"Ladies and gentlemen, would you welcome our Ten Notable Live Introductions"
The best part of any live show is, of course, the beginning. You've simply got to have a proper intro. It's a chance to welcome your audience, tell them what they're here for, remind them of your medals and set the tone for what's to follow. These are our ten most memorable MC's preambles.
[asset|aid=21|format=image|formatter=asset|title=atthesands.jpg|width=130|height=130|align=right|resizable=true]10. Sinatra does it the swelegant way
In January 1966 Sinatra is playing the Sands Casino in Las Vegas. House lights go down to the swoosh of a hi-hat, an unseen voice cues first Count Basie and then the Chairman of the Board, who saunters on stage to quite un-hysterical applause and then has the high-wire nerve to crack a joke before singing. That would be high point of his whole career right there.
(Sinatra At The Sands, Reprise)
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9. The J. Geils bosh-bosh fast food beginning
America's foremost party band of the early 70s set down a marker for the fine art of just getting on with it with this performance at Detroit's Cinderella Ballroom in 1972. After the by-now obligatory enquiry about audience readiness, the band take under-a-second to achieve escape velocity.
(Full House, Atlantic)
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8. Bob Marley brings his neighbourhood with him
When, in 1975, Bob Marley played the Lyceum, it's doubtful that he still lived in the violent Kingston slum called Trenchtown but his manager Don Taylor felt it was important for his audience to believe that he did and that what he was delivering was an exotic new experience. Which, to be fair, it was.
(Live! Island)
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7. The Stones lead with their chin
When the Rolling Stones played America in 1969 they hadn't toured for three years. By the time they hit Madison Square Garden tour manager Sam Cutler was confident enough to announce them as "the greatest rock and roll band in the world", which is how they've been known ever since. On the live album what you hear is a montage of chat from various Stones shows with mimicry from Jagger's mike. And, for some unknown reason, on every show on that tour Cutler repeated the band's name at the end.
(Get Your Ya Yas Out, ABCKO)
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[asset|aid=22|format=image|formatter=asset|title=waits_nighthawk.jpg|width=130|height=130|align=right|resizable=true]6. Tom Waits and the theatrical conceit
Waits is all about establishing a theatrical sense of time and place. His 1975 live in the studio recording is notionally set in Raphael's Silver Cloud Lounge and as you palm the maitre d' a fistful of green and make your way to a decent booth and examine the cocktail card, this is the sound that's coming from the stage in the corner.
(Nighthawks At The Diner, Asylum)
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5. Time-Life presents Bob Dylan
He used to just amble on and play. Now he wants a bit of respect. The 21st century version of Bob Dylan takes the stage to a blast of Aaron Copland and a testimonial that could have been written by a Reader's Digest sub. "The poet laureate of rock and roll…haze of substance abuse….given up as a has-been….Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan". It must be on tape because it's the same every night of his Never Ending Tour.
(2003 audience recording)
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4. The local DJ introduces Bruce Springsteen
August 9th, 1978. Bruce Springsteen plays the tenth birthday party of WMMS at Cleveland's Agora Ballroom. He's introduced by DJ Kid Leo who knows exactly what to say (who he is, what the occasion is and who's coming on next) and says it beautifully, calling on all the time-honoured fight game metaphors and sustaining his emphasis all the way through the demanding eight syllables of the full name of the band.
(Not, er, commercially available)
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3. Tim Buckley and late-60s shambolic
Most concert clips start with audience noise. This begins with the sound of a very confused and herbally altered Pete Drummond picking his way across the cables on the Queen Elizabeth Hall stage to introduce Tim Buckley. Lean closer to the computer and you can smell the patchouli oil.
(Dream Letter, Demon)
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2. Frank Sinatra, Howard Cosell and the death of modesty
The Main Event was a 1974 TV simulcast from Madison Square Garden. Reality is never quite exciting enough for TV and so sports barker Howard Cosell (think David Coleman) was called upon to talk up: the city, the venue, the audience ("people who are young and people who are old") and the star who has grown, in just eight years, from the damn good saloon singer at the Sands to a moral and creative paragon with whom we're very fortunate to be able to share air.
(The Main Event, Reprise)
[asset|aid=13|format=mp3player|formatter=asset_bonus|title=sinatra cosell intro.mp3|width=290|height=24|align=none][asset|aid=23|format=image|formatter=asset|title=brown.jpg|width=80|height=155|align=right|resizable=true]1. James Brown and the Hardest Working Schtick In Show Business
James Brown understood something that most musicians miss - the audience love the sizzle every bit as much as they love the steak. That's why his MC Danny Ray did the exact same build-up every night for thirty years, merely swapping the order to include a reference to his latest single. In this particular case you can just picture the Godfather mowing his way on from stage right to that horn riff.
(James Brown Live At The Apollo Vol 2)
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*Cough cough* The MC5, sir?
*Cough cough* The MC5, sir?
And the Outro's ...
Elvis - 'Elvis has left building'
Sex Pistols - 'Ever get the feeling you've been cheated'
Beatles - 'I'd just like to say thank you on behalf of the group and hope we passed the audition.'
Intros
'Ladies and gentlemen...Rory Gallagher!
Intros
"The Greatest Rock n Roll band in the world! The Rolling Stones!" from Get Yer Ya Yas Out.
Number seven.
Number seven.
Just testing you're all alert on a Monday.
"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours." - Hunter S ThompsonÂ
Errr... Public Enemy, intro
Errr... Public Enemy, intro to 'A Nation Of Millions...', recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon and featuring the dulcet tones of 'Dangerous' Dave Pearce. And sirens. You really *can't* beat sirens...
Dylan intro
The Dylan intro actually comes from a newspaper review. The text can be found at http://www.geocities.com/dragonraid/dylan/essay/hamburg.html
Alex Harvey
On "Live", Alex's own introduction, delivered in his finest Gorbals drawl: "Good evening boys and girls, it is a gas to be here. This is the end of our British tour and it really has been something else. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to my band. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band."... followed without pause by the throbbing intro to "Faith Healer". Still raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
From The Durutti column's
From The Durutti column's live album 'Domo Arigato ', the very weedy, northern voice of Vini Reilly intones:
"Thank you for coming to our concert, I hope you enjoy the music"
...to a ripple of polite, muted applause. You kind-of have to hear it; it's the most spectacularly un-rock'n'roll concert intro ever.
Velvets 69 Live
Surely Lou's intro on the Velvets '69 double album: 'We could do one long set or two short ones...'
outro's
Glad to see that the Cutler's almost half-assed and, therefore, insouciant and wonderfully louche intro has made the top ten...if he'd put a bit more energy into his 'greatest rock and roll band in the world' bit then, paradoxiacally, it wouldn't really have had the same power or charm. Delivered in a semi-yawn drawl gives it an air of the bleedin' obvious which is suitably arrogant and just so, well, 'rock and roll'.
As far as outro's go I've always loved the guy who back- announced The Who at Woodstock. After the moody buggers have reduced their gear to flat-packs yet again and stunned all the hippies with their flash-flood fuck you meanness and malevolence there's a moment of delicious silence followed by the announcer going 'Ladies and gentlemen.......The Who'. It's the best part of the film. And it's all in the pause.
Intros
Stretching the subject matter a little, but surely The Intro And The Outro by The Bonzo Dog Doodah Band takes the biscuit. Don't know if it ever received a live airing, but certainly deserved to.
Also, the crazed MC who introduces Maze on their Live In New Orleans album is obviously enjoying his role.
At The Record Plant in
At The Record Plant in Sausalito, in July 1978, the singer's entrance was preceded by the following announcement: "You're about to hear probably the best band on the planet, and certainly the hottest singer in the country: Warren Zevon!" Although my favourite bit of Zevon onstage patter is what he said before playing Reconsider Me, on the bootleg Live At The BBC, in 1987: "Thank you. I have a new single out on Virgin Records; and I know that George Michael is losing a lot of sleep over that..." The fact that George Michael was more popular than Warren Zevon is just one of the many horrific things about 1987.
Great outro on 'I Have A
Great outro on 'I Have A God' by Carla Thomas on 'Wattstax'.
"Carla Thomas! Miss Carla Thomas everyone. All I can say is gee-whizz!"
And the Outro's (2)
Beatles - 'I'd just like to say thank you on behalf of the group and hope we passed the audition.'
We should have an honourable
We should have an honourable mention for Elvis Presley's 1970s concert introductions, which consisted of the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra followed by the repeated six note motif heard in Presley's 1970 recording of Cindy, Cindy; this usually dived into an upbeat song of the C.C. Rider, That's All Right Mama ilk. The sense of excitement this conveys is impossible to beat, and most Elvis gigs that I've heard and heard of could never match up to this opening.
How 'bout a big hand now?
Here's one everyone knows, but not everyone necessarily knows they know. It's the charismatic, child-like voice of Pee Wee Marquette (3ft 9in), master of ceremonies at Birdland jazz club in New York, introducing Art Blakey and his band:
"Ladies and gentleman, as you know we have something special down here at Birdland this evening; a recording for Blue Note records..."
"...How 'bout a big hand now? For Art Blakey! Thank yowww!"
Part of the reason this is great is just the feeling that you're in the audience at Birdland, one of the coolest places on Earth at the time (1954).
The full version of Pee Wee's introduction opens the album "A Night At Birdland, Volume One" by Art Blakey. A short version is sampled on US3's single, "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)", also on Blue Note records.
Pee Wee could generously be called a "character" - notoriously tight, he would extort huge tips out of performers in exchange for a promise not to undersell or humiliate them. Lester Young labelled him "half a motherfucker".
Come on back and re-record with us...
Another cool jazz intro, not from an MC but from Buddy Rich, at the opening to his live album "Big Swing Face", famous to pop-pickers for the sampled track "The Beat Goes On":
[Muffled audience noise] "No, you can make noise because we are recording all night; we have been recording for the past two nights, we'll be recording all night tonight, and tomorrow night. So if you don't like what you did tonight come on back and re-record with us tomorrow. OK?"
Jools Holland
Not certain who did the intro (it might be Malcolm Hardee?) but on Jools Holland's live album the intro goes:
"There's a saying in show business - you only play the Queen's Hall twice, once on the way up, once on the way down ... it's good to be back."
Mad Dogs And Englishmen
Crowd noise, 'One, One, One', more crowd noise, band strikes up, the drumming Jims take it up, theatrical pause,
'Zee Mad dogs, Zee Englishmen, and Joe Cock-ere'
INTROS
Van Halen supporting Black Sabbath at Bradford St Georges Hall in 1978.Dave Lee Roth runs on stage as rest of band create mayhem "Bradford!I hear your the rock n roll capital of the world!" Lost it's lustre a little when found out he'd also done it at Lewisham.
On Neil Young's largely
On Neil Young's largely forgettable 1997 live album, Year Of the Horse, the first thing you hear is a fan screaming, "They all sound the same!" To which Young volleys back, "It's all one song!"
Intros
All you have to do to transport yourself magically into the largely monochrome days of London's nascent swing-dom is to shut your eyes and place a copy of 'Five Live Yardbirds' on the turntable. Crowd murmur...then a faltering young man at the mic 'Good evening....' ( Does he really say 'Yardler-ising' or is it just time I got some new speakers? )
Follow that..
"From the riot torn streets of Manchester, England - The Fall" - a part of America therin.
Intros
Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Hendrix say something along the lines of "You can go now if you want 'cos we're only jammin'" as way of introducing the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock?
Intros
Can we tip our hat to Robert "look it was the early '80's and we all got abit giddy" Elms introducing Spandau ballet at the Scala sadly I can't find a free mp3 of it but it's a work of genius. A big dollop of 6th form poetry
Outro
Steve Marriot and Humble Pie bidding the Fillmore goodbye: "we go 'ome on Monday, but we've really had a gas this time, really had a gas!" (Launches into I Don't Need No Doctor)
Jane's Addiction/Liz Phair/Bob Pollard
These aren't necessarily intro's...more between song chat, but funny..
I believe the Jane's Addiction record is called Live and Insane, and features Perry Farrell bantering with the audience.."Well, I'm trippin on acid too, and I'm not throwing shoes at you..so, cut it out!"
Liz Phair, and I can't remember the record, says.." I have a better idea...let's go down and Fxck all those cows"
Bob Pollard, from one of his innumerable live documents, says..""Billboard just released the top-100 guitarists of all time... Joan Jett is in the top-10... fxcking Joan Jett!... My brother is a better guitarist than Joan Jett!"
It's not that exciting but...
...I still love the intro to the live album section of the Byrds' Untitled, "Ladies and gentleman, a fine hand please for The Byrds" - I guess it was the way he said it. McGuinn's sign off isn't the worst either, "Good night and God bless, you've been a beautiful audience".
Happy days.
Intros
"Alright Tokyo! Are you ready! Will you please welcome Epic recording artists, Cheap Trick!"
From one of the great live rawk albums..At The Budokan.
Intros
Johnny Cash at San Quentin: "Hello. I'm Johnny Cash" Anything else would be superfluous.
I love the way he says
I love the way he says "Hello. I'm Johnny Cash" before Folsom Prison Blues on Live At Folsom Prison. It's a great, understated way to kick things off. What's very irritating is how he felt compelled to repeat this intro every time he did the song, regardless of where in the set he played it: San Quentin, the recent "Lost Performance" album from the 90s, you name it. You feel like shouting out, "I know you're Johnny Cash. I've been listening to you for the last hour!"
Townes Van Zandt
My favourite is the introduction to Townes Van Zandt's 'Live at the Old Quarter, Houston', when the announcer [in a good Texan twang] says:
'A few announcements for the people who just came in. Other people have heard it five times already I'm sure. The restrooms are upstairs. Payphones upstairs. Pool table's upstairs. Fussball's upstairs. Cigarette machine's upstairs... [amidst comments from the crowd]'
Then, after he announces that they're delighted to have Townes back for another gig, Van Zandt himself opens by saying:
'I'd like to play this song first called Pancho and Lefty... Sorry about the airconditioners being off, but they won't be very long. If it gets very hot I don't know what we'll do.'
Talk about bringing you into the room with him.
Mangle intros ...
BB King walloping great slabs of sound all over the intro by the local gentry assembled at Cook County Jail.
Led Zeppelin knocking poor John Peel sideways as he nearly finishes his words welcoming them to the BBC.
Not quite what I think you mean, but I've always liked Rory Gallagher who, in his husky irish brogue over the preliminary guitar chords simply states 'Let's go to work'. I've just been and checked, it is Meeting with the G Man - Continental Op!
Aah! These are the little things ...