Hidden Tracks (What's The Point?)
Posted by David Wright on 22 February 2008 - 9:07am.
Can anybody actually recommend any albums that have good hidden tracks? What's the point in these teasers? As is the case of Oasis's Heathen Chemistry; after the final track on the album, you have to wait for ages before a scrappy little song finally makes its most unwelcome appearance.(That's if you don't have a skip function on your CD player)
At least on Ash's debut abum they placed two secret tracks before the first track on the album, which was a bit more clever.
Secret tracks are surely a thing of the past for the current download generation?
Bookmark/Search this post with:
- More from David Wright.
- Login or register to post comments
Yes
There is a lovely, to my ears, version of "She" (Gram Parsons)at the end of the Ed Harcourt retrospective recently out. better than most of his songs. I also like the one(s), again because of their ramshackle nature at the end of "Come on feel the Lemonheads".
There's a hidden track
at the end of Pet Shop Boys 1993 album Very, if i recall correctly which is quite nice. It's a definite antidote to all the hi-NRG stuff that's preceeded it. It's just Chris Lowe singing and a very soft arrangement behind it!
Agreed, most 'hidden' tracks are a waste of time and with CDs it only got worse; i mean, you didn't have to wait too long to hear 'Her Majesty' on Abbey Road (although it was listed as a track' but dragging out a track (from an mp3 perspective) for that long nowadays is just plain idiotic!
In these days of downloads
anything "hidden" or "secret" would result in the geeks going into outraged ranting mode for weeks on end. Only when the "I'm geekier than you are, and I'm more angry about this than you are" fireworks had subsided, followed by at least a month of the inevitable collateral damage Windows v Linux v Mac global flame war, would we get to find out whether the payload had been worth acquiring, by which time the download would have been re-issued without it.
Can I put in a shout for the
exceedingly rude track Jarvis tucked away about a week after the apparent end of his solo album.
Having enjoyed the album over a large plate of pasta and a good Shiraz late one night, I'd almost dozed off on the sofa when he suddenly came shouting back with a tirade of filth and anger. I share his disaffectation, but I do wish he could have warned me; the red wine stains have never really faded.
Could this be another strand?
Rude songs that surprise, usually on shuuffle mode in the presence of children: Plaistow Patricia (Lord Upminster), Her Father didn't like me (Shane MacGowan), Everyones doin' it (Commander Cody)and the excellent Cake cover of I Will Survive....
I used to find
in my youth that if I played a record with rude words on it my mother would inevitably walk into the room at that moment, tut, shake her head and comment something like "Is that the best use they can make of the English language?"
Lovesexy
I had a vinyl copy of this Prince album when I was a kid, it's the one where he's naked on the cover, not at all sexy to me, but there you go. My mum was doing a cleaning of my room and spotted this beside the record player, later warning me that she didn't really approve of the cover of that Michael Jackson album.
Cass McCombs - Dropping the Writ
I was surprised that this, a very new release, had one. I must say I haven't bothered to wait to hear it as the main album is pretty dull.
we've already done this one!
have a look here:
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/hidden-track-blessing-or-curse
Clowns
I remember the time my brother, Simon, was sent a GGFH (Global Genocide Forget Heaven!) vinyl single, courtesy of the Peaceville Records Collectors club.
Late that night we listened to it on the turntable in the lounge and were both very impressed by the A-side - Welcome To The Process. My brother put a blank cassette in the hi-fi and we listened to it again while it recorded.
The A-side played as before. However when we turned the vinyl over to record the B-side, it played a completely different piece of music than it had the first time around - in this case speeded-up circus organ, accompanied by manic clown laughter.
For a split second the pair of us were united in our terror. The vinyl was, of course, double grooved - something neither of us had encountered before. Now that we have both moved on with our lives and no longer live in the same house, it's a piece of our shared history that I look back on with great fondness and amusement.
Speaking of Ash,
I could never find the scret tracks before the start of the album. I don't think they were on every copy.
However I did get a secret track on the 1977 album after all. It was called 'Sick Party' and was just the sound of them throwing up after a particularly heavy evening. Be fair though, they were only about 12 at the time.