Best song introductions?

Invader

Invader

Ancient Mariner
One of the reasons why I think Bruce is such a great frontman is how he introduces songs.  He doesn't just say "This is ___ from our new album ___", he has some really memorable introductions.  Best of all, they change at every show.  So what are your favourite song introductions by Bruce?  (include videos if possible)

I think his Clansman rants are some of the best he's done.  I've got a few bootlegs of the Brave New World tour and I love listening to even the rant without the song. 

His Rime introductions were also really great and usually quite funny too.  My favourite that I've seen is from the Helsinkigig, where he got the whole audience following one seagull ("Oh, look, there it is, albatross, ALBATROSS!  Oh, fuck me, seagull.") and then pretended to shoot it down.  "Oh! Shit, that was bad luck... This is what not to do... if a bird shits on you... THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER!"  Is there any other man in the world who can seriously get 45,000 people to follow one single seagull? 
The Twickenham introduction was also really good.  Asking about the Live After Death gig, "Who was there?"  *crowd cheers*  You're a bunch of lying bastards."

The Donington 2007 gig was great with Bruce himself saying the intro to The Number of the Beast.

I think the Rock in Rio album has  a lot of great introductions.  The Trooper,  The Evil that Men Do, and Blood Brothers especially.
 
His "Fortunes For Profits" rant in Troy, New York, 1988 "introducing" Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son is five minutes of sheer brilliance. And since I'm such a nice bloke, I uploaded it for you here. Enjoy!  :bigsmile:
 
Perun said:
His "Fortunes For Profits" rant in Troy, New York, 1988 "introducing" Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son is five minutes of sheer brilliance. And since I'm such a nice bloke, I uploaded it for you here. Enjoy!  :bigsmile:
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That was amazing!!
 
Great upload, thanks. :)

I think it's funny how American audiences always get excited at the first mention of drugs.  See Live After Video, the crowd is going wild when Bruce is talking something about Queen Victoria taking marijuana before Rime. :lol: 
 
Invader said:
Best of all, they change at every show ...

His Rime introductions were also really great and usually quite funny too.  My favourite that I've seen is from the Helsinkigig, where he got the whole audience following one seagull ("Oh, look, there it is, albatross, ALBATROSS!  Oh, fuck me, seagull.") and then pretended to shoot it down.  "Oh! Shit, that was bad luck... This is what not to do... if a bird shits on you... THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER!"  Is there any other man in the world who can seriously get 45,000 people to follow one single seagull?
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They change, but they're sometimes similarly themed...
On the last tour, every ROTAM intro ended with the "if a bird shits on you" line, usually with Bruce pointing out that he's repeating his intro from LAD.
However, the story Bruce told to get to that line changed at every show.

So he changes, but it's not always 100% spontaneous. In particular, the end of his song intros - and by this I mean the way he says the song title - is usually the same. I'm guessing that's something the band comes up with in rehearsal as a cue to start the song. "OK, Bruce is going to rant here, so we can go get a drink and relax for a while. But when you hear him yell 'The Trooper', it means it's time to play again."
Invader said:
The Donington 2007 gig was great with Bruce himself saying the intro to The Number of the Beast.
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That surprised me. And since I don't think he's ever done that before or since, I bet it was just technical difficulties with the usual recording of the intro.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
That surprised me. And since I don't think he's ever done that before or since, I bet it was just technical difficulties with the usual recording of the intro.
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Not quite true. He did that several times, as can be heard on a few bootlegs. He also did that on one show I witnessed in 2007, I think Ludwigshafen- it turned out Bruce was just a bit impatient, because the intro started playing while he was saying it.

I also have a bootleg from one of his solo shows, I think Vosselar 1998, in which he speaks the intro but the band ends up playing Powerslave instead  :bigsmile:
 
Perun said:
I also have a bootleg from one of his solo shows, I think Vosselar 1998, in which he speaks the intro but the band ends up playing Powerslave instead  :bigsmile:
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Now, that is something to keep on tape!  :D
 
Of course.

Do you even know what this thread is about?
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
On the last tour, every ROTAM intro ended with the "if a bird shits on you" line, usually with Bruce pointing out that he's repeating his intro from LAD.
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Yes, I noticed that, and it was a good idea since that's one of his funniest "short" intros ever. 

Another good one about Rime: Bruce was talking something about a random seagull again in the Tampere gig, where he pointed afterwards that "it's very expensive to get that seagull to fly there at just the right time, you know."  That was pure brilliance, the whole audience laughed.
 
Here in Trondheim, he linked it with a report on H's fishing in the days between the last Finland gig and the one at Lerkendal  :D According to Bruce, H blamed the poor fishing on albatroses and other fish-eating birds  :D
 
It's not exactly a song introduction, it's band introduction from Rock Am Ring 2005 :

Bruce : "Do you want to see Nicko McBrain?!?!?!?"
Crowd : "YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHOOOHOOO"
Bruce : (dazzled) "Why?"

:D
 
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