The worst intros in Rock !

[Vic333]

I found an older "Greatest intros in Rock !" thread that was fun to read through.
But, what about the Worst intros.

The only intro (to an otherwise good song) that has made me fire up the audio software to edit it out was the boys choir intro to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Stones.
The song just came up on the music service at work today, and I really can't believe how long that intro seems. It just never stops.

[Zeuhlmate]

The extended intro to YES "The Revealing Science of God" (not on the original vinyl version).

[Scrotum Scissor]

The only intro (to an otherwise good song) that has made me fire up the audio software to edit it out was the boys choir intro to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Stones. […] I really can't believe how long that intro seems. It just never stops.

An outright brilliant intro, to my ears; so completely off-kilter as obvious 'whim', yet so ultimately defining for that tune's function as album closer. Bizarre in many ways, though memorable in even more.

[BravadoNJ]

that acoustic piece before Rod Stewart's Maggie May.
another acoustic interlude before Heart's Crazy On You
the dialogue before Meatloaf's You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth.

[Vic2012]

An outright brilliant intro

Agree. It's proggy Stones.

Here's one:

The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg. It's a 7-8 minute track but the intro is tedious. You gotta have patience. It's a heavy Maiden song. Patience is rewarded with a huge guitar riff.

[progmatist]

The worst lack of an intro was Warner Brothers hacking off the intro to Speed King on the U.S. release of Deep Purple's In Rock.

[ThomasKDye]

The worst intro, ever, is that godawful intro to Dream Theater's "Sacrificed Sons." It's so bad it ruins the song for me. That's all I wanted to hear -- what must be a solid minute of chopped up Islamic prayers and Fox News soundbites. The band must have thought it was evocative but it only ends up being heavy-handed and irritating.

[Painter]

Mellencamp's "I Need A Lover". A bland song regardless. But the interminable intro is completely useless and without any sort of purpose.

[Painter]

I expect a lot of pushback in this one. King Crimson is my fave band by light years; Lark's was my first album and though it took a while to "get it" (coming from a Genesis-based introduction to prog), I love love LOVE this album. Lark's Part One is my way to assault the uninitiated to the "unlistenable" aspects of Crim. But honestly, I can do without the two minutes of thumb piano-percussion intro.

[ronmac]

Any song in which Diana Ross has a spoken intro.

[JJ88]

Not rock, I quite like its eccentricity but The Trammps' 'Hold Back The Night' has about three different intro riffs!

The Bee Gees' 'Don't Want To Live Inside Myself'...love the song but that piano intro doesn't work for me. A bit sloppy IMHO.

Two which are absolute turn-offs for me; Peter Sarstedt's 'Where Do You Go To My Lovely' (not a big fan of the accordion) and Scaffold's 'Lily The Pink' (don't like the glockenspiel either). The songs themselves seem to go on forever as well.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Lark's Part One is my way to assault the uninitiated to the "unlistenable" aspects of Crim. But honestly, I can do without the two minutes of thumb piano-percussion intro.

But that's not actually an "intro" per sé, seeing as the whole piece is formatted as montage and thus consciously attempts to do precisely that - establish a sense of structural unity function through joint blocks of contrast. In other words, the opening doesn't serve purpose as intro but as a singular passage.

An attemptive structure which (to my ears) DOES fail quite miserably, though - is "Xanadu" by Rush. The lingering intro serves as nothing but opening to yet another intro, which again only repeats until there's a third intro, indeed and for real followed by a fourth one, until the (ahem) "song" allegedly emerges. To me, this immature sense of structural approach was the main reason why I usually preferred the shorter Rush tracks - "Natural Science" being an exception. I quite like "Cygnus X-1" (from A Farewell to Kings), although it basically contains some of the same overall flaws as "Xanadu", but at least it channels themes through a format of more densely detailed movement.

[markwoll]

The intro to King Of The Universe from the Planet X album Universe is cringeworthy.

[GuitarGeek]

It's Over by ELO is one that's always bugged me, with the title repeated several times, a capella several times before the song actually starts. Mind you, it's not one of my favorite ELO songs to begin with.

It's not quite an intro, because there's a vocal section before it, but that instrumental bit near the beginning of Don't Be Late by Saga, where the drums, guitar and bass play those unison accents, over the synth arpeggios always struck me as not really necessary.

I don't nkow why, but the intro Misunderstanding has always bugged me. It's just an instrumental iteration of the chorus, but from the first time I heard it, I thought, "uhhhhh...pass!"

There's quite a few prog rock things where I'm a bit ambivalent, at the very least, about the intros. Things like And You And I, Gates Of Delirium, Awaken, Tarkus, Firth Of Fifth, etc don't necessarily need the intros they have, but I don't think I'd edit them out.

Well, I did do an edit of Close To The Edge, but that was more about seeing if I could toss together a "single edit" that I liked better than the one the record company actually did. But in no way does it replace the way it is on the album.

Of course, you could argue, that's the whole point of "prog", to stick stuff in there that really didn't need to be there.

[Vic333]

Agree. It's proggy Stones.

Here's one:

The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg. It's a 7-8 minute track but the intro is tedious. You gotta have patience. It's a heavy Maiden song. Patience is rewarded with a huge guitar riff.

It actually took me awhile to get into Breeg because of the intro. Glad I finally got past it.

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[arturs]

Any song in which Diana Ross has a spoken intro.

Or any song by any artist with a spoken intro, really. Can anyone name a single one where the spoken intro adds value? Remember those horrible Barry White intros? Ugh...

[GuitarGeek]

\ Can anyone name a single one where the spoken intro adds value?

Madness: One Step Beyond

OK, maybe it doesn't actually "add value", but I wouldn't take that track without the intro.
"If you're coming off the street
And you're beginning to feel the heat
You better start moving your feet,
To the monster rock steady beat,
Of Madness

ONE STEP BEYOOOOOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's also the spoken word thing on side one of Misplaced Childhood, or is that not actually part of the intro?

[ThomasKDye]

Can anyone name a single one where the spoken intro adds value?

Those Moody Blues poetic album openers have grown on me like warts. I especially like the campy fun of "In The Beginning."

[markwoll]

Or any song by any artist with a spoken intro, really. Can anyone name a single one where the spoken intro adds value? Remember those horrible Barry White intros? Ugh...

The Doors The Celebration of The Lizard perhaps

[Scott Bails]

that acoustic piece before Rod Stewart's Maggie May.
another acoustic interlude before Heart's Crazy On You

Mellencamp's "I Need A Lover". A bland song regardless. But the interminable intro is completely useless and without any sort of purpose.

Love all of these.

Awaken, Firth Of Fifth

You've got to be kidding. Especially with Firth. C'mon, man!

Or any song by any artist with a spoken intro, really. Can anyone name a single one where the spoken intro adds value? Remember those horrible Barry White intros? Ugh...

Totally agree. However.....

Those Moody Blues poetic album openers have grown on me like warts. I especially like the campy fun of "In The Beginning."

For some reason, I always liked the Moody's intros.

[Progbear]

The Germ-lish recitation at the beginning of Eloy’s “Atlantis’ Agony at Blah Blah Blah Who Cares 2069: A Sex Odyssey,” or whatever the actual title of that monstrosity is. It’s just this guy reciting pompous pronouncements in broken English backed by whole-note string-synth chords for what feels like an eternity. When the actual song starts at—what is it? Nine minutes or something?—it’s predictably a bit of a letdown.

Any song in which Diana Ross has a spoken intro.

Her version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is an utter travesty. Gimme Marvin and Tammi any day.

Or any song by any artist with a spoken intro, really. Can anyone name a single one where the spoken intro adds value? Remember those horrible Barry White intros? Ugh...

“Hey, you know what paradise is? It's a lie. A fantasy we create about people and places as we'd like them to be. But you know what truth is? It's that little baby you're holding, and it's that man you fought with this morning, the same one you're going to make love with tonight. That's truth, that's LOVE!”

All right, that wasn’t an intro, but you get my meaning.

There was a subset of French chanson which consisted of spoken-word numbers. They all suck.

See also, the beginning of this post. Spoken word passages in songs are a real pet peeve of mine.

[Halmyre]

The worst lack of an intro was Warner Brothers hacking off the intro to Speed King on the U.S. release of Deep Purple's In Rock.

And the single version of Watcher of the Skies that hacks off the mellotron/organ intro and just launches straight into the first verse.

[Trane]

I'd like to submit Foreplay, which is much more interesting (and proggy) than More Than A Feeling , which is almost a bore by comparison


Of all the ones mentioned so far in this thread, I love them all

You Can't Always Get What You Want by the Stones (I'm actually pissed when it's skipped for radio airplay).
Rod Stewart's Maggie May.
Heart's Crazy On You
Xanadu by Rush (Rush's intros in general on albums from 2112 to Permanent Waves)


the dialogue before Meatloaf's You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth is legit and good, but doesn't stand repeated listens

The worst lack of an intro was Warner Brothers hacking off the intro to Speed King on the U.S. release of Deep Purple's In Rock.

absolutely... I'm still working to see how I can sue them for depriving me of this awesome intro for over 20 years (when I discovered the whole track in Europe). I mean my life wasn't complete because of that awful & scandalous decision.

There's quite a few prog rock things where I'm a bit ambivalent, at the very least, about the intros. Things like And You And I, Gates Of Delirium, Awaken, Tarkus, Firth Of Fifth, etc don't necessarily need the intros they have, but I don't think I'd edit them out.

Well, I'm not adamant on Awaken's intro (I could live without it), but most of the rest is absolutely mandatory

[Rogue Mail]

But that's not actually an "intro" per sé, seeing as the whole piece is formatted as montage and thus consciously attempts to do precisely that - establish a sense of structural unity function through joint blocks of contrast. In other words, the opening doesn't serve purpose as intro but as a singular passage.

An attemptive structure which (to my ears) DOES fail quite miserably, though - is "Xanadu" by Rush. The lingering intro serves as nothing but opening to yet another intro, which again only repeats until there's a third intro, indeed and for real followed by a fourth one, until the (ahem) "song" allegedly emerges. To me, this immature sense of structural approach was the main reason why I usually preferred the shorter Rush tracks - "Natural Science" being an exception. I quite like "Cygnus X-1" (from A Farewell to Kings), although it basically contains some of the same overall flaws as "Xanadu", but at least it channels themes through a format of more densely detailed movement.

There is a similar one with a song called Strange Ships by a UK band called Fox.

I love the song, but it starts with a strange, atonal piano figure that may have been part of the track on the album that preceded it...I don't have the album so I am not sure. But it just does not seem to fit the song at all...

[Rogue Mail]

Or any song by any artist with a spoken intro, really. Can anyone name a single one where the spoken intro adds value? Remember those horrible Barry White intros? Ugh...

Many will disagree but I love the DJ intro to Calling All Planets by The Carpenters...its goofy I know, but I love that little 'baby' at the end of it.