One-two-three-four, go! Music that puts its foot down

Prepare for takeoff. One time I was in a friend's car and, to demonstrate how fast this vehicle could accelerate, he went from zero to 35 mph in about 1.2 seconds. Impressive engineering, for sure, but I did feel slightly queasy and almost alarmed. Do cars ever actually need to speed up so incredibly quickly? Fast cars, eh? That said, warp-speed acceleration in music - at its best - is undeniably exhilarating. Take this amazing track as an example: Kissland's Creme Brulee. Incredible stuff. A great song and in particular the start is five seconds of pure energy, especially when the vocals kick in. I seem to remember Jon Savage saying in England's Dreaming that when he first heard the Ramones' debut album he had such a rush of adrenalin that he jumped up and down and banged his head on a doorframe. Yeah man, music for headbangers. Anyway, I decided to spend a whole five seconds of my own time thinking of other fast-starters. A couple of these might be the Damned's New Rose (well, especially when you get to Dave Vanian's "ugh" at 18 seconds) and Buzzcocks' Love Battery (fizzing at the terminals from the off). Another one - sort of - is the Nerves' Hanging On The Telephone. Listen to the track on YouTube and it sounds pretty ordinary (sluggish), but about 15 years ago I saw the Paul Collins Beat in a small basement venue in north London and, like an idiot, didn't know about the Nerves/Blondie heritage and wasn't expecting to hear Hanging On The Telephone. Not only that, the band started the gig with HOTT and they did it super-immediately and very loud. Amazing. I still get a mini-thrill remembering it (yep). So there you have it. My five-second joyride. There must be dozens - hundreds - of other speedy-starters, but to be honest I can't think of any at the moment. Any readers of this post (if there are any) are encouraged to take five seconds out of their own busy lives and send me other examples of fast-out-of-the-gate tunes. One-two-three-four, go!...   

News just in: this Physique track is a good starter. Not only fast but also ... fierce.