OK here's a question for you all. There's a cool sound at the beginning of Give Me Shelter by the Rolling stones. I have a WMA music file of it here -

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OK it's in Primavera by Santana too if that helps anybody

That would be the guira (with an umlaut - two dots - above the "u"). This is a percussion instrument that you will often hear in cumbia, but which also appears in classical music and popular songs. See the Wikipedia entry for a brief history with an audio clip. I would love to do an article on this small but very important Latin music instrument in the future!

Oh cool look the article even mentions Give Me Shelter!! Thanks so much, I love the sound - now I have a whole list of songs to get from itunes