B Sides / Reissue Bonus Tracks
I'm sure this has been done before, but was listening to the EMI 100 years reissue version of Hounds Of Love driving home and "Under The Ivy" came up - one of my all time favourite track (I still remember seeing the video of just Kate Bush at the piano on The Tube). And this was a B-Side....
Anyway, got me thinking - examples where the bonus tracks / B sides are as good or if not better than the original album / A-Side and not just filler...
Few that come to mind
- the aforementioned "Under The Ivy"
- "Andy's Babies" - Lloyd Cole & Commotions / Rattlesnakes
- "Huckleberry Grove" - Ocean Colour Scene
- the whole of the extra disk on the Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen reissue, with the newly recorded acoustic versions (now that's how to do a reissue....)
Any more ?
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it's been done and said before,
but Pet Shop Boys Alternative, released in 1995 was, yes, a DOUBLE album of b-sides and nearly every one a barn-stormer. My personal favourite was "Shameless", (off Go West) which was the best Spitting Image song never done by Spitting Image...
Considering that they've brought out another dozen or so singles since then, all of which have been great too, i think their B-side output is one of the best consistant example of what you say!
The Jam
Put out an amazing run of B-sides (collected on Snap! or Extras)also not included on lp's (an essential part of the great B side surely which persuaded me to buy the singles in the late seventies)
The Butterfly Collector
Dreams of Children
Liza Radley
Tales from the Riverbank
Precious (strictly speaking AA side)
Away from the Numbers
The Great Depression
Just Who Is The Five O'Clock Hero?
plus some great cover versions too...
not a bad album in itself
Oasis regularly come in for a shoeing here
But 'The Masterplan' is as good a collection of b-sides and curios as you will ever come across - easily the equal of their main output.
Honourable mention also for The Smiths, who never knowingly put out a poor b-side.
Apart from 'Golden Lights', obviously.
Don't forget the Fabs
Things We Said Today
Rain
I am the walrus
Don't let me down etc
Also Maccas 'Girlschool' (B-side of Mull Of Kintyre)
Lennons 'Give Me Some Truth' (Imagine)
And many more as they say
Thea Gilmore
Some of Thea Gilmore's best songs have been hidden away on b-sides: Hooligansville; December in New York; Lightning; Throw the Bouquet and others.