411 Music Ten Deep 3.26.10: Top Ten Opening Tracks

Posted by Andrew Moll on 03.26.2010

From Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit to The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, 411’s Andrew Moll breaks down the top 10 opening tracks! Check out the full article to see which tracks made the list and why!

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(Disclaimer: All opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of 411 Music and its staff.)

Welcome everybody to the thirty-fourth edition of 41 Music Ten Deep, the weekly column where we pick a topic, pick ten worthy choices, rank them and then present them to you and let you have at them. No time to waste this week, so let's get right into the proceedings and take a look at last week and your comments on the list of the Top Ten Artists Who Should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:





What about Rush?
Posted By: Guest#6867 (Guest) on March 19, 2010 at 12:23 AM

RUSH!
Posted By: Neal (Guest) on March 19, 2010 at 12:41 AM

Rush.
Posted By: Guest#7094 (Guest) on March 19, 2010 at 12:55 AM

Rush should in the hall
Posted By: scott liedle (Guest) on March 19, 2010 at 01:09 AM

No Rush=List FAIL. It'll be said soon, might as well say it first.

Seriously, Rush should be in over anybody on that list. Iron Maiden, too.
Posted By: JustGrimace (Guest) on March 19, 2010 at 01:18 AM

This conversation begins and ends with Rush.
Posted By: Peter (Guest) on March 19, 2010 at 06:15 AM

NO RUSH = NO LEGITIMACY
Posted By: Jcon (Guest) on March 19, 2010 at 08:54 AM

I'm certainly not the biggest Rush fan on the planet, but seeing peoples' reactions here certainly makes me wonder why they haven't been inducted yet. The question, like with any hall of fame, is what have they yet to do that would get them in? And if they get inducted next year, why did they all of a sudden become more deserving? Of course, that leads to people saying it should be first ballot or nothing, but that hardly seems fair. The point is, th RNR HOF will never be perfect, unfortunately.

Alice Cooper not being on this list causes it to have zero credibility. Maybe next year.
Posted By: Sorry (Guest) on March 19, 2010 at 01:36 AM

Alice was on my original list, but got squeezed out when I realized Quincy Jones has yet to be inducted. How insane is that? He might be the most famous music producer of all-time! If I had found that out earlier he would have been higher on the list.

Also, there were a lot of metal acts mentioned and while a lot of them do deserve to get it in, the Hall of Fame has shown they have no real interest in inducting them. Considering how long it took Sabbath to get it in, I doubt we'll be seeing too many other metal acts be inducted anytime soon. Even hard rock acts like Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple get the shaft! I guess they're good, just not "ABBA good."



Top Ten Opening Tracks



It's tough to have a good album without a good opening track, since it sets the stage for everything that comes after it. If the first song isn't any good, how are you supposed to be excited about the rest of the album? Luckily these ten songs all get their records started off on the right foot, to say the absolute least. One note before we get started: these songs weren't picked and ranked based just on quality, but also on how they relate to the songs that follow it, if that makes any sense. First, though, let's look at those incredibly worthy honorable mentions:

Some Honorable Mentions: Arcade Fire – "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels);" Black Flag – "Rise Above;" The Clash – "London Calling;" Jay-Z – "Can't Knock the Hustle;" Metallica – "Enter Sandman;" The Stone Roses – "I Wanna Be Adored;" Wilco – "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart"




10. Daft Punk - "One More Time"


Daft Punk's great 2001 record Discovery is a an absolutely great dance album, with the French duo expanding their sound to include more of a disco influence, and the result was the group's best collection of songs that works both as an album and as the soundtrack to one hell of a dance party. It all starts with "One More Time," the band's best song and one of the best songs of the decade. The song is infectious and irresistible, with a build that increases the anticipation for the excitement to begin, and then delivers it in spades. There's no pretense of importance or seriousness; the only idea is to get up you up and dancing and, for one more time only, just enjoying the music and being free.





"One More Time" also makes good use of Romanthony's auto-tuned vocals, using the tool not as a crutch but instead as an instrument itself meant to enhance the song. The cries of "one more time!" wouldn't be as great if the auto-tune didn't help it blend in so perfectly with the music and beats. Designed as the perfect song to wrap up a party, the song instead makes you want to keep listening and dancing, which is exactly what you get to do when listening to the rest of the album. Discovery is as great a dance album as has ever been made, and "One More Time" is probably the biggest reason why.





9. Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"


Somewhat ironically, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" isn't one of the top tier songs on Nirvana's era-defining Nevermind, but it's not too difficult to see why it became so legendary. In an era of mostly disposable mainstream music, in comes a band with a heavy yet catchy sound that combined the best elements of the Beatles, Black Sabbath and the Pixies. With its opening riff and then the introduction of Dave Grohl's pounding drums, the song does feel like something important when you listen to it, and I don't think that's only attributed in the wake of Nirvana's success. With its attitude and Kurt Cobain's snarl of "Here we are now/Entertain us," it's clear to see why people picked up on it.





It's pretty fitting that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is the song that opens the album; when you hear so much about Nevermind being a classic, it would seem almost like a disappointment that any other song would be the first thing you hear. "Teen Spirit" blew the proverbial gates open and therefore deserves to be the song that people are first exposed to when they put Nevermind on. It also lets you know exactly what type of band Nirvana is and what they sound like; a punk band with more than just a little pop sensibility. So while "Teen Spirit" isn't necessarily the best song on the album, it's really the only choice to open it.





8. The Who - "Baba O'Riley"


I'm sometimes a little surprised that "Baba O'Riley" is only about five minutes on length. The song, which opens the Who's classic Who's Next, packs so much into that timeframe that it feels like a long, extended song. From the opening synthesizer to Roger Daltrey's powerful vocals to the violin solo to the fast and furious climax of the song, "Baba O'Riley" has a lot going on, but somehow it all comes together perfectly.





Famously, Who's Next was the result of the aborted Lifehouse project, but the album works much better than if one had to continuously search for the story. "Baba O'Riley" is no exceptions, since it works so well, even with its electronic help, as a straight forward rock song. Plus, Daltrey delivers one of the best vocal performances of his career, putting all his passion into lines like It's only teenage wasteland!" and "They're all wasted!", turning them into rallying cries. This song is simply one of the great rock songs of all-time, making it a pretty smart choice to open the album, I'd say and sometimes you don't need much more than that.





7. The Beatles - "Taxman"


Obviously, The Beatles has a lot of great albums, and not coincidentally they also had a lot of great album openers. From "Come Together" to "Drive My Car" to "A Hard Day's Night" to "Back in the USSR," the band knew how to start a record off in the right way. They got it correct the best with George Harrison's "Taxman," the opening song to arguably the band's best and most complete album, Revolver. The album was the first one not to be completely dominated by the Lennon/McCartney songwriting duo, as Harrison penned three songs for the record, so it was fitting then that he was given the honor of having the album's first song. That collaborative spirit would wilt away over the next few years, but on this album the band seemed to be one whole unit, on reason why it could very well be their best work.





Harrison's paranoia about the British government fueled this bitter track as he took on those that wanted to take away most of his earnings. With lines like "If you drive a car, I'll tax the street/If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat/If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat/If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet," Harrison's anger and wit are on full display while at the same time being paired smartly with some great melodies, so as to keep the thing from being too ill-tempered. The entire song is pretty tightly wound, with Paul McCartney's attacking riffs leading the way, but still had plenty of pop to it to make it more than enjoyable. Considering Revolver is definitely the band's best pop/rock album, "Taxman" ends up being quite the important song.



6. The Beach Boys - "Wouldn't It Be Nice"


There's a small number of albums that are more than just great, but instead actually change the course of popular music, with everything that comes after it being directly or indirectly influenced by what was accomplished. That's the case with the Beach Boys' undisputed classic Pet Sounds that opened up not only a whole slew of possibilities for the band but also pop music in general. It all begins with one of the band's most gorgeous compositions, "Wouldn't It Be Nice," Brian Wilson's ode to childhood hopes and dreams. Music doesn't get much more beautiful than it does with this song right here.





Utilizing the band's great harmonies and combining them with a new approach, one with a baroque pop sound propelled against the wall of sound, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" sees the band improving upon their surf sound of the early 1960s. In that same vein, gone are the lyrics about just surf, sun and girls; in its place is a song that deals in a certain kind of romanticism and sentimentality. Despite singing about the perspective of childhood and wanting to be older, Wilson never approaches it like he's a child, instead adding in a mature love aspect to the song. In the end, this is without a doubt one of Brian Wilson's best songs and the perfect way to start one of rock music's greatest albums.





5. White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army"


Late last year, 411 Music proclaimed "Seven Nation Army" as the best song of the decade, and it was certainly a worthy choice, not the least of all because it kicked off one of the decade's best rock records, the White Stripes 2003 Elephant, a monster of an album that takes blues-heavy rock to an entirely new level. Beginning with Jack's low en guitar riff and Meg's thumping drum beat, the song ends up as a lesson in tension and release, as the duo's methodical build is eventually and repeatedly broken by Jack's squalling guitar that explodes out of the speakers. The song wouldn't work nearly as well as it does without Meg's menacing and insistent drumming that does as much for the song as Jack's guitar work does.





The rest of Elephant, while great, simply continues the argument that "Seven Nation Army" made so well right at the very beginning: that the White Stripes are the heaviest and best garage band on the planet. Not surprisingly, the song was a huge hit and solidified the band as the sound of straight ahead rock and roll this decade, deservedly so. To this day, Elephant is the band's best record, an album that kicked more ass than most other albums and displayed the unique talents of the band's two members. But also, because it opened with one of the best rock songs of the past ten years.





4. The Rolling Stones - "Gimme Shelter"


If you ever need a song to soundtrack the end of the world via destruction and/or nuclear war, then The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" is probably your best choice. The opening ringing guitar riff sets the tone immediately, creating an unsettling feeling that Mick Jagger immediately put into words when he sings, "Oh, the storm is threatening." The song is as urgent as anything the band had ever released as it seemingly foreshadowed the impending demise of the counter culture as the United States descended into violence and constant tension. Ironically, the song album Let It Bleed was released the same month as the Stones' disastrous performance at Altamont, which signified the end of the 1960s as much as anything.





As good as Mick Jagger's vocals are on this song, as he becomes an unlikely political figure, he's definitely aided by backup singer Merry Clayton's soaring vocals which add not only another sense of danger but also a sexual tension that always suited the band quite well. Not every song on Let It Bleed works quite as well, but "Gimme Shelter" hangs such a shadow over every other song that it's tough for them to compete. Luckily it hardly much matters since any album with a song this powerful and great is bound to be highly regarded.



3. Guns 'n' Roses - "Welcome to the Jungle"


Alright, well, if you ever needed twoAppetite for Destruction thinking that they were getting another LA metal band, they were immediately proven dead wrong. This song is dirty, grimy, sloppy and most of all, aggressive. No song on the album could have summed up Guns ‘n' Roses as well as "Welcome to the Jungle" did, with Axl Rose turning in a star making performance.





Moving from the Midwest to glamorous, like Axl did, can be a shock when you find out not everything is as great as you expect it to be. This song makes you feel exactly to live life in the underbelly of Los Angeles. You feel every sense of dread, frustration and anger that Axl has in his body, as it basically pours out of him. For every second of the song, you feel like you've entered a world in which you don't belong and nothing is as it should be, almost like the musical version of Escape from New York or something. Appetite for Destruction would become the most popular debut album of all-time, with "Welcome to the Jungle" leading the way, and unsurprisingly, the band would never sound this inspired or aggressive again.





2. Bob Dylan - "Like a Rolling Stone"


Working for the first time with a full rock and roll band, Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited was the logical culmination in Dylan's transition from folk hero the electric guitarist. Opening with the finest of all rock and roll songs, "Like a Rolling Stone," the album is Dylan's best, more than just partly because of that song. It starts with what once compelled Bruce Springsteen to say "that snare shot sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind." Dylan is at his wittiest here, but also his most incendiary, as he takes the self-righteous position against a number of possible offenders, from Andy Warhol to Joan Baez to the press to his fans to God knows who. Ultimately it isn't important who, but instead how, as Dylan sounds plenty pissed off and isn't afraid to let people know about it.





It's almost unfair to the other songs on Highway 61 Revisited that they have to follow this epic, considering some of them ("Desolation Row," "Ballad of a Thin Man") are also amongst his best, but in reality there's no shame in playing second fiddle to "Like a Rolling Stone." It found Dylan at the perfect point to make such a song, as he felt increasingly antagonistic toward the media and angry at the audience for their disapproval of his move away from acoustic songs. You can hear his frustration every time he asks, "How does it feel?" Dylan was mad at the world around him and channeled it into this song; the result was a song that not only opened on amazing album but also opened the doors to what pop radio could handle and what Bob Dylan could be.





1. Bruce Springsteen - "Thunder Road"


"The screen door slams/Mary's dress waves/Like a vision she dances across the porch/As the radio plays." And so begins the greatest of all opening tracks, a deep character study and triumphant story all packed into one four minute, forty-nine second song. For many people, Born to Run was their first introduction to the genius of Bruce Springsteen, and therefore "Thunder Road" was the first thing they got to hear, and no song could have better defined what he was all about: soulful rock songs that detailed American life and everything a kid in this country dreams about. Mary's boyfriend wants her to get in his car with him and drive away from their town to something, anything, which might be better than what they have now. It's a song that speaks to everything once might want to experience, and here was Springsteen putting it all into one great song.





Springsteen once said that the opening piano and harmonica were meant as introduction to the song and album, and to create a sense that something was about to happen. It works perfectly, because the drama is high right from the beginning and Springsteen, with plenty of help from the E Street Band, only ups the stakes as the song goes along. It climaxes with Bruce yelling, "It's a town full of losers/And I'm pulling out of here to win!" It's a triumphant moment and one that sums up Springsteen as well as any lyric. The Born to Run album made him a star and led him on his path legendary status, and thankfully that album's opening song is quite possibly his magnum opus. At one point he sings, "Waste your summer praying in vain/For a savior to rise from these streets;" fortunately that savior did come, and his name just happened to be Bruce Springsteen.



That'll do it for this week folks, thanks for reading. If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know, and make sure to leave your own lists in the comments. I'll see you all next week. And if you're out on your bike tonight, do wear white.