Songs with the Greatest Opening Lines

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jaytex1969

Lifer
Jun 6, 2017
9,517
50,591
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I can’t place the melody, can you hum a few bars?

Pappymac added the first line of The Battle of New Orleans.

Aresone replied with a reference to Cottonbalers.

In the 3rd stanza of that song, you'll find the following:

We looked down a river and we see'd the British come
And there must have been a hundred of 'em beatin' on the drum
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
We stood beside our cotton bales and didn't say a thing

The subsequent army unit became the 7th Infantry Regiment and became known as the Cottonbalers.

I was in the 7th, as I'm assuming @Aresone was.

The melody, therefore, is as follows:



1618350108948.jpeg
 

ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,317
11,070
Maryland
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OK, when did we stray from opening lines??

The Patsy Cline song a few pages back me me think of this Jackson Browne song:

Well I've been out walking
I don't do that much talking these days, these days
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
And all the times I had the chance to
 
Start spreadin the news..
If some of ya'll never been down south too much
I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this
So that you'll understand what I'm talkin' about
Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods
And in the fields looks somethin' like a turnip green
And everybody calls it polk salad, polk salad
...
I sang Polk Salad Annie back a million years ago in my high school talent contest, but I was beaten by a football player in drag who lip synch'd a Madonna song. puffy
There' no accounting for tastes.
 
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ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,317
11,070
Maryland
postimg.cc
I sang Polk Salad Annie back a million years ago in my high school talent contest, but I was beaten by a football player in drag who lip synch'd a Madonna song. puffy
There' no accounting for tastes.
One of the few Elvis songs that I like. My wife is the biggest Elvis fan in Maryland and drives me crazy constantly playing his songs. I have to continually remind her that he stole that song from Tony Jo White (RIP). But I guess Tony Jo made more money from that song than the rest of his catalog of own releases. I still prefer his version.
 
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