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Thread: Best (or favorite) Lead-in to a Prog Rock Song

  1. #1
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    Best (or favorite) Lead-in to a Prog Rock Song

    I hope this is new one folks:

    The idea is to name your best or favorite lead-in to a Prog Rock song. I'm not talking simply about some instrumental razzle-dazzle and then the song starts. What I mean is that the lead-in is great music AND serves the song - sets the stage, paints the background, lays the foundation, creates the atmosphere and tees up the song so that proceedings are pregnant and ready to give birth to that first line of the song.

    My first pick off the top of me head: Arrow by Van Der Graaf Generator. IMO the music is a perfect setting for the ominous first utterances: "Stub towers in the distance, riders cross the blasted moor against the horizon".

    Any players?
    Last edited by Buddhabreath; 02-15-2018 at 10:09 AM.

  2. #2
    I'll just state the obvious, before putting some thought on it: Firth of Fifth

    Arrow is.a.great pick

  3. #3
    Watcher of the Skies-Genesis
    Eleventh Earl of Mar-Genesis
    Hold Out Your Hand-Chris Squire
    Epitaph--King Crimson

  4. #4
    So you're asking for intros, huh?

    How about:

    Yes: To Be Over
    Yes: Gates Of Delirium
    Yes: Awaken
    Yes: Tempus Fugit
    Yes: Hearts
    Yes: Long Distance Runaround
    Yes: Ritual
    King Crimson: Starless
    King Crimson: One More Red Nightmare
    King Crimson: any of the live versions of Exiles that kick off with an improv
    Genesis: The Cinema Show
    Van Der Graaf Generator: The Sleepwalkers

  5. #5
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    Great picks already, how could I not have thought of Firth of Fifth and Watcher of the Skies right away? ...and of course Yes and KC were indeed masters of the instrumental intro weren't they?

    Gentle Giant - Memories Of Old Days

    Not one of my very fave GG songs, but it crushes in the great intro category.

  6. #6
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    Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression—Part 1 is one of my favorite intros. I'd add the intro to Eruption as well. Lots of good ones mentioned, but none top those two for me.

    Bill

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    UK -Alaska, Danger Money.
    ELP -Eruption,The score.

  8. #8
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    I have always liked the way they played the intro to Yours is No Disgrace on Yessongs, and getting the later shows recently, I'm glad they chose the one they did for the album.

  9. #9
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    Watcher of the Skies is what came to mind first for me.

    Strawberry Fields Forever
    It's All Too Much
    Pseudo Silk Kimono

  10. #10
    The Overture to Communion with the Sun on Utopia's 'Ra'.

    Obviously it's from Bernard Herrmann's soundtrack for the Journey to the Centre of the Earth movie, but it's the perfect build-up for Roger Powell's synthesizer arpeggio and the song exploding into life.

  11. #11
    Since VDGG's Godbluff album has been mentioned twice, I'll add that I have always loved the way that The Undercover Man so smoothly segues into Scorched Earth, setting the mood for a very different and much heavier song. Hard to say exactly where one ends and the other begins.

    Another really great intro is the first 90 seconds of Glass Hammer's Knight of the North from The Inconsolable Secret. The same theme played 3 times, first by a string trio, Then by a rock trio (keyboards, bass, drums) and then by the band embellished by the string trio. Sets up the song so well.

    And some will no doubt disagree with this, but the intro to Yes's Revealing Science of God (Dawn of Light....) is the highlight of the piece, maybe the whole album. RSOG falls flat after that.
    Gary Levin (a.k.a. The Microwave Brain)
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  12. #12
    "Living In the Heart of the Beast"

    Hearing that, you instantly realize how you're in for 16 minutes like nothing else you've ever heard from a rock group.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  13. #13
    Are we allowed the synth/piano/guitar freak-out at the start of the live version of 'Station to Station'?

  14. #14
    Lucky Man
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    The absolutely beautiful and yet still somehow faintly menacing start to The Musical Box, Genesis.

    The Solid Time Of Change. Yes would only approximate this level of intensity a few times in their career. And Close To The Edge isn't what it is without it.

    Totally agree about the chant intro to Revealing.
    Utterly disagree that the song tails off afterward. One of life's great joys has been deciding that this is one of their finest works.
    But, also agree that the beginning might be the highest point on the entire recording.

    All these years later, cannot stifle the love for Tales. No longer.
    Perhaps finding the happy medium is harder than we know.

  15. #15
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    The keyboard intro to Eloy's End of an Odyssey is one that springs to mind.

  16. #16
    King Crimson: Indoor Games
    King Crimson: Happy Family
    Weidorje: Elohim's Journey

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    Weidorje: Elohim's Journey
    That's another fantastic one - so effortlessly simple, yet it sets the tone for both the contrasts and continuities to follow.

    And there's the amazingly sombre, seemingly abstract (yet meticuously written) piano prelude to "Herold & King/Dloreh" from Island's Pictures album; again an example of a 'summed-up' presentation of the various dimensions of dissonance to follow.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  18. #18
    I have a very soft spot for the introduction of PFM's Appena un po'. It sums up the greatness of the band to me.

    And another one that comes to mind is the beginning of Magma's Köhntarkösz. Glorious stuff, equivalent perhaps only to Coltrane's best moments. If I could save only 5 minutes of Magma music this would be it.

    And if Baba O Reily could count as progressive rock...

  19. #19
    Kansas - the Wall

  20. #20
    Lucky Man
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    Speaking of PFM, The World Became The World!
    Perhaps finding the happy medium is harder than we know.

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Frankh View Post
    Speaking of PFM, The World Became The World!
    Or rather "L'Isola di Niente". One of those rare instances where a truly over-the-top bombastic startoff yields a completely feasible outcome. Fabulous; probably one of my faves, at least.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  22. #22
    Member proggy_jazzer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by everyday View Post
    Kansas - the Wall
    A good choice. I think Magnum Opus is even better.
    David
    Happy with what I have to be happy with.

  23. #23
    This ones easy: Watcher.

  24. #24
    Member DoubleDrummer's Avatar
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    Agree with the many YES songs suggested here.................especially The Revealing Science of God.
    (While in music school in the mid-70s, I actually got to choose this piece for juries in my sophomore year................love it..............and love playing it.)

    Not sure I'd call it prog, but Funeral For A Friend has a magnificent beginning.
    I also like the opening feel of Red Barchetta.

  25. #25
    Love all of the above examples. Watcher is #1 on setting a mood.

    As a songwriter, I always try to write an “intro” as opposed to just jumping into a riff, verse, etc.

    Rush - Overture 2112
    Rush - Xanadu (Now THATintro sets the scene/mood)
    Pink Floyd - Shine On (But starting at Syd’s Theme)
    Yes - Firebird Suite into Siberian Khatru - Yessongs
    Yes - Heart of the Sunrise - Yessongs
    Yes - Roundabout - surprised no one listed that famous acoustic gtr intro with backwards piano

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