B-sides - Classic or Dud?

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I used to love buying singles by bands I liked and trawling through them for great b-sides. It was cool. But now I hate singles and can't be arsed with them - I can't remember the last time I bought one, let alone the last time I uncovered a great b-side.

Sop, b-sides - important forum for bands to try out new sounds, experiment with ideas that wouldn't fit in on an album, and bury hidden gems for hardcore fans, OR complete waste of time and space?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Roxy Music and Soft Cell were always my fave B-side bands....

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Depends on the band, really. Some bands really seized the opportunity and recorded some damn fine stuff, whereas others wasted it.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Alright then, make it a Search & Destroy thread - who used the medium to its full extent? Who's got the best b-sides compilation albums?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Pet Shop Boys and The Cure OWN this thread.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Bands who recorded decent B-sides: Killing Joke (couldn't see that comin', could ya!), U2 (once upon a time at least,....I always thought "Spanish Eyes," the b-side of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was among their finest ever work), Echo & the Bunnymen ("Rollercoaster," the b-side to "Lips Like Sugar" is a fookin' masterpiece), and like Dan says, THE CURE.....sooo many decent tracks cruelly relegated to the flip sides of singles, "Throw Your Foot," "Man Inside My Mouth," "Babble" and "A Few Hours After This" well among them.

Bands whose B-sides often blew chunks: U2 (for every "Spanish Eyes" there was a "Holy Joe" or yet another crap 'remix').

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I loved the Soft Cell b-sides, too. 'Cruelty without beauty', the new album, is brilliant, I think, too. A rare example of a band coming back years down the line - and sounding even greater than before.

Other great b-sides bands: The Smiths (and Morrissey solo - sometimes better than the 'a' sides), Depeche Mode, Pet shop boys and Kate Bush.

― russ t, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

primal scream (v.u. reworkings of old songs, junglist garage tracks, mod and soul keyboards), r.e.m dead letter office, teenage fanclub for 'some people try to fuck with you', super furry animals, elliott smith, velvet crush, the byrds - an art form when done properly.

― doom-e, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I was considering listing Depeche Mode, considering the ungodly greatness of the "World In My Eyes" b-sides and "Ice Machine", but then I remembered "Flexible" (which was a b-side before _Catching Up..._, wasn't it?).

I don't think I know which Smiths are b-sides. Also, it would probably be easier to list bad Cure b-sides ("Scared As You", um... that can't be it, can it? Oh wait, "Sugar Girl"!) than good ones.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

― zebedee, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

end of vinyl = end of B-Sides, literally and aesthetically

That said, last two CDS I bought (The Streets, Avril L) both had reasonably good extra tracks on 'em, so maybe my maths goes wrong somewhere.

― Jeff W, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

All the singles bands I used to be into when I was a kid (and still am) seemed to at least try and do something with their B-sides. Madness and The Jam in particular. Some of the Madness ones were a bit corny, but there can't be many better B's than 'Dreams of Children' (or was that a AA?).

― James Ball (James Ball), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

The Buzzcocks (almost half of "Singles going Steady") and Sugar ("Besides" - a collection of b-sides better than most band's a-sides!).

― CretanBull (CretanBull), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

The Byrds had some awesome B-sides, but they pretty much all ended up on albums as well. (But in those days there was a bit more of a separation between singles buyers and album buyers, as much because of the much higher relative costs.)

'I knew I'd want you', 'Feel a whole lot better' and 'Everbody's been burned' were all b-sides first. (You can get all the A's and B's on the 'Original Singles' vols 1 & 2.)

― James Ball (James Ball), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:41 (twenty-two years ago)

The best b-sides band in the world --evah!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

So yeah, PRINCE.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Smiths b-sides included Is it really so strange, London, Girl Afraid, Pleasepleaseplease let me get what I want, Oscilate Wildly, You just haven't earned it yet baby..... all fantastic songs, worthy of a-side status

― russ t, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Chemical Brothers have good B-sides, HIA on Come With Us, and a few more I can't actually remember.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:58 (twenty-two years ago)

The b-sides to "Hey Boy Hey Girl" were wildly superior to most of the songs that ended up on _Surrender_.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Agreed on PSB, Prince, the Cure, Soft Cell, Chemical Brothers, Echo, the Smiths, Buzzcocks and so forth. Yay! Surprised to see no mention of Siouxsie and the Banshees yet, some phenomenal B-sides over the years -- I'm still waiting for a proper collection of same but I lurve the mp3 set I've got for now.

If nobody's mentioned Suede, them as well. Said it before, will say it again -- the Head Music B-sides as an album makes for a great listen. Then there's the Boo Radleys...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree Dan. Come With Us is very like the b-sides to me.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Where would I be without "Genetic" by Sonic Youth, "A Man Could Get Arrested" by The Pet Shop Boys, "Westie Can Drum" by Pavement, Throwing Muses' version of "Cry Baby Cry", Superchunks version of "Brand New Love", Dinosaur Jr's version of "Hot Burrito #2", "Fretless" by REM, "Problem Child" by Squarepusher . . . . theres loads.

Big shouts out to the excellent B-sides of Pulp, The Auteurs, Suede, Sebadoh, Bomb the Bass, Bis . . . .

My favourite B-sides collection, for all the wrong reasons must be the Ocean Colour Scene album. It's SO DAMN AWFUL it makes me laugh like a hyena every time I hear it.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Argh, I forgot Pulp and, indeed, Pavement! D'oh.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Great that the Pet Shop Boys get a few mentions here.... any band that can release a song as brilliant as Paninaro as a b-side HAVE to take the 'Best b-sides' gong. Also, Do I Have to?, Decadence, Miserablism, the sublime I Want a Dog, Your funny uncle, Violence.... their 'Alternative' album collects the best of the early ones.

― russ t, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

_Alternative_ is the best Pet Shop Boys album by quite a ways, and that's saying A LOT.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

well you all seem to be from a different generation then me, but I'm going to comment on how b-sides are no more, people just downlowd music an no one cares about b-sides anymore./

― martok code, Tuesday, 14 January 2003 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry, Buck Rogers, we seem to all then be stuck in the past. So, what's it like in the future? Do you have bubble cars or individual jet packs?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Lots of good 'ens covered above.

Add Ride, Pixies, R.E.M., early Smashing Pumpkins and The Verve.

― christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

another aye for suede. and who could forget our old chums oasis? the old b-sides are way better than anything on the last 3 albums.

i don't buy many singles, so i haven't got much to add to this thread. "ansafone" by pulp is a classic, though.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 21:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Weezer circa Blue Album / Pinkerton era.

Most the material is on par with those albums, and vastly superior to anything they've done since (although that's perhaps not saying much)

― Mil, Wednesday, 15 January 2003 00:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Blur B-sides were often better than the A-side (not that hard an accomplishment, considering they were *such* an album band.) And they never appeared *anywhere* else - you had to collect the singles or get friends to tape them... my god, how happy was I when someone gave me the box set of them!

Ditto Suede, though they were nice enough to put out Sci-Fi Lullabies, which is actually my favourite album of theirs.

― kate, Wednesday, 15 January 2003 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Idlewild's recent b-sides have been damn fine.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 00:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Also add The Charlatans

― Xibalba (xibalba), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 01:00 (twenty-two years ago)

the only singles I have are MBV eps. those are great. i have sold the rest.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 09:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Prince, all the way. Duran Duran.

― maria b (maria b), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Wonderstuff, also, were a fine b-side band.

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Nice one, Christoff...and very true. The `Stuff put out some great b-sides. "Ten Trenchs Deep" springs immediately to mind.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, Wonderstuff were another band for which i picked-up every 12" single for them i could find (at least a half dozen or so). Oh, the posterity!

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

fifteen years pass...

Here are thirty-five you need.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2018 13:33 (seven years ago)

Class list as usual

― synonym toast crunch (Ross), Sunday, 3 June 2018 13:50 (seven years ago)

Not a bad list. 'Stuffs and Things' was on Let's Take It To The Stage, though.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 3 June 2018 14:22 (seven years ago)

Pavement's Give It A Day was the lead track on an EP though, even an A-side in the UK.

― PaulTMA, Sunday, 3 June 2018 14:43 (seven years ago)

True! I replaced it.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2018 14:49 (seven years ago)

#8 is still pretty high, but seems low when the song in question is Silver Springs.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 3 June 2018 14:53 (seven years ago)

Cocteau Twins really not mentioned in this thread?

― vmajestic, Sunday, 3 June 2018 15:06 (seven years ago)

My favourite bsides bands are broadcast, stereolab and the chromatics

― synonym toast crunch (Ross), Sunday, 3 June 2018 21:18 (seven years ago)

I was expecting there to be a Suede one in there before clicking, but wasn't expecting it to be 'To The Birds' for some reason.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 3 June 2018 23:01 (seven years ago)

I had "Whipsnade" and "My Insatiable One" as my backups.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2018 23:02 (seven years ago)

Specials, Pavement and XTC tracks are big, big songs

― My name is the Pope and in the 90s I smoked a lot of dope (dog latin), Monday, 4 June 2018 08:16 (seven years ago)

Radiohead bsides are often as good as their album tracks. Ex: trans Atlantic drawl, talk show host

― synonym toast crunch (Ross), Monday, 4 June 2018 08:43 (seven years ago)

Number nine was an a-side.

― Mark G, Monday, 4 June 2018 11:34 (seven years ago)

and so was 35

― Mark G, Monday, 4 June 2018 11:35 (seven years ago)

I love both Radiohead and Blur, but their B-sides were very hit and miss. On the other hand, the first disc of Sci-Fi Lullabies is my favourite Suede album, and while Super Furry Animals have the Out Spaced compilation, I don't think it's a true reflection of how great their B-sides were, even during the period of time it covers.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 4 June 2018 11:38 (seven years ago)

Also, as unpopular as they are with certain people on here, Oasis were a genuinely great B-sides band from 1994-1998.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 4 June 2018 11:40 (seven years ago)

Hang on, New Order – Procession was an a-side.

OK, some of these have b-sides that became more famous BUT STILL

― Mark G, Monday, 4 June 2018 11:56 (seven years ago)

huh – I assumed "Procession" was the B-side to one of the early Hannett singles. Anyway, it's corrected.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 June 2018 12:49 (seven years ago)

'Don't Worry Kyoko' is on Fly, too.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 4 June 2018 12:57 (seven years ago)

New Order's "Player in the League" is a terrific forgotten b-side from GET READY. Absolutely beautiful instrumental.

PJ Harvey is another great one. "Memphis" is one of her peaks.

Smashing Pumpkins were undoubtedly the last band to truly invest in the creation of stellar b-sides.

― beamish13, Monday, 4 June 2018 19:28 (seven years ago)

Primal Scream's "When the Kingdom Comes" is spectacular, and is the b-side to the very last single ever released by Creation. Paul Weller is on it, too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8OeUVIZ8Yc&disable_polymer=true

― beamish13, Monday, 4 June 2018 19:29 (seven years ago)

seven months pass...

Rarities comps!

― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 13 January 2019 05:32 (six years ago)

I dig the new blog format, Alfred!

― i stan corrected (morrisp), Sunday, 13 January 2019 06:02 (six years ago)

No Pisces Iscariot? c'mon

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Sunday, 13 January 2019 06:53 (six years ago)

Thanks, morisp!

I'm not much a fan, Matthew.

― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 13 January 2019 12:19 (six years ago)

I'd lean on "VU" being an issue of a 'lost' album rather than a rarities set, near enough. Put it this way, if you did a 'lost albums' list, it would belong there with Smile, etc.

The XTC one is choice though.

― Mark G, Monday, 14 January 2019 07:34 (six years ago)

Has anyone mentioned It's Getting Late In The Evening by Talk Talk yet?

― Daniel Giraffe, Monday, 14 January 2019 10:20 (six years ago)

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