Flem72 Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Not that kind; I'm talking about intros. Kind of has to be in a narrative art (includes music). Here are two that come briskly to mind: "Call me Ishmael." Jeff Beck's attack into Donovan's "Barabajagal." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrothgar Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 "It was a dark and stormy night" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1eyedjack Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 "It was a dark and stormy night"Some might dispute that this qualifies as "world-class". It was the inspiration for San Jose State University's annual Bulwer-Lytton fiction competition to celebrate the worst in English writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 World class is a tough standard. But if you will settle for "Can still remember it fifty some years after I read it", then I submit:"I am an American, Chicago born".From The Adventures of Augie March.I am unable to explain why this got me, it just did. And for music: Many years ago I saw Porgy and Bess. As I recall it, the very first thing was this woman stepped out on the stage singing "Summertime, and the living is easy... " I regret to say I don't know who it was, but it was as if I had never heard it before. Done the way she did it, I never had. If anything happened before she started singing, I have forgotten it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winstonm Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nige1 Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 100 Best first lines e.g. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flem72 Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Some great first lines are not hooks; some hooks are not just one line: "There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge." Raymond Chandler, _Red Wind_ and very many Keith Richard specials in 4 bars or less maybe the first four notes of Ludwig's Ninth? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggwhiz Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinidad Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Music: in my opinion, the best intro, by a mile, Honky Tonk Women by the Stones. Rik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akwoo Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 maybe the first four notes of Ludwig's Ninth? Surely you mean the Fifth. (Cue rant about all the conductors who don't realize the first 3 notes are pickups.) Also, the Violin Concerto. Plus the opening of the Rite of Spring. Maybe the last Schubert string quartet qualifies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordontd Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess: "It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y66 Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Brown sugar. Layla. Whole lotta love. Black magic woman. Statesboro blues. I coulda been somebody. It was the best of times. Winter is coming. This is the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flem72 Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Surely you mean the Fifth. (Cue rant about all the conductors who don't realize the first 3 notes are pickups.) Also, the Violin Concerto. Plus the opening of the Rite of Spring. Maybe the last Schubert string quartet qualifies. Don't call me Surely. B-) Yes I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Whew, I'm glad that got cleared up. I was trying to think "Do I even know the first four notes of the ninth symphony?" The answer is no. And then I carelessly read the correction and thought "Oh, I am supposed to know the first five notes?". The Fifth. Yes, even I know those notes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 The following is not the beginning of Carmen, but it comes from when she first appears: Quand je vous aimerai?Ma foi, je ne sais pas,Peut-être jamais, peut-être demain.Mais pas aujourd'hui, c'est certain! translation For a succinct introduction to the dramatic issue to be addressed, this is hard to beat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 'It was the day my grandmother exploded'. Iain Banks opening to The Crow Road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberlour10 Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Smoke on the Water - arguably the most known rock intro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 For the 20th century analogue of the first 4 notes of Beethoven's 5th, how about the clarinet trill and glissando in "Rhapsody in Blue"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flem72 Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 For the 20th century analogue of the first 4 notes of Beethoven's 5th, how about the clarinet trill and glissando in "Rhapsody in Blue"? Yes! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandakh Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 100 Best first lines e.g. Number 9 on your list ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.") would have been my choice and it sort of provides a natural progression into Game of Thrones. B-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshoe Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 I dunno about "world class", but I've always been fond of the first line of Robert Heinlein's The Number of the Beast: "He's the mad scientist, and I'm his beautiful daughter." She was right on both counts, btw. B-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 The intro to More Than A Feeling by Boston is impossible not to air-drum to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike777 Posted September 16, 2015 Report Share Posted September 16, 2015 A day in the life https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=As2MF9T18R3sIGh3T5f5eoKbvZx4?fr=yfp-t-901-s&toggle=1&fp=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&p=a%20day%20in%20the%20life%20beatles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike777 Posted September 16, 2015 Report Share Posted September 16, 2015 but to be honest it never gets better than this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V1p1dM3snQ Louie Louie - The Kingsmen (HQ thanks for giving me an excuse to post this...:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshoe Posted September 17, 2015 Report Share Posted September 17, 2015 I spent a couple of hours yesterday watching Santana concerts on Youtube. Just awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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