Debate for Razman today.
Top 20 acoustic and electric guitar intros.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UNuqYFP-pM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpY_9qY-j1g
I don't usually disagree with Rick Beato. I may quibble over numeric order. There are some obscure intros I think are better than many of these (i.e. Dan Fogelberg's "Changing Horses"), but the fact that they are obscure means they can't be considered "greatest."
I could also quibble with his definition of what constitutes a guitar "intro," but at least he has one, and his list is cohesive with it.
I only went through the acoustic so far. I am not as well versed but I didn't think the list was bad. Perhaps a bit Jimmy Page heavy. His honorable mentions were questionable. The following should have made it into the list:
Dust in the Wind - Kansas
Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straights
I'd disagree with either of those beating out anything that made his top 20. An intro doesn't have to be complicated to be great, in fact none of the intros in his list are particularly complicated. Some of them sound complicated, but that's part of what makes them great. But what his list has in common is interesting harmonic movement.
The intro to Romeo and Juliet is just a I-IV-V progression fingerpicked as arpeggios on a National Steel resonator guitar. It's a lovely sound, and it's a great song, but there's nothing musically interesting there.
"Dust in the Wind" is slightly more interesting. It has harmonic movement, akin to "Pinball Wizard's" placing a bunch of chords over an F# drone note. On paper, it's really interesting - C to Cmaj7 to Cadd 9, Asus2 to Asus4 to Am. Looks cool. But the song began as an etude (an exercise) created by Kerry Livgren to improve the dexterity of his pinky finger on his fretting hand. So all the melodic movement happens on one string. It's a classic of simplicity. Maybe goes in the top 30, but it won't beat anything out in the top 20, IMHO.
