Genre defining opening tracks?

danishbacon

I was listening to Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (does Ozzy show up if you say it three times fast?) today and it struck me what a profound and impactful opener that would have been in 1970. 

I’m wondering what are your top first tracks, not necessarily in terms of it being a ‘good’ tune, rather something that opens the album and signals ‘listen-up, there’s something different we’re about to say’. 

https://youtu.be/0lVdMbUx1_k

RandallFlagg

Not an opening track per se but the Sex Pistols first live appearance on TV on Manchester TV Show ‘So It Goes’ playing Anarchy In The UK must have been a stop the clocks moment for those that saw it:

https://youtu.be/94DNV6oM8HU

danishbacon

RandallFlagg said:

Not an opening track per se but the Sex Pistols first live appearance on TV on Manchester TV Show ‘So It Goes’ playing Anarchy In The UK must have been a stop the clocks moment for those that saw it:

https://youtu.be/94DNV6oM8HU

Curious, I heard this not an hour ago on R6, the topic was surreal musical experiences or something along those lines. 

fob

PhilW1

Hit the lights -Metallica 

ICBM

Nothing beats Black Sabbath. I can't think of any other single song that an entire genre so clearly sprang from.

Possibly The Velvet Underground, Sunday Morning.

munckee

I wanna be adored on the first stone roses album. Changed my whole perspective of music aged 15 when I heard it first time. 

CMW335

Rock’n’Roll Star 

Whitecat

Kraftwerk - Autobahn

fob

Shrews

Hey you, don't watch that, watch this
This is the heavy, heavy monster sound
The nuttiest sound around
So if you're coming off the street
And you're beginning to feel the heat
Well, listen Buster
You better start to move your feet
To the rockingness, rocksteady beat of Madness

ONE STEP BEYOND!!!!!!!!!

(something like that)

danishbacon

munckee said:

I wanna be adored on the first stone roses album. Changed my whole perspective of music aged 15 when I heard it first time. 

I remember also hearing it for the first time, it was quite an experience. 

Philly_Q

As soon as I saw the thread title I thought Black Sabbath. 

I can't suggest anything "genre defining" - that's too big! - but "In The New Age", which opens the first King's X album Out Of The Silent Planet.  That was a big period in music, for me anyway.  Bands like King's X, Living Colour, Warrior Soul had the power of heavy metal but took it about as far away from Manowar as it could possibly go.

scrumhalf

Foxy Lady - an excellent introduction to Hendrix.

Good Times, Bad Times -Bonzo's drumming at the beginning is amazing.

EricTheWeary

Shrews said:

Hey you, don't watch that, watch this
This is the heavy, heavy monster sound
The nuttiest sound around
So if you're coming off the street
And you're beginning to feel the heat
Well, listen Buster
You better start to move your feet
To the rockingness, rocksteady beat of Madness

ONE STEP BEYOND!!!!!!!!!

(something like that)

Amazing debut album, half the songs would be recognisable to almost anyone of a certain age even without an interest in Madness. 
Arguably you could flip a coin between that and Rudy opening up The Specials as they were released the same day ( and Gangsters had been the genre defining single) but One Step has probably endured a lot better. 

From a few months later if rather a different genre Prowler from Iron Maiden, setting the scene for the NWOBHM. 

Both Saxon and Daft Leotard had earlier releases but I don’t think their opening tracks - Rainbow Theme or Rock Brigade - really set the scene as well ( and Saxon didn’t really join the genre until their second album). 

And the defining album of 1970s British reggae was Handsworth Revolution by Steel Pulse ( much more of a guitar album than Jamaican releases tended to have been) which kicked off wonderfully with the title track. 

Like Sabbath and Madness and Iron Maiden emerging surprisingly fully formed right from the off. 

Stuckfast

Stuckfast

Also, See My Friends by the Kinks -- unless anyone can think of an earlier psychedelic hit that incorporated (vaguely) Indian elements?

JerkMoans

Radio Free Europe - REM

or The Headmaster Ritual - Smiths.  I know it opened their second album, but it's where Johnny Marr really kicked into gear.

Freebird

Still influencing new music over 40 years later..

Album One - Side A, Track 1.

FelineGuitars

UFO - Natural Thing from the live album Strangers in the Night

blobb

Hurry on Sundown from Hawkwind's eponymous first album. The age of the summer solstice, acid days and the free festival scene had begun.