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Songs with very cool and unusual openings

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Forum Description: General progressive music discussions
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=125505
Printed Date: August 02 2025 at 19:39
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Topic: Songs with very cool and unusual openings
Posted By: BaldJean
Subject: Songs with very cool and unusual openings
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 08:11
the title says it all. I will start with this one (warning, horrifying opening):




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A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta



Replies:
Posted By: I prophesy disaster
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 08:36
VdGG - Lost:
 
 
 
VdGG - When She Comes:
 
 
 
 


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No, I know how to behave in the restaurant now, I don't tear at the meat with my hands. If I've become a man of the world somehow, that's not necessarily to say I'm a worldly man.


Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 08:38
Hi,

Kinda strange ... for me ... but a bit of film like moments, don't bother me, although it seems to suggest a theme or idea for the coming song ... as long as they "fit" I'm OK with it, but when they are there just like flowers at a funeral for an idea, then, it's another story. 

But there are openings that are really good ... and one excellent example is Elton John that opened a song with magnificent keyboard work ... and he NEVER did  keyboards again ... and I kinda thought at the time that the record company told him that kind of stuff didn't sell enough out there, as if mentioning a bunch of electronic folks and bands. Sad, because it was an excellent lead in ... but the stupidest thing ... it didn't even made it to a part of the song!

The worst I dislike, enough to not even bother with the band, is when some bands, use a really nice keyboard entry for 1 minute, and then the song starts ... and almost no keyboards in it at all ... that is just ugly for me, and not worth it ... !!! A waste of keyboards!

PF was guilty too, although many of their bits eventually all kinda "combined" to make a sound effect show (DSOTM) and later culminated even better with (TW) what is considered a grand moment in rock music, specially when it was filmed so well. In the early days ... between songs ... hearing the Gilmour fronted band playing sound bits like "... you old woman with a basket ... " and other bits by Syd Barrett, was a bit out of whack and perhaps even a bit sick.

All in all, it is different everywhere ... and how it is used ... if it's part of the whole thing, it's fine with me ... otherwise I would just as soon not bother ... I'm a visual dreamer and flyer ... and being "misled" is not something that I enjoy, and fight all the time ... one mystic used to say that the devil is that which is trying to "hide" the truth in front of you ... and I tend to see things that way ... hiding things is not good, and specially so for children, and folks that are good at learning ... the same applies to these things in a lot of rock music, a lot of which is just really bad within a conceptual way ... a sort of "let's make believe" kinda think ... well, I would rather have "strangely believe it's" if that were the case ... at least it was funny!


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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com


Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 08:51
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Hi,

and one excellent example is Elton John that opened a song with magnificent keyboard work ... and he NEVER did  keyboards again ... and I kinda thought at the time that the record company told him that kind of stuff didn't sell enough out there, as if mentioning a bunch of electronic folks and bands. Sad, because it was an excellent lead in ... but the stupidest thing ... it didn't even made it to a part of the song!


I assume you mean "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"?


Posted By: Portal
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 11:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJiHkaHA84&ab_channel=Haken-Topic

total mood change, haha


Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 11:15
Originally posted by Portal Portal wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJiHkaHA84&ab_channel=Haken-Topic

total mood change, haha

Just so your link is more easily clickable:



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BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.


Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 11:25
Definitely unusual opening. It's not often you have a rock song starting out with a barbershop quartet led by bassist Tony Levin, it's even rarer with Robert Fripp playing banjo. Not to mention the tuba solo by Tony Levin later on in the song...




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...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...


Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 11:48

Not many songs start like a fugue.


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BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.


Posted By: Gentle and Giant
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 12:23
It took me a few goes to get into Gentle Giant when I first heard the opening track on Octopus. Very odd:




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Oh, for the wings of any bird, other than a battery hen


Posted By: yogev
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 13:25
 Another strange opening by Gentle Giant. Wow they're weird



Also this is a cool opening, So many time signature changes in 20 second!




Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 13:41
The Flower Kings - Last Minute on Earth has throat singing in the intro. I think it's pretty unusual even for prog standards!

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Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 13:42
Knots by Gentle Giant also. 

Also a few by Yes like starship Trooper and Perpetual Change.


Posted By: JD
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 14:30
You asked for it !




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Thank you for supporting independently produced music


Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 18:15
Strange Avenues by Jetrho tull.


Posted By: twosteves
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 21:15
love opening of On the Silent Wings of Freedom---which is stronger than the rest of the song....its a great jamming instrumental that reflects the talent of the band---and could never understand why they didn't of more of it on subsequent albums.


Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 21:30
^I would say that track and not "sound chaser" is probably the closest they ever got to fusion. 


Posted By: Awesoreno
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 22:35
Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

^I would say that track and not "sound chaser" is probably the closest they ever got to fusion. 
I think the fusion comparison for Sound Chaser is flimsy. Just because it has kind of a jagged experimentalist opening (which it returns to later) and because it has rhodes?

In any case, that's my favorite Yes song.


Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 23:19
Nice thread, thanks for posting it! 

I always liked the first few bars of "It Can Happen" by Yes (90125).  I believe Trevor is playing this on the famous Coral electric sitar, which Steve Howe famously used on the CTTE album.  I recently saw that this rather amazing instrument has been re-issued!   https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DanoSitarRC--danelectro-baby-sitar-red-crackle" rel="nofollow - https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DanoSitarRC--danelectro-baby-sitar-red-crackle

"It Can Happen" is easily my favorite song on 90125.  Enjoy! 




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I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!!


Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: February 17 2021 at 23:25
"A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming" (Barbarella)

Geinoh Yamashirogumi - "Osorezan"





Posted By: BarryGlibb
Date Posted: February 18 2021 at 15:57
Not so much the music, but more Gary Green's spoken intro accompanied by Ray Shulman's violin on a wah wah pedal.

Plain Truth by Gentle Giant.

"Tell Frank to order me, uh
Two Wimpeys and a portion of chips, will ya?
With onions, and tomato sauce on the chips, please."


Posted By: Frenetic Zetetic
Date Posted: February 18 2021 at 23:16
Lots of great GG examples in here.

The intro to Fainting in Coils by Brufrod was always wonky to my ears:



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"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021


Posted By: Awesoreno
Date Posted: February 18 2021 at 23:41
"Well there was mystery..."


Posted By: Homotopy
Date Posted: February 19 2021 at 14:09
Nurses Whispering Verses


Posted By: ssmarcus
Date Posted: March 01 2021 at 06:01
Lots of ELP stuff but definitely Tarkus and The Endless Enigma Part 1


Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: March 04 2021 at 13:38
Space Intro into Steve Miller's Fly Like an Eagle.


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"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno


Posted By: siLLy puPPy
Date Posted: March 04 2021 at 13:51
"Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin


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https://rateyourmusic.com/~siLLy_puPPy


Posted By: siLLy puPPy
Date Posted: March 04 2021 at 13:52
Originally posted by Rednight Rednight wrote:

Space Intro into Steve Miller's Fly Like an Eagle.


I finally listened to that album a couple weeks ago. Not really a Steve Miller fan, i really dug this album and especially that brilliant spacey intro that ties into the song they've played to death on classic rock radio.


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https://rateyourmusic.com/~siLLy_puPPy


Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: March 07 2021 at 08:43
Openers before the title track on Ronnie Montrose's Open Fire.

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"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno


Posted By: Machinemessiah
Date Posted: March 07 2021 at 10:33
I posted this same one some time ago.. and it still is my favorite.

It sort of starts with a climax!




Posted By: I prophesy disaster
Date Posted: March 07 2021 at 14:17
I think one would be hard-pressed to find a start to an album that is better than the first 2:50 of Wobbler - From Silence to Somewhere:
 

 
 


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No, I know how to behave in the restaurant now, I don't tear at the meat with my hands. If I've become a man of the world somehow, that's not necessarily to say I'm a worldly man.



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