If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up - Betty Davis (Betty Davis)
Hangin' On The Telephone - Blondie (Parallel Lines)
Needle in The Camel's Eye - Brian Eno (Here Come the Warm Jets)
Changes - David Bowie (Hunky Dory)
Five Years - David Bowie (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust an the Spiders from Mars)
Break On Through - The Doors (The Doors)
New Big Prinz - The Fall (I Am Kurious Oranj)
The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness - The Feelies (Crazy Rhythms)
Vicious - Lou Reed (Transformer)
You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side - Morrissey (Your Arsenal)
Personality Crisis - New York Dolls (New York Dolls)
Rock N Roll Star - Oasis (Definitely Maybe)
Gloria: In Excelsis Deo - Patti Smith (Horses)
To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey (To Bring You My Love)
Precious - The Pretenders (Pretenders)
We Will Rock You - Queen (News of the World)
Do the Strand - Roxy Music (For Your Pleasure)
This Town Ain't Big Enough For the Both of Us - Sparks (Kimono My House)
Down on the Street - The Stooges (Fun House)
Metal Guru - T.Rex (The Slider)
See No Evil - Television (Marquee Moon)
I Will Follow - U2 (Boy)

Solo Dancers - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (Charles Mingus)
The Host of Seraphim - The Serpents Egg (Dead Can Dance)
Maggot Brain - Maggot Brain (Funkadelic)
Folsom Prison Blues - At Folsom Prison (Johnny Cash)
Overkill - Overkill (Motorhead)
Papa Won't Leave You, Henry - Henry's Dream (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Khmer - Khmer (Nils Petter Molvaer)

Hellz yeah.

I always LOVED the way Swordfishtrombones opens. The stuff of genius, and sets the tone for the rest of what is one of the best albums ever recorded.

Earth Died Screaming and Big In Japan are where it's at.

Still no match for 16 Shells from a 30.6, In the Neighborhood, Frank's Wild Years & Just Another Sucker on the Vine. I'm not saying his album openers are necessarily bad but Tom transitions into his album material severely and doesn't leave much room for the listener to get acclimated to the album. I've always enjoyed the other material on them (especially Swordfishtrombones).

I did forget about Bone Machine though, The Earth Died Screaming is absolutely glorious.

I like "Singapore" a lot but overall I agree with you, his opening tracks are frequently some of the weakest on the album (I'm looking at you "Big in Japan"). It's like he wants to lower expectations before hitting you with the good shit.

Ooh, how about "Angel" from Massive Attack's album Mezzanine for one of the great album openers? Not only is the menacing mood of this song a great way to kick off the album but the dynamic of the song is so amazing for bringing you into the album. It starts with a simple, sort of mellow, beat and slowly turns into a ferocious monster stalking you from the shadows as you walk to your car in a secluded parking lot late at night.

Agree. That album just gets better all the time. It's rare that I will call an album a masterpiece but Mezzanine definitely is one. A desert island disc for sure.

I still think it's a cool song, maybe it's just me tho. I think it sets the mood for the rest of the album pretty well.

1 more i forgot to mention was
I Wanna Be Adored - The Stone Roses (The Stone Roses)