10 Awesome Openings In Terrible Songs
Some good things just don't last...
Ever wondered why the majority of relationships end around the 3-month mark? What prevents casual dating from turning into a full-blown serious romance? The story goes that a person cannot keep up a fake persona for longer than 91 days, thus revealing true colors and hasty breakups.
The same rule applies to music. Think about all those amazing intros that are eventually ruined by the rest of the song. It's like the world's most desirable person asking you out on a date, only to then chew with their mouth open. It's like finding a 20 dollar bill on the floor, only to realize that it's fake. It's like waking up on a Saturday morning, only to find out that it is actually Friday seconds later, or even worse, Monday morning. Yes, awesome intros and terrible songs are the absolute worse.
Surprisingly, the great intro and bad follow-up is a common combination in music. The opening few notes are an instant earworm, so catchy you feel as if this might just be the best song ever written. Then, almost as quickly as it came about, it disappears beneath a pile of what can only be described as pure rubbish. The whole song then transcends into a nonsensical nightmare of the amazing intro that spawned it and you are left with nothing but violent rage and tears.
OK, it might sound a little exaggerated, but when it comes to music, you just cannot take these things lightly, right?
10. Layla - Derek And The Dominos
The best thing about Layla is the outro. The second best thing about Layla is the intro. The worst thing about Layla is the rest of the song.
In fact, even the tune's history is better than the song. For instance, Layla was said to have been inspired by a love story hailing from 7th century Arabia. The tale tells the story of a young man who goes crazy after being unable to marry the girl of his dreams. At the time, Clapton was also hopelessly in love with his best friend (and most underrated Beatle) George Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd. Clapton was so infatuated with Boyd that he wrote Layla as a response to his unrequited love, that is until she gave in and married him years later.
Unfortunately, Clapton's lyrics don't really express the emotions that he felt, but thankfully the intro and the riff do that for him instead. Even better, we are then treated to one of the greatest musical outros of all time, what is now known as the Piano Exit. The song outro was so well received that Martin Scorsese used it prominently in arguably his most famous work, Goodfellas.