Who doesn’t love a great song intro?  Instantly recognizable hooks that suck you right into a song and elevate it to a different level.  A great intro can make a good song great, (Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”) a great song a hall-of-fame classic, (Eric Clapton’s “Layla”) and a hall-of-fame classic one of the best songs of all time. (Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”)  I was photographing an event back in 1988 that was almost certainly the largest I’d done up to that time.  Multiple giant outdoor tents, and the works.  I mean, there were a LOT of people there of all ages.  Appetite for Destruction, Gun’s & Roses debut album had been released a short time before, and the DJ spun up a song from that album.  Almost the very second the first notes from Slash’s iconic intro riff for “Sweet Child o’ Mine” hit the air that place EXPLODED like nothing I’ve ever seen at any event, before or since.  It was like the Beatles just landed.  Would that have happened for “Welcome to the Jungle” or “Paradise City?”  Maybe… but I’m not convinced.  There’s a pretty good intro on “Jungle,” but “Sweet Child” just hits another gear that mere mortal songs don’t have.

When a band or artist can throw down a great song that also has a great extended intro, that’s when I’m all the way in.  Take “Layla” for example.  An unbelievably good intro.  Many would say it’s one of the best of all time, but… it’s only :25 seconds long.   For this club, it’s gotta hit at least the minute mark just to squeak in the door. (and even then, you might get a little side eye.)  “Stairway” with maybe the best intro of all time only hits :52 seconds.  I’m not saying that intro isn’t great, an easy best of all time for me, but I relish those gloriously long intros, so, here are 15 of my favorite all time extended song intro’s.  (Not in any particular order)

Smash It Up
The Damned
2:10 intro – 4:50 song length

The Damned was the first UK punk rock band to release a single, “New Rose” (1976), and release an album, Damned Damned Damned. (1977)  “Smash it Up” is a surprisingly subtle, melodic and even smooth intro, from a band with a guitar player and drummer named Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies respectively.  Bass and drum heavy with a feathery little guitar counterplay, it kicks into a bit of a rockabilly flavored uptempo at the 1:35 point before smashing into it’s pop-punk rooted second part.

Money For Nothing
Dire Straits
2:04 intro – 8:25 song length (Album version)

Rocketing to smash number one status as a heavy play feature of the MTV early years, (when they actually played music videos) the album version of “Money for Nothing” offers a superbly long intro, featuring fully 2:04 of Sting background falsetto, a slow buildup of drums and synthesizer, and finally, a full blast kick into Mark Knopfler’s thundering signature riff.  Chills.

Foreplay/Long Time
Boston
2:45 intro – 7:48 song length

Few debut albums are as huge, as powerful and as culturally sticky as Boston by Boston was back in ’76.  A monster hit for a band unknown at the time, Boston spawned multiple singles and classic rock play to this day.  With an intro coming in at a fantastically long 2:45, and featuring a Hammond Organ and a guitar pick scrapping on the strings with delay and distortion, and not a synthesizer, (the band couldn’t afford one) as is commonly thought.  With a sound Rolling Stone described as “a perfect marriage of Led Zeppelin and Yes that plays musical chairs with electric and acoustic sounds,” “Foreplay/Long Time” owns it’s spot on this list.

Nowhere Girl
B Movie
2:55 intro – 6:31 song length

Oh, the ’80’s… what a remarkable time in music.  Such a heady mix of classic rock, hair bands, disco, (fading away) the birth of hip hop and rap and the Second British Invasion of Punk, New Wave, Ska, Beat, Synthpop, Thin White Dude, Angry Young Man, New Ro, Androgyny and too many crossover styles to count.   B Movie, truly a one hit wonder band, threw out this synthpop masterpiece in ’82 that holds up remarkably well.  Nearly 3 full minutes of laughing girl, driving drums, synth-heavy keyboards, relentless bass line and delicious melody followed by a catchy as all hell song that just totally works.

Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)
Elton John
5:50 intro – 11:07 song length

Now we’re talking.  Almost 6:00 minutes of synthesizer and piano intro for an angry breakup song.   Elton gets it done.   Envisioned as a song that might play at his funeral, the intro was composed by John with many tracks of overdubbed music and synthesizer atmospheric effects until the mini-opus was completed.  Originally written and intended as two songs, the songs blended so well together that they were recorded as one, and played that way in concert and in the FM radio play the 11 minute song was relegated to.

Gun’s & Roses
November Rain
1:12 intro – 9:02 song length

Who doesn’t love a good power ballad?  Especially one from a band known for excesses like Gun’s n’ Roses.  Enter a world class orchestra, a supermodel female lead, (Stephanie Seymour) the most expensive music video to date, at over a million dollars in production, a church constructed in the middle of nowhere New Mexico, not one but three Slash guitar solos with swooping helicopter overhead shots, an all-nighter, live performance at the Orpheum theater in L.A., a wedding, a dead bride, and a funeral. It’s a lot to take in, but nothing lasts forever in a cold November rain.  

Enter Sandman (live Moscow)
Metallica
1:55 intro – 6:16 song length  (album  1:12 intro)

The Live Moscow version of “Enter Sandman” begins with an inspired sampling of “Ecstasy of Gold” by Ennio Morricone, a music piece from the Sergio Leone spaghetti western classic, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” which lends a soaring, heightened anticipation for the opening guitar riff. (same thing it did in the movie for the gunfight finale)  As the intro moves toward it’s headbanging, hair spinning, thundering “wall of guitars” segue to the heavy metal classic song about sinister bad dreams, it’s almost easy to forget about Metallica alienating most of their fan base in the Napster years, and kinda never really recovering.  A nightmare… if you will.

Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
1:35 intro – 5:40 song length

Would it be a proper Pink Floyd song without a little audio engineering gimmickry?  The tuning radio stations device that leads into the simple, yet compelling and haunting 12 string acoustic intro is classic Pink Floyd, as is an entire album dedicated to the mental breakdown of band mate Syd Barrett.  With themes of absence, loss and trading beauty for ugly, “Wish You Were Here” is also classic Pink Floyd commentary on the horrors of the underside of modern culture/society.    

Colosseum Rock/It’s a Riot
Starz
3:44 intro – 7:04 song length

“I’ll take obscure mid to late 70’s rock bands, Alex.”  Okay, Starz is pretty obscure, I’ll give you that.  Formed from the breakup of Looking Glass, of “Brandy, (You’re a Fine Girl)” fame, Starz managed to drop 4 albums, the last of which included, “Colosseum Rock/It’s a Riot”  Technically, I may have to throw a flag on myself for this one, because “Colosseum Rock,” and “It’s a Riot,” are on the album as two separate songs, but c’mon…  you can’t play them that way.  That’s like playing “We Will Rock You” without “We Are The Champions.”   It’s just not done in civilized society.

The guitar work in “Colosseum Rock” is smokin’…  some might even say, incendiary.  (sorry, Cameron Crowe and William Miller) Close to four minutes of distortion, reverb, wah-wah and the some of the best power pop/heavy metal has to offer.  Give it a listen… you’ll see.

Time
Pink Floyd
2:30 intro – 7:05 song length

Pink Floyd again, and again with the intricate intro audio effects.  This time a cacophony of ticking clocks, chimes, alarms and bells, (provided by Alan Parsons) leading to several minutes of a rototoms drum solo and deeply foreboding, ominous bass notes.  Lyrically, Pink Floyd songs are always pure poetry, with a depth of meaning that’s rare in your day-to-day rock and roll:

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

There’s a reason Dark Side of the Moon was on the Billboard Albums chart for a mind boggling 741 weeks, and is one of the best selling albums of all time.  And look at that… the time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say

Bat Out of Hell
Meat Loaf
1:55 intro – 9:50 song length

Yeah, that’s right, I put Meat Loaf on my list.  Believe it or not, in the 70’s and for longer than you think, Mr. Loaf was hotter than hot.  Rock opera provided by Jim Steinman, add Springsteen’s Max Weinberg on drums and Todd Rundgren on smokin’ guitar and it’s a heady mix.  Part teenage tragedy song, (think “Tell Laura I love her,” and, “Leader of the Pack”) and part Springsteen, (“Thunder Road,” or, “Born to Run”) “Bat Out of Hell” is a true rock and roll anthem.  Just try not to remember what happened to Meat Loaf in Rocky Horror Picture Show and his turn in Fight Club.

Eruption/You Really Got Me
Van Halen
1:56 intro – 4:20 song length

Widely regarded as perhaps the greatest guitar solo of all time, it’s impossible to have a list of great rock intros that doesn’t include Eddie’s blistering entrance to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Tapping, the hammer-ons and pull-offs technique incorporated for the solo, had been done previously one handed, “Eruption” introduced Eddie’s almost signature  two handed innovation to a wide, popular rock and roll audience.  Listed at #2 in Guitar Magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitar Solo Songs, and at #6 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks, there’s no questioning the song or the band’s place in the annals of rock and roll.  On the other hand, the not-so-secret word on Van Halen is in knowing which “side” to be on in the age old David Lee vs Eddie conundrum.   Apparently, not being able to keep a lead singer of any type will eventually tend to be seen as bit of a red flag.

Free Bird
Lynyrd Skynyrd
1:08 intro – 9:06 song length

Without a doubt the greatest southern rock song of all time, (shut up, “Sweet Home Alabama,” people) coming in at #3 on Guitar Magazine’s Greatest Guitar Solo Songs of All Time, and #193 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.   Instantly recognizable from the first notes on the keyboard, to the dueling guitar outro solo starting at 4:20, they don’t come more iconic then this.  It isn’t just any song that can inspire a culture wide (now humorous) trope of shouting a request for “Free Bird!” at any concert, no matter the artist or music style.  At Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged taping, an audience member’s shouted request for “Free Bird!” resulted in a slurred, shortened version of “Sweet Home Alabama.”   A good one, from both sides.

2112
Rush
4:25 intro – 20:33 song length

Is it even fair to use a Rush song from 2112 for this?  It feels like a two-legged man winning an ass-kicking contest where all the other participants are one-legged men.  In the most concepty of all concept albums, about a future sci-fi dystopia where the world of Megadon is controlled by malevolent priests being given orders by a giant bank of computers inside the temple, and a nameless protagonist tries to save the galaxy from endless war with a guitar and music, (you heard me) a four minute long guitar and synthesizer intro on a single song that consumes a whole album side, pretty much goes without saying.  As always, the de facto refrain about Rush is; how does this much music come from just three guys!?!?  Also, they’re Canadian… so there’s that.

Brothers in Arms
Dire Straits
1:07 intro – 6:59 song length (album version)

Thunder claps and rain storm leading to softly moody and atmospheric keyboards and finally, the silky smooth, gloriously toned Mark Knopfler, Gibson Les Paul guitar god magic. “Brothers in Arms,” a soft ballad in tribute to British troops during the war for the Falkland Islands is Knopfler at the height of his powers.  It’s Michael Jordan drilling the (push-off) jumper over Bryon Russell, Kobe dropping 81 on Toronto, a Magic Johnson behind the head, no look pass, Tom Brady leading a final two minutes, game winning drive with a Superbowl on the line.  Knopfler’s so good, it’s almost impossible to accurately rate or appreciate how good he is.  Like Kareem, widely regarded as top five best ever, and yet still underrated. 

The guitar work here is so good, so haunting and effortlessly amazing that, when the song hits it’s first mini-solo crescendo around the 3:35 mark, my chills have chills.  It’s not a surprise that Aaron Sorkin, one of the finest television show writer/creator/producers of the 90’s-00’s, (and arguably all time) used this song for the climactic, extended, penultimate scene of the two part, season two finale of The West Wing, still one of the best Television shows ever created.  Watching Martin Sheen as POTUS standing out in a pouring rain storm, in mental torment as he prepares to address the nation regarding whether he will run again, while this song thunders in the background is astounding television for it’s time, or for any time.  I’m just not coming up with a better topper moment for music in a network television show.  Not an extended play moment with this kind of power and emotion.  Chills on chills on chills. 

Honorable mentions:

Sure, I wanted to add a few more songs, but what’s the point of establishing arbitrarily narrow constraints if you’re not going to be overly fussy about using them?  What am I, some kinda anarchist?  The four songs below are some of the very best that rock and roll has to offer, but the intros come in at less than a minute.  I had to find an excuse to work them in, like an “Honorable Mentions” section.

Stairway to Heaven
Led Zeppelin
:52 intro

Oh, so close.  Arguably the best rock song of all time, and arguably the best solo, (and it’s arguable whether you even need to use the word “arguable” in the prior sentence) and if this intro was only 8 seconds longer it would be on the list.

L A Woman
The Doors
:55 intro

“I believe in a long, prolonged derangement of the senses to obtain the unknown.  Although I live in the subconscious… our pale reason hides the infinite from us.”  “Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”  “I am the lizard king. I can do anything.”  ~ Jim Morrison
Also, the intro missed by five seconds. 

Hotel California
The Eagles
:52 intro

Certainly the most iconic Eagles song, at or near the top of every list of the greatest rock songs of all time.  The outro is one of the most memorable and seminal dueling guitar codas ever written, but… the intro is only 52 seconds long.   This is my sad face.

Sweet Child O’ Mine
Guns & Roses
:45 intro

And here’s the smoking hot Slash intro solo I referred to earlier.  So damned good it propelled Appetite for Destruction to number one in album sales, and replaced Boston as the top selling debut album of all time.  Ironically, Slash didn’t even like the song or the riff: “I hated it for years,” he admitted. “But it would cause such a reaction – just playing the first stupid notes used to evoke this hysteria – so I’ve finally gotten to appreciate it.” Now if only it were longer than a disappointingly meager 45 seconds I could put it on my list.