The 15 Best Opening Lines in Rock Music

When we talk about the emotional core of rock, the conversation often lands on lyrics. The words that transform a few guitar strings, a backbeat, and a melody into something human. We analyze verses, unpack choruses, debate meaning, and trace themes like they’re roadmaps to the artist’s soul. But in all that close reading, one crucial moment often gets overlooked: the very first line.

That opening line is the handshake, the warning shot, the invitation. It’s where a song declares its tone, stakes its emotional claim, and tells the listener whether they’re about to fall in love, pick a fight, or have their heart broken. Sometimes it’s subtle. Sometimes it’s confrontational. Either way, those first few words can be the difference between a song that stops you cold and one that fades politely into the background.

The following 15 songs represent rock and roll at its most decisive. They introduce worlds, frame stories, and set moods so effectively that the rest of the song feels inevitable once they land. Decades later, these openings remain unforgettable, not just because they’re clever or poetic, but because they understood exactly how to pull a listener in from the music's very first breath.

15 The Smashing Pumpkins, Bullet With Butterfly Wings (1995)

Despite The Rat's Raging Cage

The world is a vampire

Sent to drain

Secret destroyers

Hold you up to the flames

It seems so simple, right? The image of undead bloodsuckers partaking in what they do best doesn't exactly feel out of place for the goth-dwelling ruminations of The Smashing Pumpkins on their 1995 Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness lead single "Bullet With Butterfly Wings." What makes the difference is the way Pumpkins lead man Billy Corgan presents the existence we know as an eater brought down upon us to suck us dry of our life and vitality. The kick-in of the head-nodding throb-rock instrumentation right off doesn't hurt the impactful nature of "Bullet" either.

14 Prince And The Revolution, Let's Go Crazy (1984)

Powerful Funk-Synth Gospel

Dearly beloved

We are gathered here today

To get through this thing called life

Prince wasn't just calling his band The Revolution when it came to the 1984 release of his album Purple Rain and its first song, "Let's Go Crazy." He was also revolutionizing his sound to the next level, and that began with the futuristic, synthed-out sermon opening "Let's Go Crazy." It's an element of gospel where you might least expect to find it and empathetic in the overall approach. After all, who can't get onboard with the idea of gathering together just to get through this wild ride we know simply by its first name, life? It's such a hook.

13 Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)

The Surrealist, Serpentine Ballad

Is this the real life?

Is this just fantasy?

Caught in a landslide

No escape from reality

There are few songs as good at explaining their (slightly obtuse) mission statement as the band Queen did with the opening words of "Bohemian Rhapsody" from their 1975 LP A Night at the Opera. With the changes in style, tempo, and lyrics on the track, is this real life and reality, or is this all just a fantasy of the narrator? It seems impossible to know in the midst of the deep surrealism of "Bohemian Rhapsody," and the opening lines only further fictionalize the possible truth in the best possible way.

12 David Bowie, Space Oddity (1969)

Floating Out In The Ether

Ground Control to Major Tom

Ground Control to Major Tom

Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

And so begins the ill-fated adventure of David Bowie's fictionalized astronaut Major Tom, whose demise is never confirmed by 1969's "Space Oddity" but seems to be all but a certainty once the final chords of the song ring out into silence. It isn't so much the poetry of the first line that makes this track one of the best or most timeless openers, but the scene-setting and the story. To take place in space during a major time of space exploration and be presented in a style only Bowie could accent so well - that is the perfect "Oddity" of it all.

11 Sinead O'Connor, Nothing Compares 2 U (1990)

Flower Planted Fragile Beauty

It's been seven hours and fifteen days

Since you took your love away

I go out every night and sleep all day

Since you took your love away

Originally written and demoed by the great musician Prince in 1984 for a release created in 1985 by one of his associated bands called The Family, the late great Irish singer Sinead O'Connor also took a crack at the song "Nothing Compares 2 U" in 1990. Released as part of her album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, O'Connor not only made it the biggest hit of her career but also made it sound entirely her own. The way she could tackle this opening line couldn't be replicated. The sadness of need and longing here is poignant magic.

10 Black Sabbath, Planet Caravan (1970)

Rock On A Space Flight

We sail through endless skies

Stars shine like eyes

The black night sighs

The Moon in silver dreams

Falls down in beams

Light of the night

Recorded for the band's 1970 album Paranoid, Black Sabbath showed off a poignantly poetic side with the song "Planet Caravan." Trading in their trademark hard rock guitars and sentimentality for something downright psychedelic and jazzy, lead man Ozzy Osbourne sounds like he's singing this opening line from a thousand miles out in space. But this isn't purely acid-headed material either; there is a clear and present beauty of poetry here that may pleasantly surprise casual Sabbath listeners or those unfamiliar with their catalog. "Planet Caravan" has a striking ecosystem to it.

9 The Rolling Stones, Sympathy For The Devil (1968)

A Dark Ballad Of Badness Personified

Please allow me to introduce myself

I'm a man of wealth and taste

I've been around for a long, long year

Stole many a man's soul and faith

Leave it to The Rolling Stones to make the Devil look cool. Written for the Stones' 1968 album Beggars Banquet, singer Mick Jagger takes on the personification of the Devil in "Sympathy For The Devil," listing some of his crimes in history over the catch of a dancing beat. In a sense, the song has a perfect contrast between the figure's evil personification and his attracting temptation. This line shows this as well, taking on the shape of a man of wealth and taste, who has stolen many a man's soul and faith. As they say, the devil's in the details.

8 The Eagles, Hotel California (1977)

A Bizarre Hollywood Concept Piece

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair

Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air

Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light

My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim

I had to stop for the night

The Eagles really pulled out a masterful stroke of mystical conceptualism with the creation of the 1977 track "Hotel California." This introductory lyrical line sets the stage for the almost paranormal fright the narrator experiences to stop at the scenes of this "hotel." In actuality, the band was providing a metaphor for Hollywood itself and the "weird" scenes and loss of innocence that come with being embedded into that scenery. It's both welcoming and inviting but also gives the slight hint that something foreboding is on the way behind the desert's warmth.

7 The Beatles, Let It Be (1970)

An Uplifting Song Of Consolation

When I find myself in times of trouble

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom

Let it be

Utilized as the title track from The Beatles' final studio album, "Let It Be" is one of those classic Paul McCartney-centric suites from the Fab Four's catalog that's on a level of "Hey Jude"-type iconic status for the singer-songwriter. Just hearing the piano notes and this lyrical introduction is the handshake to something that immediately has power and attention and significance with "Let It Be." It's a song of support and consolation at the root of it all, and at the end, the mood feels easier to let it be after listening.

6 Nirvana, Come As You Are (1991)

The Mud-Grunge Of Acceptance

Come as you are, as you were

As I want you to be

As a friend, as a friend

As an old enemy

Take your time, hurry up

Choice is yours, don't be late

Take a rest as a friend

As an old memoria

Released as the second single from Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind, "Come As You Are" was another one of frontman Kurt Cobain's lyrical endeavors that seemed to have multiple meanings. Some interpreted it to be about taking heroin, while others saw the track as telling the listener to be more comfortable in their own skin as their natural selves in the world. Whatever the meaning filtered through Cobain's perspective on the world, this intro line feels like an invitation to get comfortable, to some unknown end.