Take this as a brief interregnum between the excitement/despair/excitement of the first half of Barack Obama's first term and the coming Last Battle for Civilization that will be the 112th Congress -- or that also I just (almost) finished a horrific legal briefing thing -- but I crave frivolity. So here is the question for disputation, worthy of the underemployed music afficionados of High Fidelity.
The question is: What are the greatest opening 5 seconds in rock (or your other preferred form of popular) music.
There are Rules (this isn't Nam, man):
- It really has to be just the first five seconds. There are no exceptions. Except possibly for Bob Dylan's Idiot Wind, in which it takes Dylan about 6 seconds to complain "Someone's got it in for me; they're planting stories in the press!" Cause it is Bob Friggin Dylan, perhaps allowing 1.5 seconds to finish the line would be allowed. But otherwise, no.
- Furthermore, it really has to be 5 seconds from the beginning of the song, not from the beginning of the vocals (in other words, "Now every cheap hood makes a bargain with the world," is an all-time thrilling opening line, but it comes after a good but not epic instrumental intro in the Clash's Death or Glory).
- It has to be popular music of some kind -- I hear that Beethoven's Fifth starts quite snappily indeed, but it is not qualified for this competition.
- Those were the last rules -- the awesomeness can stem from a great lyrical line, an awesome guitar lick, or an amazing sound, or otherwise.
Here are a few pump-priming nominations, not necessarily my very best (I might be holding some of my best in reserve, or forgetting them because of the foregoing legal briefing overload), and drawn only from a narrow category of Really Famous Bands for wides accessibility. But an inkling of the high level of introductory awesomeness I am demanding can be gleaned from these examples:
* Rolling Stones, Rocks Off
* Rolling Stones, Sway
* Rolling Stones, Satisfaction
* Led Zeppelin, Trampled Underfoot
* Led Zeppelin, Communication Breakdown
* Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
I am going to finish the crushing legal brief and when I get back I expect this to be not only at the top of the rec list, but brimming with brilliant selections.