in the history of percusion?

'shhh'>>>>>moby dick, toad e.tc

well i dont know if its the greatest but its realy great

The intro is very profound and just plain awesome. It definitely distinguishes this song so yeah I think it's great just not the greatest.

I think Michael Bland should have been paid double for his play in this intro.
As stated it IS the greatest intro as far as drum performances go.

One of my favs of all time. That song is pure brilliance, especially the structure. Very unique for a ballad to have an intro like that and then uses it again as a bridge.

That entire song is Spectaculor. I paid a pretty price for that on ebay and have never regretted it!

oh yea, that intro totally rocks!

2funkE said:

Agreed. I liked Tevin's version for what it was, then I read in "Uptown" that Prince had begun performing it and I was like LOL! Then I actually heard his version and was speechless! The arrangements, guitar solos, drums, the ending...



Genius

What about I Want To Be Free by The Ohio Players?

Great song..first heard it on tour...it was about the 6th song in and was the highlight of the show..kicked ass!!!!!

I got chills each time I saw John Blackwell do it during Musicology.

YES! I just listened to this song and man! that intro still gives
me chills...Especially LIVE!!

I love that song.It's one of my favorites to play on bass. Actually,I love playing along with the whole Gold cd.

I like the guitar part more than I like the intro.

but..but...Prince really stole that intro from Animal, the Muppet!
[Edited 11/7/06 10:55am]

Shhh is great from intro 2 outro!

Reminds me a bit of the intro to the Ohio Players song, "I want 2 be Free".

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Hey, that´s cool too, but Shhhh is truly the hottest drum intro EVER .

dseann said:

Funny thing is , Michael is soooo humble about this particular drum intro, he doesn´t even like drum solos that much...his reaction on the Bland is back-thread when we mentioned this song was very down to earth...maybe him and Prince don´t realize how much this song/intro is appreciated by the listeners.

Adisa said:

If it wasn´t for the "I´d rather do you after school like some homework" -line, I´d say this is one of his most perfect songs. Then again, I only like it as a live rendition, and there are probably more perfect songs in a technical way, I don´t know, but this song still gives me goosebumps in all its different incarnations.

pkidwell said:

Yeah, me too, but I really think Micheal owns this drum intro, even though it was great and very interesting to hear John Blackwell´s approach to it.

yeah it's a cracking intro.

honurable mentions to Stevie Wonder for "Superstistion" and pretty much all of Billy Cobham's "Spectrum"

KoolEaze said:

Michael came up with the riff, but John B's visual additions to this were absolutely amazing.