Song Lyrics Podcast
Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That’s English! The Spanish Ministry of Education’s official distance learning English course. To find out more about That’s English! go to www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages.
We know how music plays a big part in peoples’ lives and that many of you use songs to help you learn English. That’s why the team at That English! have brought to you this podcast about iconic songs and their famous opening lines.
Have you ever stopped to think about how important the first line of a song is? Just like an author has to capture the reader’s attention with the first lines of a novel, a songwriter needs to set the scene or mood in just a few words and engage their listener.
Here are what we consider to be some great first lines from some even greater songs. Let us know if you agree!
"Hey ho, let's go!"
!Venga, vamonos!.
Not a complicated one to begin with, but without doubt a very apt one to introduce you to our list. For many of you Ramones fans, this simple fist-punching one-liner intro to the song ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ could not be more memorable. Almost defining American punk rock, its words and beat combined, shout energy and power !Venga, vamonos!.
“All the leaves are brown / And the sky is grey.”
Todas las hojas son marrones / Y el cielo es gris
From the 60s, this song intro was brought to us by the vocal folk-rock band The Mamas & The Papas in their hit ‘California Dreamin’. These evocative lyrics set the scene by describing the season in this melancholy melody as the singers dream of being back in the sunshine state of California.
“You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar.“
Trabajabas de camarera en un bar de cócteles
The electro-pop pioneers, The Human League, brought us these lyrics from their 1981 hit ‘Don’t You Want Me’ after being inspired by an article in a woman’s magazine. The song is about a man whose cocktail waitress girlfriend no longer wants him, even though he helped get her where she is today. This catchy opening line tells us how the couple first met. The lyrics work so well due to the regular use of the /w/ sound, as you can see in the song’s first line: you were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar..
“Get your motor running / get out on the highway.”
Pon tu motor en marcha / sal a la carretera
Sometimes described as the first heavy metal song, ‘Born to be Wild’ by Steppenwolf conjured up images of biker rockers, especially after its success in the soundtrack of the 1969 film ‘Easy Rider’ where the ‘going nowhere’ open road was the new American dream. This opening line is about getting on your motorbike, starting the engine and enjoying cruising on the vehicle-free motorway.
“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…”
Ayer, todos mis problemas parecían tan lejanos…
Before this melancholy Beatles ballad came out, Paul McCartney thought the melody already belonged to someone else. Apparently, he went around singing it with the words ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs…’ asking if people knew the tune. Thankfully, nobody did, and he went on to write one of the most popular Beatles songs ever, ‘Yesterday’. About a relationship break-down, the song’s first line starts with McCartney thinking about the previous day and how much better it had been, before the break-up and the problems began.
“Birds flying high you know how I feel / Sun in the sky you know how I feel…”
Pájaros volando alto sabes cómo me siento / Sol en el cielo sabes cómo me siento...
When you start to create a picture in your head of the sun in the sky and flying birds, you naturally start ‘Feeling Good’, don’t you? It’s a very appropriate title for this song by Nina Simone don’t you think? It made her feel good too and we think you’ll agree, it not only made you feel good, it also sounded good - very good.
“She keeps her Moet et Chandon / In her pretty cabinet / ‘Let them eat cake’ she says / Just like Marie Antoinette.”
Guarda su Moet et Chandon / En su bonito armario / 'Que coman pasteles' dice / Igual que María Antonieta.
These famous first lines of ‘Killer Queen’ by the fabulous Freddie Mercury and his band Queen was about a high-class call girl. Freddie glamourised the life of the wealthy kept mistresses and potentially powerful courtesans with their extravagance and indulgence.
"At first I was afraid, I was petrified / Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side / But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong / And I grew strong, and I learned how to get along."
Al principio tenía miedo, estaba petrificada / Seguía pensando que nunca podría vivir sin ti a mi lado / Pero luego pasé tantas noches pensando en cómo me hiciste mal / Y me hice fuerte, y aprendí a salir adelante
Gloria Gaynor’s disco hit ‘I Will Survive’ is one of the great female empowerment songs of all time. These introductory lyrics express how she was scared in the beginning, doubting how she could live without her partner but later, having realised how much she had been hurt in the relationship, she gained confidence to carry on alone and she survived, thankfully.
“And now, the end is here / And so I face the final curtain…”
Y ahora, llegó el fin / Y así me enfrento al telón final ...
Did you know that this smash hit ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra was originally a French song by Claude François called Comme D'Habitude, meaning ‘as usual’. And that both versions had totally different meanings? Claude’s was about routine in a relationship and falling out of love. Songwriter Paul Anka heard the song and paid for rights to rewrite the lyrics specifically for Sinatra. In this timeless anthem, Sinatra sings about the end of a lifetime and looking back on it all. These opening lines refer to the moment when you are faced with the final performance in your career or death and the curtain closing on you for the last time, signifying the end. It spent 75 weeks in the UK’s top 40 singles chart, simply amazing!
And this helps us bring this podcast to a close. But you’ll be glad to hear it’s definitely not the end for us. We’ll be back with more very soon. In the meantime, please let us know if you’ve enjoyed this podcast or if you have any favourite opening lyrics to songs that we’ve missed that you’d like to mention. We’d love to hear from you. And finally, just to remind you, why not take a look at our blog entry on the 10 best songs to learn English, we think you’ll like it!
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