“How daring to have a long intro before he’s even singing. It’s like psychedelic Mozart”: With The Rose Of Laura Nyro, Elton John and Brandi Carlile are paying tribute to both a 'forgotten' songwriter and the lost art of the long song intro

Elton John and Brandi Carlile .

In the music streaming and social media era, conventional wisdom has it that you should ‘skip to the good bit’ as quickly as you can. And this means that long song intros are very much a no no.

It wasn’t always thus, though. There was a time when pop and rock songs - particularly those at the start of albums - could run for an age before the vocals kicked in.