5 of the Best Rock Intros Ever

In a world where we all have the attention span of a retarded gnat you have to hook us into a song pretty quickly to get us to listen to it. In the late 70s this reached it’s apex with such rock and roll opuses as Bohemian Rhapsody and Bat out of Hell. By the eighties this patience was lost as the world embraced cheesy pop and shoulder-pads.

But here are five of the best songs with intros that just blow you away.

To kick off we have Dire Straits and the spectacular drum solo by ‘Pick’ Withers which takes us by the hand and leads us by the hand into the electric guitar riffs of ‘Money for Nothing’. It works pretty darn well.

They are still around, doing their thing as the elder statesmen of rock.

By 1987 rock was very much on the back-burner as pop and electronic music found it’s feet. The new teenagers wanted something from their generations. The old rockers of the 70s were not all grown up and had plenty of other things to spend their time and money on.

But then a new rock band from Los Angeles blew everything else out of the water. It isn’t hard so see what gave Guns n’ Roses the X factor (sorry to use that term). They did everything previous rock bands have always done. They just did it much much better, bigger and longer. And their lead guitarist, a big ball of hair from Stoke, UK, produced one of the best opening riffs in the whole universe. Do it, Slash.

Of course I am using the original video, not the recent over-dressed version from the Leeds festival last summer. The one with Axl Rose and a few guys PRETENDING to be Guns n’ Roses. Don’t get me started on that, seriously now.

When surveying this post on twitter a friend recommended Cannonball by the Breeders. I had never heard of them, but when I saw the video it all became clear. This tune has been used many times and seems to be a favourite of various review programmes for their montages. So in it goes at number three.

The Breeders got their break opening gigs for Steppenwolf and hit their apex during the mid eighties. They are still around, doing their thing and hosting wild parties here and there.

The second best intro has to go to The Who’s 5.15. Why? Well it really wants me to go out and steal a moped. These boys are the kings of the mods and long may they reign. Their music provided the soundtrack to the film Quadrophenia and stamped their name on music culture. Give it some of this:

But of all the rockers there was one who had the voice to blow the rest away. His timeless rock anthems inspired generations of rockers, and looks set to stay with us always. Let’s just not talk about the shit acting career. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Meatloaf:

If all this is most definitely your cup of Jack Daniels, then I recommend you check out The Little Blackhearts who have just released their new video Rebecca.

www.thelittleblackhearts.com