Rock Intros

Rock songs have many memorable characteristics that usually center on riffs, solos, and occassionally hooks, but one of the most overlooked features of certain rock songs are their intros.
What's the Point of Album Intro Songs? | KQED

What qualifies as a worthy intro?

It should be noted that not every song has an intro worth discussing, but those that do usually only have their intros played in classic rock stations, but no two of those stations will play the same song the same way.

Nowlet's take a look at some examples, shall we ?

Steve Miller Band Threshold

 The intro to for Steve Miller's mega 1977 hit, Jet Airliner, is subtitled as Threshold. Consisting primarily of a dazzling aura of synthesizers I caught it on my local classic rock station and actually had to Shazam it thinking that it might be Pink Floyd. This lasts for about a minute before launching into the actual song with an instrumental of the verse and chorus.

Pink Floyd

 Pink Floyd themselves have several noteable intros. The earliest noteable in their career has got to be the opening to The Dark Side of The Moon, Speak to Me, a sort of "overture" of the album. It consists of Mason's bass drum accompanied by laugher and sound effects giving the listener a "road map," for the album.

1975's Wish You Were Here features a lengthy intro in the first track, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, which slowly builds up intensity as it progresses.

Another noteable intro has got to be the opening to Another Brick in The Wall Pt. 2 (the helicopter), as well as the blast of bells and sound of cash registers on Time and Money respectively.

Electric Light Orchestra Fire on High

 The opener to their 1975 LP Face the Music has a special intro. It was recorded backwards and if played backwards (which would be forward), one could hear the words, "Music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back! Turn back! Turn back!"

Elton John Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

 Another album opener, this time to Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973). The lengthy intro was composed by Elton John himself while thinking about the kind of music he'd like to be played at his funeral. It lasts for several minutes and even shifts time signature! It's untile more than halfway in that EJ starts singing.

Santana Black Magic Woman/Gipsy Queen

 Opening with a memorable organ riff and featuring a four-bar mini-solo played by Carlos himself, which bookends the song (heard again before Gipsy Queen) the intro also features an instrumental verse played on the guitar and an electric piano pre-verse (omitted on most single edits although I have heard a modified single version leaving the piano in).

Bon Jovi Wanted Dead or Alive

 On the Slippery When Wet album and most greatest hits packages, there is a lengthy "desert-like intro" characterized by a gusty wind sound and distant twelve-string guitar that grows louder.

Van Halen

 Van Halen has featured a "pre-song" before each of their two noteable covers, Eeruption in their 1978 debut leading into their take on the Kinks' You Really Got Me, as well as a lengthy session featuring the whole band, Intruder, on their 1982 album Diver Down prior to their cover of Roy Orbison's Oh Pretty Woman.

Dire Straits Money for Nothing

 A single off one of their most successful albums, 1985's Brothers in Arms, Money for Nothing features a lengthy intro ladden with synthesizers and Sting's repeated "I want my MTV." Classic hits stations, AND EVEN SOME CLASSIC ROCK STATIONS, omit about half the intro.

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