clichéed song beginnings

Subject: clichéed song beginnings
From: GUEST,Bardan
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 08:07 PM

Ok. Someone might have already done this but what the hell. I'll start the thread with "as I roved out".

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: iancarterb
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 08:40 PM

I don't know why...

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: kendall
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 08:41 PM

Come all you...

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 08:44 PM

One night as I lay on my bed (and variations thereon)

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Mooh
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 08:47 PM

Come gather 'round..

Any Chuck Berry intro...

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: pdq
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 08:49 PM

"got up this morning, looked 'round for my shoes"

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 09:12 PM

"Yo,..."

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 09:16 PM

"I'll sing you a song". . .

"'Twas on a ________ morning". . .

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Alba
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 09:19 PM

"Well I woke up this morning....."

Always makes me think that whoever is singing this line is stating the obvious or they would be in no position to deliver the opening line!
Jude

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: GUEST,Bardan
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 09:20 PM

May uncle daveO. It's always May in folk songs. And the flowers are always in bloom. (Do lots of flowers bloom in may I wonder.)

Subject: RE: clich�ed song beginnings
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 09:26 PM

O'....Oh!....Oh-A....

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 09:50 PM

"It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater!"

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: eddie1
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:01 AM

Charley Noble - I totally agree. You'd think people writing traditional folk songs to win Radio Five Live Folk Awards would come up with something different, but no.
I would point out that Ewan McThingy never used this opening line (well only a few times and this only in songs about herring!)

Eddie

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Alec
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:11 AM

They are there to help people distinguish.If the song starts "I woke up one mornin'" the writer wishes you to know that you are listening to a Blues song.If it starts with "I went out one mornin'" the writer wishes you to know that you are listening to a Folk song.
Alba an enduring urban myth has it that at least one old Blues singer's Headstone reads "He DIDN'T wake up one mornin'"

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: fat B****rd
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:29 AM

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllll"

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Alba
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 07:21 AM

**giggle***
Thanks for that Alec.

Jude (who obviously DID wake up this particular morning)

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: GUEST, Tom Bliss
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 07:30 AM

... but I'd submit that a well worn opening line makes a nice soft start to a story. Lulls people into a false sense of security, so when you kick the chairs out from under 'em in verse four it's all the more fun!

also a sneaky way to get new stuff in under the trad radar!

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Marje
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 07:41 AM

As a couple of other posters have said, there is a point to the cliched opener. It gives the listener some idea of the kind of song it's going to be, and also gives them time to settle in and get used to the sound without missing some vital part of the story. I think it's probably most useful when a song is unaccompanied - if there's instrumentation, a few introductory bars can do the same job.

Then the singer can introduce the important (or interesting, or surprising) elements once s/he has got the audience's full attention.

Marje

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 08:39 AM

It's the same as 'once upon a time' or 'my mate wants to know' or 'there was this guy'... you know what's coming by the opening line.

I'm sick to death of 'I'll sing to you a .......' I'm very tempted to stand up and say 'no thanks' ~ like the short version of Green grow the rushes oh... 'I'll sing you one-oh. Oh no you won't you know!'

'Oh me name is ......' or 'Oh you are ... ' is a close run second in my book, but I have unashamedly used it!!

'When I was a young man/girl/maid' also gets up my nose. Where are the ones that start 'now I'm an old fart'?

LTS

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: GUEST,melinda
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 03:53 PM

Blues musicians always start their songs with "I woke up this morning" to distinguish themselves from other musicians, who usually sleep until noon.

- melinda from Albany

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:06 PM

GUEST, Bardan, the phrase, "Twas on an _____ morning" does NOT always get filled in with "May".

There's "Twas on a Monday morning", the first line of the first verse of "Dashing Away With a Smoothing Iron", which is followed in succeeding verses by "Twas on a Tuesday morning", etc.

And I've heard "Twas on a rainy morning", but I can't tell you what song that was.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: RTim
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:19 PM

"I'm the kind of guy who...."

That is when I switch off!!

Tim R

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Little Robyn
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:23 PM

Many years ago in our folk club, if any singer started by saying "Now, how does it go?" or "I've forgotten the start" a group of us would yell out "TWAS!"
Always a great joke and often enough to get a song started.
Robyn

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Alec
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:24 PM

In live rock performance "ONETWOTHREEFOUR!!!"

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:26 PM

Here's the collection of these to break the bank, written by the great Stan Kelly with Eric Winter. Together with his explanatory note about the song. (From Stan's site, which has words of a whole bunch of songs, plus other good stuff.

Come-All-Ye And Go-Back-Again

Words: Stan Kelly & Eric Winter;
Tune: Any come-all-ye with a sufficiently "big-ballad" tune

© 1963 Heathside Music

Patriotically

Come all you gallant Irish lads wherever you may be,
I hope you'll pay attention and listen unto me,
I hope you'll pay attention lads no matter where you dwell,
It's of a brave young hero the truth to you I'll tell.

I hope you'll all be patient lads while I the truth unfold
Concerning this young hero who was valiant, brave and bold,
So sit back Jack and just relax and listen to my song,
It's something strange and tragical, it won't detain you long.

You toilers of the nation, I hope you will draw near,
A new and strange narration I mean to let you hear,
'Tis for your information I take my pen in hand,
And long before I've finished I hope you'll understand.

Men of honest labour who stand in Freedom's name,
Go rouse up your neighbour and put the world to shame,
You valiant sons of valiant men wherever you are found,
Just give an ear and you shall hear, if you will gather round.

'Twas early morning in the springtime of the year,
No cloud was hanging in the sky, the sun it did shine clear,
The funeral drums their note did sound high o'er the hills around
And Erin wept to see her son laid in the grassy ground.

Go where you will o'er vale and hill, past mountains short and
tall,
You'll hear this toast: He was the most to his neighbours one and
all,
So honour him in story, in song and poetry,
With those who've gone before he'll take his place in history.

So praise God all you Protestants, be humble while you may,
And likewise all good Catholics, and do not you dismay,
He held the standard proudly and he died for Ireland's cause,
Upholding all that we hold dear -- religion, truth and laws.

So let's rejoice with heart and voice we knew our comrade dear,
His heart is stilled and yet his spirit lives another year,
I thank you for your courtesy in listening to my lay,
Farewell you gallant comrades now until another day.

OPTIONAL EXTRA (as the washing-machine salesmen say)

Now eight months being over the night one coming on,
We've got a true perspective on this gallant Irishman,
His story we've considered and between those hallowed walls,
Though we would only whisper it, it sounds a load of...

The line "Come all you gallant mariners/shopwalkers/computer
engineers..." or what-have-youse is folk song's commonest curtain
raiser. Its only real purpose is to get the audience quiet before
you begin to unfold the story. One night, I found I had to sing
three verses of throw-away lines before I could get hush and,
when I mentioned this to Eric Winter on one occasion, it set us
thinking that there must be somewhere a prototypical martyr ballad
consisting of all the best introductory and closing lines.
Together, Eric and I produced this masterpiece, this do-it-
yourself song kit that needs only the name of your favourite
hero to be inserted at strategic places.

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 04:11 AM

I went down to ......

DC

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 02:35 PM

Fat B****rd suggested, "Weeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllll"

I've found this to be an indication that the singer is trying to remember the words. It can come at the beginning of any verse.

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 04:16 PM

And indeed, sometimes, in the middle of a verse!

LTS

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Mr Fox
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 12:40 PM

Or there's the Celtic version: "Nyyyyaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr"

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Cluin
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 12:47 PM

"This one's for all the lovely ladies in the house tonight."

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 04:09 PM

I once had a true love... that's another that bugs me...

LTS

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 04:59 PM

Some of these aren't really cliches at all - they're better described as 'stock' phrases. What can elevate them above cliche is the juxtaposition of an opening stock phrase with whatever comes next in the lyric, if whatever comes next happens to be interesting.

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 07:29 PM

Stan Kelly and Eric Winter win hands down.

Brilliant!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: clichéed song beginnings
From: Scrump
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 05:00 AM

Songs beginning:

I heard her in the valley...

always annoy me :-)