Entertainment For Lively Minds
ONE TWO THREE FOUR!
Posted by Joe R on 18 December 2008 - 12:39pm.
The art of counting in at the beginning of a track is becoming rarer, but you can't beat a good old-fashioned 1-2-3-4.
So, what are the best ones? I'll start the ball rolling with:
Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw
Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??
Run DMC and Aerosmith - Walk This Way
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I Saw Her Standing There
It always gets me going.
We have a winner!
Hands down the best 1-2-3-4 ever!
School disco
1974 - nothing filled the floor faster than the "1, 2, 123 smack" of the opening of "Can't get enough" by Bad Company and the mighty Simon Kirke's - aka Arch exponent of muscular sticksmanship - open lick.
Gabba Gabba Hey!
The Ramones were masters of the art form.
The Masters
Nobody better.
Although Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner is my own particular favourite count in...
The best illustration of this was...
"It's Alive" on which every track starts with the same "Onetoofreefour" - irrespective of the tempo of the track
"1-er 2-er.....
...you've done it WRONG! Ha Ha Ha"
*cough*
Howabout Taxman? Or Wilson Pickett's Land of 1,000 Dances?
A Day In The Life
Sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairy......
Not quite the same but...
...in the same song there is the sound of the engineer counting down the orchestral mad bit. Apologies for not being more specific.
Zep's 'Ocean' has Bonzo chiming
We've done four already but now we're steady, and then they went 1, 2, 3, 4!
Prince
Raspberry Beret.
Amazingly, you're all wrong
It's the one in the middle of "Born to Run".
You're right
But it trancends a mere '1,2,3,4' into one of the contenders for best bit ever, and it comes in the middle, not at the start. I would argue it can be discounted here.
Yup.....
Its definitely that one, after the short pause.
I was just scrolling down to see if anyone else had got there, unbelieving that it had taken so long.
Soft spot also for the slow 1, 2, 3, 4 (pronounced in 2 syllables) of Roadrunner by Jonathan Richman.
Didn't
Roadrunner start with "one, two, three, four, five, six ..."?
I cleverly suspect an attempt to gently ridicule the practice - have there been any 1, 2, 3, 4s since 1975 (or whenever it was ...)?
On a Broooooooce tip...
...the count in to Born In The USA on the live box is a corker.
The expectant hubbub of a HUGE hometown audience... "Hello out there... ONE... TWO... ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!"
Although the middle of a good live Born To Run when they drag out the organ breakdown (and I don't mean a inoperative Hammond) before the big count-in always gets the hairs on the back of the neck going
They give up halfway, but...
... the "1, 2, ahhhhhhhhhhhh, FREAK OUT!" at the beginning of "Le Freak" always gives me a tingle...
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
(Reprise)
Do the trouser press, baby
One, two, three, kick
Slade
The Banging Man
One, and two, and.....BUCKLE MY SHOE!
T Rex, Mean Woman Blues.
...and also used by Rush
during the live version of 'In The End' to buy time for a guitar change between the acoustic and electric bits of the song
White Man
in Hammersmith Palais
We have a winner....
Born to Run doesn't count as Bruce clearly misses the "1"!
The first incarnation of the Modfather
The Jam - Art School
The Jam - Trans Global Express
Obscure Counting on Similar song
1-2-3-2-2-3
Matthews Southern Comfort - Brand New Tennessee Waltz
whereas their version of Something In The Way She Moves starts with the most laid back 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
And the oh-so-ironic "Ein-Zwei-Drei-Vier"...
... at the beginning of Kraftwerk's "Showroom Dummies"