Pop as intro-version
Ian Dury, right, wins hands down - but he has to be left out because of the xxxx factor.
I've been looking at pop record openings as part of another project and thought it would make one of those annoying/fascinating listy things for our little corner of the blogosphere.
Plaistow Patricia is the title of the Dury song which has the most arresting intro I can think of. It's just a series of very strong Anglo Saxon words if you can recall it. If you can't, it's worth seeking out on the iTunes explicit list, as is anything else by the Blockhead-in-chief of blessed memory.
There are several Beatles and Stones tracks which have arresting riffs to kick them off (just think of Day Tripper or Satisfaction), but there are many less obvious contenders. Springsteen's Born in the USA is a corker, as is almost anything off the Highway 61 album, but the title track is the best contender.
Obvious things that most people will know include I'm a Believer with its terrific cheesy organ chords (a Farfisa?), Song 2 by Blur, Grease by Frankie Valli and the Saturday Night Fever theme by the Bee Gees.
The recentish Scissor Sisters' hit Filthy Gorgeous scores with its brilliant Anna Matronic scat start. In the same vein but more obscure is Dimension by Aussie metallers Wolf Mother - a fantastic wail to get us going. I'm also keen on the beginning of The Long Way Round by the Dixie Chicks and Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols.
My grey hairs qualify me to include the unmistakable ragtime guitar strum from John Sebastian which kicks off the long-forgotten glories of What a Day for a Daydream and finally, and possibly the best of all, a real obscurity - Big Mama Thornton's (You Ain't Nothing but a) Hound Dog (left). Elvis eat your heart out in your hideaway in the Tennessee hills.
Anyone have a particular favourite I've missed?
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Allow me to be parochial and therefore I must mention The Beat's "Mirror in The Bathroom." A steam train rhythm sound accompanied by a saxophone that emotes a sense of urgency in life.
For something completely different, the piano intro by Joni Mitchell on "Blue." So sweet, so sad, so beautiful.
I'd started writing a very long comment listing some of my favourites, but then I just thought: "Lord only Knows, by Beck". Done :)