In Summary

Over in the pop world, the song’s intro is usually a taste of things to come, but some songs have other ideas. Here we round up some of our favourite tunes whose opening statements are anything but a prelude to the creation that follows…

Going Deeper

Once Upon A Time…

We all know the rules. Any story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s true to say that many songs are born out of stories, or at least some kind of narrative. For that we have intros, versus, choruses, bridges, middle-eights and all the other building blocks that allow writers and arrangers to punctuate songs with all the scene changes they might need.

The traditional intro might feature heavily in most songs, whether in the form of quieter taster, or even a glimpse into parts of the song reserved for later, but some songs agree to differ. That could mean having no intro whatsoever (such as in Happy Birthday To You), or something completely removed from the rest of the song’s music, or even from music in general. Here we round up our favourite song intros that for want of a better phrase are just a bit weird…

1 - Road To Nowhere - Talking Heads

We kick off our list with Talking Heads’ 1985 classic. By this time, the band were ten years into their commercial career, having long graduated from their art school roots, taking in punk and new wave along the way. Road To Nowhere perfectly demonstrates the kind of jarring gear change that comes when one song is seemingly kidnapped by another to be used as its opening gambit.

The start of Road To Nowhere sees a nicely executed a capella section that gives absolutely no clue to the song’s next move, thanks to a shift of just about everything by the time the band kicks in. This one is a true “actually, let’s do something else” moment. The effect of rolling down one hill and not quite making it up the next is completed by a key change that lands slightly lower than most would expect.

2 - Monster Mash - Bobby “Boris” Pickett

Sounding more like a delve into Foley territory, our next intro does more to let you know that you might want to check under the bed for the odd harmless ghost or creepy crawly. Parodying the early dance crazes of the early 1960’s, the whole of Monster Mash is the perfect shop window for the writing and vocal talents of a singer and comedian with a penchant for all things Novelty.

From a long-gone era of radio comedy and record labels crediting listeners with the ability to sit still for a few seconds, the ghostly sounds on tap here cannot be bought or downloaded. Instead, hours of fun are there to be had for anyone who likes scraping piano strings with a pick, stamping, blowing bubbles, and cascading spare change into an ashtray…

Honourable spooky mention goes to Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghostbusters intro. This has the makings of a wonderfully weird intro but sounds like the execs shut it down before it could really scare anyone off permanently.

3 - Linger - The Cranberries

The Cranberries’ 1990’s classic may be a masterclass in folk-does-easy listening, but musically its beginnings are in danger of throwing the listener off the scent all the same. Many people enjoy the odd soft guitar arpeggio laced with some nice meanderings from an angelic voice, but with Linger no sooner has the listener settled into enjoying this song’s opening daydream do things move on.

Although the two sections together span a change of gear, this collision is more like a slow motion near miss than musical collision, with what sounds like two separate takes crossfaded to avoid giving the listener any unwanted surprises. The following song sounds more like a relative of its intro; that same voice and guitar are in their somewhere, but where did Linger’s intro finally go to? We’ll never know.

4 - Electricity - Captain Beefheart

Now from the mainstream to its opposite, with our next intro that some might not have heard before. From the mind of Don Van Vliet, Electricity’s intro might be weird, but not nearly as weird as it could have been considering its creator’s surrealist and absurdist leanings taking in not only music, but also sculpture and other visual media. If nothing else, we’re glad that his call to use music as well gave the world album names such as “Trout Mask Replica” and “Lick My Decals Off, Baby”.

Electricity kind of starts, then falters before vocal meanders and sitar-like guitar textures take over in a gloriously weird malaise. This brief trance-like state is then cut short as the bass steps in to drag us and whatever it was that Captain Beefheart was trying to channel into the song.

5 - The Robots - Kraftwerk

If our list has a theme of music that refuses to do what convention wants, no list would be complete without a little something from German synth pioneers Kraftwerk. Yes the track above has a suitably oblique beginning, but if you’re hoping for the rest of it to get back to any generic norm prepare to be disappointed. It’s hard to believe that the razor sharp, crystalline sounds on this record are 46 years old, recorded by a band who were, at this point, seven albums into their career.

From the outset, The Robots sets out with a montage of weird and wonderful synth noises that might evoke the sounds of some 70s sci-fi android booting up for the day, before the piece’s pulsating sequenced bass takes over in keeping with other equally regimented musical statements. This record is also served by one of the era’s cleanest recordings that only enhances The Robots’ astonishing sense of space and structure.

6 - Sing A Simple Song - Sly & The Family Stone

San Francisco’s Sly & The Family Stone may have been known for some seriously funky cuts from the late 1960’s and early 70’s, but their music didn’t always hold down the same down-the-line metronomy for the whole length of the groove as found on their A-sides. Backing up their better known anthem Everyday People, Sing A Simple Song takes a few seconds to follow its own advice.

Less an intro, and more like a musical uprising, this crescendo-like intro puts what’s to come on hold courtesy of its just-got-out-of-bed guitar joining voice, organ, and buzz-rolled snare drum. None of this gives a clue of the song that’s about to happen, instead sounding more like the rising magma of some kind of incredible funk volcano that’s about to blow sky high. Only once the danger has passed are we back on more familiar ground to hear the band’s glorious, heartfelt, effervescent groove.

Don’t Bore Us Get To The Chorus

You may have noticed how none of the songs on our list were recorded this century. In the age of instant gratification (and the skip button) could it be that there is less time for the kooks and innovators to take a few seconds at the start of a song to do something a little different?

Getting down to the hook as quickly as possible is nothing new, but taking the opportunity to do something different at the top seems to be increasingly rare. The days of industry dinosaurs breathing down all artists’ necks might be over, but the other enemy of song innovation is the skip button. Does that make the era of musical experimentation redundant? We hope not; with creative freedom for artists becoming ever greater, all listeners need do is take a few short seconds before they press the button…

What are your favourite weird intros to songs? Have we missed any songs that need no introduction? Let us know in the comments.