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ALBUM-OPENING SONG BATTLE


Lamp, broken circa 1988

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It's a shame that N.Y. State of Mind technically isn't the opener.

Terrible rap album intros are the bane of my existence.  There has never been a time I bought an album and wanted to hear something other than music when I turned it on.  I remember one of my coworkers asked me to listen to her friend's mixtape, and not only did it have a useless album intro, he had an intro to every single song.  Rap rule #956 if you feel like you have something to say but for some reason you can't put it in a song, odds are you don't need to say it. 

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It's a shame that N.Y. State of Mind technically isn't the opener.

Terrible rap album intros are the bane of my existence.  There has never been a time I bought an album and wanted to hear something other than music when I turned it on.  I remember one of my coworkers asked me to listen to her friend's mixtape, and not only did it have a useless album intro, he had an intro to every single song.  Rap rule #956 if you feel like you have something to say but for some reason you can't put it in a song, odds are you don't need to say it. 

 

If only more people would learn from Big Daddy Kane.

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So while listening to The Evening Jones with Bomani Jones tonight, he made the claim that if there's anything he feels certain about The Life of Pablo, it's that Ultra Light Beam is as strong an intro as there can be. I don't know that I agree, but, I realized that I didn't have an answer immediately ready. Here's what I came up with.

 

 

Ultra Lightbeam isn't even the best Kanye song to open one of his albums.

 

This is.

 

 

 

Alternatively, you have Good Morning from "Graduation", or No Church in the Wild from "Watch the Throne".

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Anthrax can fuck off forever, but good lord "Hell Awaits". Yes, yes, so much yes. 

 

And you know what that reminded me of? Another thrash band with a negligible history that happened to put out one utter classic as an album opener (I'm referencing Anthrax, not Slayer. Slayer is God to me, up until Hanneman decided to completely give up) 

 

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Curt McGirt's vitriol towards Anthrax reminded me of John Bush, whose talent was wasted in Anthrax.

I'm big on the SoCal music scene, from many eras, so here's a spree...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkUkYyo2EsU

 

One more 'cuz I love this band...

 

These guys ruled the LA punk scene in the mid 70s-early 80s...

 

I've already posted some Merle, so here's the king of the Bakersfield Sound...

 

Fuck it, here's more Merle...(Sorry I couldn't find a better version, but this is off the '72 album of the same name.)

 

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I never really got into Armored Saint much but John Bush is an absolutely fantastic singer. March of the Saint was a really good EP iirc. 

 

Cool, never heard the Blasters. I need to get some of their stuff, the Gun Club stuff, some other early LA bands I've missed out on. My focus from those days has always been Dangerhouse Rex/X/Germs and then Black Flag/Circle Jerks.

 

EDIT: And the Go-Gos of course... haha

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I never really got into Armored Saint much but John Bush is an absolutely fantastic singer. March of the Saint was a really good EP iirc. 

 

Cool, never heard the Blasters. I need to get some of their stuff, the Gun Club stuff, some other early LA bands I've missed out on. My focus from those days has always been Dangerhouse Rex/X/Germs and then Black Flag/Circle Jerks.

 

EDIT: And the Go-Gos of course... haha

Fucking love The Go-Go's, was my favorite band for many years, just wish they had gotten their (Belinda's) shit together and done more than 4 albums.

The Blasters, X, Black Flag, Fear, Catholic Discipline,The Bags, I ate all that up with a spoon. I didn't really get the Germs until this last decade, guess I let that shitty performance by Darby Crash on Decline get to me and I filed them under 'suck'.

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On the Decline, "Shut Down" was rambling and horrible but "Manimal" I always thought was awesome, just for Darby completely losing it and then jumping in right as the final verse hit. 

 

Speaking of great album openers...

 

 

EDIT: We're forgetting about the best band to never put out a record: THE SCREAMERS

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  • 1 month later...

Best opening song? Hell, I've got the best opening note right here:

 

Although the remastered version of the 1991 album (from 2006) has a better sounding version that this. It only came out in Europe.

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