Best Blur B-side

Film
Tame
Mace
Ludwig
Cows
Life

- When the Cows Come Home (Damon is good at this style)
- Young and Lovely (Should've been an A-Side)
- Swallows In The Heatwave (a well-accomplished Pavement hommage and the title even sounds like "Starlings In The Slipstream)
- Theme From An Imaginary Film (this was actually going to be the theme tune from a TV comedy but the word "arse" appeared in it too many times)
- St Louis (miserabilist Beatles-y stuff, really lush though)
- One Born Every Minute (Camp and silly in the best possible way)
- Polished Stones (like "Lazy Old Sun"-era Kinks put through a shoegaze filter)
- Peach (Lazy lazy)
- Ludwig (Funny instrumental #1)
- Supa Shoppa (Funny Instrumental #2)

What about Bustin' & Dronin'?

For reference, my favourite Blur songs are Beetlebum, Girls & Boys, The Universal, Ambulance, Sing, This Is A Low, and To The End, probably.

Film remains a must, then.

All Your Life
St Louis
Young & Lovely
One Born Every Minute
So You
Theme From an Imaginary Song (that or Let's Go Down the Strand)
All We Want
The Man Who Left Himself (Country Sad Ballad Man prequel?)
Some Glad Morning (if only because it's the last thing recorded with Graham)
The Horrors (weird instrumental #1)
Beard (weird instrumental #2)

i think they kind of sucked at b-sides. they basically gave up and did rubbish 'comedy' ones after MLIR iirc.

are there no awesome wacked-out 13-era b-sides worth naming then

I missed this one, would have voted for beachcoma, but there you go.

most of the 13-era b-sides were remixes and versions i think.

I'm sad I missed this poll when it happened! Young and Lovely and Woodpigeon are my favorites. Why was Young and Lovely ditched from the album?! itisamystery.jpg

'turn it up' was thrown in y&l's penultimate slot to crack the US market iirc, which the entire band vocally regret

'black book' is my fairly predictable favourite though, as well as one of my favourite blur songs full stop, it's like 'tender' done right & genuinely raises me to catharsis every time. that rhodes piano entrance, shit

No votes for 'Magpie' or 'Get Out Of Cities'?

While Blur were definitely not a great B-sides band like Suede or Oasis were, listening to their B-sides is very different experience. Rather than come across as a series of A-sides that were cruelly buried on flips, the Blur B-sides cover a whole spectrum. One minute you could be listening to a song which is honest to god should-have-made-the-album stuff, the next minute you could be listening to something a little more off-the-cuff and experimental, some of it which is truly inspired and works, and some of it which doesn't. And then there's some out-and-out horrific shite, like the "comedy" tracks on the Parklife B-sides. Picking through the B-sides is an experience in itself.

Ah..

About 6 months ago I saw the big cd box for £50 at local char shop.

Couldn't justify it really..

Still, I have all the cd box versions, and managed to Obtain the rarities 3cd and not fussed about the dvds anyway

i still covet that box

Found myself on a gloomy January Monday on the platform at Ealing Broadway having to run an equally gloomy errand, so 'Modern Life...' made the perfect soundtrack.