Introduce Yourself! Dept. - Steve Shark Counts Us In

"Say, toots! Ain't you glamordom's Brigid Bardotte?" "Va te faire foutre, connard."

A good intro is vital [posits Steve Shark - Ed.]. If it grabs the listener's attention, then it's worked and you're sufficiently hooked to carry on listening. I've just been listening to a Stones greatest hits album, and it struck me how good some of their intros are: Sympathy for the Devil, Satisfaction, Honky Tonk Women, The Last Time, Gimme Shelter...the list goes on and on.

Intros vary greatly. At one extreme they can simply be a brief indication of what's to come. At the other, a lengthier piece of music that is specially created as a sort of prelude. Sometimes they bear no relation whatsoever to the rest of the track, but whatever form they take, a good one will set the listener up for the rest of the piece.

So, here's an assortment of some of my favourite introductions. Most of them are as they were originally recorded, but a few have been created or evolved over time to become an integral part of a live performance of the piece. I've been fairly flexible here and have included some tracks which segue into another, where they seem to me to be inseparable from the main feature.

Steve Miller Band - Threshold-Jet Airliner  
Steve liked a bit of synth and here he uses it to introduce a shiny piece of pop which borrows a lot from Cream's Crossroads riff, but with no guitar histrionics. "Threshold" has nothing to do with "Airliner" musically, but if I don't hear it before the main track, I always feel that something's missing.

The Hollies - Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)
No synths this time! The next intro has some lovely guitar arpeggios punctuated by sparse drums, before getting into a very CCR-influenced groove. Again, with guitars but no wanky solos - they'll be coming along further down this playlist! [artist's impression at left - Ed.]

Elton John - Funeral For A Friend-Love Lies Bleeding
I'm no Elton fan, but I've always loved this brace of tunes. The orchestrated synths sound a bit dated now, but the two pieces have lots of dynamics which hold the listener's interest. Another intros ploy is used in "Funeral" - sound effects, with the wind blowing, wolves howling and a mournful church bell.

Miles Davis - So What  
I sometimes play the intro to this classic track several times as a standalone piece. It still has the "So What" chords, albeit very differently voiced, but it's streets away, in terms of feel, from the rest of the track. It was written by Gil Evans and bassist Paul Chambers. Chambers' last bass figure before he plays the theme is a bit of an enigma. It's hard to hear what he's playing and it ends with a strange oscillating sound. It's a sort of jumble before the order of the main section.

Heatwave - Boogie Nights
Another great example of how an intro can give no indication of what's to come. Harps, a walking bass, brushes on the drums, jazzy octave guitar and ethereal backing vocals just don't prepare you for the disco funk to follow. Another intro I can stand on repeat a few times. Personal trivia note: I used to teach at a school where Rod Temperton's uncle was the caretaker (janitor). Who's Temperton? He was the keyboard player who left Heatwave and wrote Jacko's "Thriller", amongst other fairly popular ditties.

Mountain - Taunta (Sammy's Tune)-Nantucket Sleighride
Although "Nantucket Sleighride" always gets played without "Tuanta" preceding it, there's a segue between the two pieces, with the first track fading as the second one begins. Thematically, the two couldn't be further apart - the first track is dedicated to bassist Felix Papparlardi's cat, and the second is a vague reference to a whaling ship called the "Essex" that was sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. Cannibalism ensued, but that's another story. It's one of my favourite tracks of all time, and again avoids guitar histrionics. Leslie West was more than capable of them, as a 32 minute live version of "Sleighride" clearly shows on Mountain's "Twin Peaks" album.

Western Vacation - Western Vacation
Here's another type of intro - a little bit of theatre, with rufty-tufty cowboys belching and farting around a campfire. It then goes straight into a lengthy bit of poppy fusion with various Zappa alumni taking part - notably Steve Vai on guitar. The rest of the album is rather anonymous, in spite of the Zappa connection and vibe.

The Doors - Spanish Caravan
This opens with Robbie Kreiger showing off his flamenco and classical guitar chops before it all gets a bit bombastic when Jim and the electric section pile in. From "Waiting for the Sun" - an underrated Doors album, in my opinion. This is the track that first got me into the band and made me understand what all the fuss was about. "Wintertime Love" from "Waiting" is the coolest ever waltz to be found in rock.

Steve Hillage - Activation Meditation-Glorious Om Riff
Another synth introduction to an example of those guitar histrionics I've been mentioning. The band plays about with a great riff that's appeared on albums by Gong and Ozric Tentacles - in Gong's case, as a vocal chant. It's also known as "Master Builder". Fortunately, Hillage is a stellar player and although his solo is very trippy, it's interesting enough not to be regarded as mere "noodling". Play this one loud.

Blue Oyster Cult - Joan Crawford
A solo piano intro from the Cult. Musically, again not a lot to do with the rest of the track, but its Gothic vibe sets the mood of the song very appropriately. The "Christina" references are to actor Crawford's [at left - Ed.] adopted daughter who wrote about her experiences in "Mommy Dearest". It wasn't a happy childhood. The Cult were great at all this very "noir" stuff.

Lou Reed - Intro-Sweet Jane
Recorded live at the final gig of Reed's tour to promote his "Berlin" album, this intro was never part of "Sweet Jane" before or since. Arranged by go-to guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, it's a stunning example of twin guitar interplay. It's said that Lou wasn't too happy with the heavy rock feel of the band, but I think that "Rock & Roll Animal" is possibly the best live album of all time, along with "Lou Reed Live", which mopped up the rest of the gig's set list. Many live albums get overdubbed afterwards, but I have bootlegs of virtually every show of the tour and I don't think it happened in this case. The band is tighter than a tight thing that's been overtightened in every single show. Lou, of course, was just Lou and rather chemically enhanced at the time, by all accounts. Another one where cranking up the volume is recommended.

Heart - Crazy On You
Now a bloated AOR band trading on past glories, Heart were once great, to which this track from their debut album attests. Again an intro that doesn't really have much to do with the subsequent song, but Anne Wilson's acoustic guitar leads into the galloping rock rhythm very smoothly. The intro could almost be a Bert Jansch or Davy Graham piece, with its subtle nods to "Anji".

Eric Johnson - Cliffs Of Dover
Here's an intro that only appears in live versions of the tune. Very showy guitar, but Johnson has the sensitivity and sensibility to play with feel, along with his dazzling technique. Normally, I don't like what's come to be known as "shred" guitar, but Johnson's almost violin-like tone and sense of melody elevates this above that label. It's very classical feeling at times and in spite of its length it isn't too over-indulgent. I have several live versions and Johnson's intro to "Cliffs" is always different - sometimes radically so.

Pink Fairies - Do It
This has appeared before in one of my screeds, but it's such a great track that I make no apologies for repeating it. The acoustic guitar intro was missed off the single version, but here's the full album track with guitarist Paul Rudolph on top form throughout. Once again, an intro that's in marked contrast to the remainder of the song. Clear Graham and/or Jansch influences in the intro once again, possibly down to the Boho melting pot of the London music scene at that time.

Al Stewart - Prelude-Last Days of the Century
Yet another synth intro, with added Spanish style guitar from Peter White - a longtime sideman and collaborator of Al's. This leads into "Last Days of the Century", the title track of the last really rocky album that Stewart recorded. It's a bit over the top, with a sequenced bass line, wild whammy bar guitar and Al pondering on what the new millennium is going to bring. In many ways, he was milking the last of his rock phase with this album, but this track at least was amongst his best. Of special note is the fretless bass which really comes into its own in the closing couple of minutes.

The Damned - Smash it Up Pts 1&2
An example of the old Part One and Part Two gambit, although the two parts are very different indeed. Part One sees Captain Sensible playing an almost pretty guitar introduction - who says punks couldn't play their instruments? - which, to these ears, sounds almost like something the late Arthur Lee of Love could have come up with. Part Two, in contrast, is a bright bit of punky pop with an occasional folk rock feel. It also seems to borrow a bit from Eddie & the Hotrods' "Do Anything You Wanna Do" at times. Bizarrely, it concludes with a repeated line from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - and why the fuck not?

To win this swell compilation, complete with IoF© propelling pencil (no lead included) and a handy FARQ BRAND™ pile ointment dispenser ("none more soothing for your Chalfonts"), just answer this simple but very pertinent question:

What's your favourite introduction to a track?