drink, you can keep the shrink and the kitchen sink!!!!!!!!! ååååh jaaaaaaa

LessThanZero · Post by **LessThanZero** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 3:51 pm

I...feel...like...a...

ChokingOnMyPrideandPity · Tue Jun 22, 2004 4:19 pm

She wears a wedding ring her sister lent
To throw them off the scent
Just let them guess, it's what they expect
Who in the world has bitten her neck?
She's discovered wearing last night's dress
The carnal and cunning, she couldn't express
Who do you think she's trying to impress?

I'd wish you'd known me when I was alive, I was a funny feller
The crowd would hoot and holler for more
I wore a drunk's red nose for applause
Oh yes I was a comical priest
"With a joke for the flock and a hand up your fleece"
Drooling the drink and the lipstick and greasepaint
Down the cardboard front of my dirty dog-collar

The family circle gather round from very far and near
To pass around the same remarks they passed away last year
The little girl you dangle on your knee without mishap
stirs something in your memory and something in your lap

sabreman · Post by **sabreman** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 5:20 pm

ChokingOnMyPrideandPity those are some great ones. The World and His Wife and Sulky Girl openings are especially brilliant! LOL!

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 5:46 pm

Big Boys <3

Copenhagen Fan · Post by **Copenhagen Fan** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 3:36 am

What is your destiny the policewoman said..................

Elvis Costello Fan Forum

Your favourite Costello first lines of a song

wait...here's more!