3 of the Best Opening Lyrics in 1960s Classic Rock

You only get one chance to make a first impression. And some songs take advantage of that better than others. When it comes to classic rock tunes, you better nail the first line or else your audience might move quickly on to the next British Invasion band or big buzzy group from Southern California.

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Here below, we wanted to explore three examples of excellent opening lines in music. Specifically, a trio of classic rock tracks that made the most of their opening lyric. Indeed, these are three of the best opening lyrics in 1960s classic rock song history.

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“The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel from Sounds of Silence (1966)

For all you moody music fans out there, this might be the best opener in songwriting history. It’s lovely and sorrowful. It’s familiar and unique. It’s a walking contradiction that somehow we all seem to cuddle up to as soon as we hear the sweet harmonious voices of its singers. If there was ever a line to put us in a mood and to create a new idea, it was this one. Indeed, to open this 1966 folk-rock song, Simon & Garfunkel sing,

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again

“All Along the Watchtower” by Bob Dylan from John Wesley Harding (1967)

When the story opens right before your eyes, you’ve got something. And on this song, which was later covered by the iconic guitarist Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan puts us in the middle of the action. We soon get our surroundings and know there are two characters talking about the state of the world and its both dangerous and surreal nature. One wonders if Dylan was having an internal dialogue about escape when he penned this track, which opens with the bewilderingly descriptive lines:

There must be some way out of here
Said the joker to the thief

“Yesterday” by The Beatles from Help! (1965)

Sometimes you just have to make a quick connection with your audience. And since all human beings know about pangs of pain brought on by the past, this track from The Beatles’ Paul McCartney hits home quickly and with precision. Singing over a sweet-melancholy acoustic guiar, McCartney describes what it was like to lose his love and to be worse off today than he was just a day ago. And to open the tune, he sings lines that we can all understand:

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay.

Photo by Columbia Records/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images