# Best or worst album filler **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652 "2019-01-12T18:06:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/21 "2019-01-13T05:33:06Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Would I be spitting on an icon if I said all the non-lyrical songs on, “Dark Side of the Moon,” are filler? It’s magnificent filler, to be sure. Oh My Gawd, My Friend! I was listening to ‘Dark Side’ on heavy rotation while out in the garage the last couple days, and was thinking of this thread today. I didn’t have the balls to post it first, but yeah, ‘Dark Side’ has some serious filler. Good filler, maybe, but filler none the less. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/22 "2019-01-13T05:35:28Z")
And I’ll say it: Wright and Gilmore\* were\* **Pink Floyd**. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Me](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mr.Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Me)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/23 "2019-01-13T14:22:12Z")
Green Day’s album Dookie ends with [All By Myself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8VXnvbc1c0). I wonder if they’ve ever played it in concert? ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/24 "2019-01-13T14:24:48Z")
I like Styx’s “Aku-Aku”, a postlude to “Pieces of Eight”; and “Prelude 12”, which is a prelude to “Suite Madame Blue”. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/25 "2019-01-13T16:14:56Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > The annoying interlude on the CD version of Tom Petty’s “Full Moon Fever” while we wait for album/tape listeners to get up and turn it over to side two. It wouldn’t be so bad if they had made it a separate track instead of tacking it onto the end of “Running Down A Dream”. I agree that this is annoying, but the implementation of it is less annoying than you let on. It’s not actually tacked onto the end of “Runnin’ Down a Dream”; it’s in the [pregap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregap) of “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”. Pregaps are a little-used feature of compact discs that allow you to put audio in negative time indexes of a track; they are normally played only when the previous track segues into the one with the pregap. If you listen to the tracks in isolation (such as when your CD player is in shuffle mode), or if you start playing the CD from the song with the pregap, you never hear the pregap. For most listeners of _Full Moon Fever_, this means that they’ll never hear the interlude except when listening to the full album. If you tell your CD player to play only “Runnin’ Down a Dream” or “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”, you won’t hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/26 "2019-01-13T17:44:51Z")
> [@MrKnowItAll](#): > > A not-so-favorite: > “Forward March” on Pat Metheny Group’s album _First Circle_ That one is a great musical parody, when they opened a concert with the band members all entering the auditorium through different doors, marching down the aisles playing discordant trumpets, and eventually meeting up on stage. But yeah, putting it on the album was a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/27 "2019-01-13T17:54:17Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Same with _Revolution 9_…I didn’t like it for a long time until I learned to accept it as a soundscape rather than a song. (It sounds really cool on the new 5.1 mix) I accept _Revolution #9_ as a soundscape, or a tone poem, or an aural experiment, or whatever the hell apologists have called it over the last fifty years. It still sucks, I still hate it, and I still think it’s one of the worst pieces of crap ever put on vinyl. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/28 "2019-01-13T18:13:01Z")
I love Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast on Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/29 "2019-01-13T18:38:00Z")
> [@Mr.Me](#): > > Green Day’s album Dookie ends with [All By Myself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8VXnvbc1c0). I wonder if they’ve ever played it in concert? they did al the time ……even when they did the dookie concert live on mtv……… ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/30 "2019-01-13T18:50:56Z")
social distortion has a habit of playing covers they don’t normally sing after the cd is over …like “this diamond ring” which I liked and not many did and "ring of fire "….which I didn’t and everyone else did ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/31 "2019-01-13T19:08:28Z")
_Fitter Happier_, off **Radiohead** ’s _OK Computer_ has sometimes been described as the only weak track on the album, to the point of being considered as a filler. It was my third favourite song on it. I think it’s quite evocative. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/32 "2019-01-13T19:29:55Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > I agree that this is annoying, but the implementation of it is less annoying than you let on. It’s not actually tacked onto the end of “Runnin’ Down a Dream”; it’s in the [pregap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregap) of “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”. Pregaps are a little-used feature of compact discs that allow you to put audio in negative time indexes of a track; they are normally played only when the previous track segues into the one with the pregap. If you listen to the tracks in isolation (such as when your CD player is in shuffle mode), or if you start playing the CD from the song with the pregap, you never hear the pregap. > > For most listeners of _Full Moon Fever_, this means that they’ll never hear the interlude except when listening to the full album. If you tell your CD player to play only “Runnin’ Down a Dream” or “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”, you won’t hear it. Your CD must be built differently than mine. My copy has Track 5 “Runnin’ Down A Dream” as 4:52. The song itself ends around 4:20 and the remaining 30 or so seconds of the track is the “Hello CD listeners” bit. It’s definitely all part of the “Runnin’ Down A Dream” track, not the “Feel A Whole Lot Better” track, no matter how I listen to the songs. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/33 "2019-01-13T19:33:51Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Back in the early days of CDs, it seems like the record companies liked to add a bunch of bonus tracks and previously unreleased material when releasing older albums in CD format. In many cases there was a good reason that material was not released in the first place. The CD version of Traffic’s “John Barleycorn Must Die” had a couple of real stinkers tacked on. Replace the words “Back in” with “Ever since” and I’d agree with you. Hasn’t it always been pretty common for CD re-releases to have bonus tracks? Live versions, remixes, demos, B-sides of singles, and previously unreleased songs all sometimes get tacked on as bonus tracks. Usually this stuff is, at best, of interest to fans but not something you’d want to listen to repeatedly, and, at worst, utterly pointless. But a few bands (e.g. The Kinks) have some great “lost” material that didn’t make it onto their official releases. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/34 "2019-01-13T19:49:40Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Your CD must be built differently than mine. My copy has Track 5 “Runnin’ Down A Dream” as 4:52. The song itself ends around 4:20 and the remaining 30 or so seconds of the track is the “Hello CD listeners” bit. It’s definitely all part of the “Runnin’ Down A Dream” track, not the “Feel A Whole Lot Better” track, no matter how I listen to the songs. Yeah, could be that some pressings altered the track layout. All the copies I’ve come across, purchased in North America within a few years of the album’s original release, had the interlude in the pregap of track 6. When and where did you get your copy? ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/35 "2019-01-13T19:51:54Z")
The most pointless and irritating filler I ever encountered were tracks 7 through 97 on my version of the Nine Inch Nails EP “Broken”. Each track was four seconds of silence. Since the player I had at the time wouldn’t allow you to go from the first track to the last track by hitting the back button, if I wanted to hear the bonus tracks (98 and 99) I had to hit the “next” button ninety times. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/36 "2019-01-13T19:54:24Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I accept _Revolution #9_ as a soundscape, or a tone poem, or an aural experiment, or whatever the hell apologists have called it over the last fifty years. It still sucks, I still hate it, and I still think it’s one of the worst pieces of crap ever put on vinyl. Well, it’s a matter of opinion and personal taste, but I agree with everything you say. I like musique concrète, but I’ve always found _Revolution #9_ to be ugly and uninteresting. Unlistenable dreck. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/37 "2019-01-13T19:56:09Z")
> [@neofishboy](#): > > The most pointless and irritating filler I ever encountered were tracks 7 through 97 on my version of the Nine Inch Nails EP “Broken”. Each track was four seconds of silence. Since the player I had at the time wouldn’t allow you to go from the first track to the last track by hitting the back button, if I wanted to hear the bonus tracks (98 and 99) I had to hit the “next” button ninety times. It also made my players random function totally useless. I really hated those stupid silences. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/38 "2019-01-13T20:43:48Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I don’t know whether this counts as filler, but how about side 2 of the Yellow Submarine album? I can’t imagine that many people listened to it more than once, and a lot of people probably stopped listening after the first track. You’d be wrong, I think. I bet I’m not the only student that used it as study music in high school and college. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/39 "2019-01-13T20:49:05Z")
I don’t think _The Great Gig in the Sky_ is filler as it totally completes the side 1 suite to such a degree that it almost belongs there. After all it sort of does because it takes place after the inevitable death in the previous song. _Any Colour You Like_ on the other hand I’d agree with the others that it’s excellent yet extraneous filler. > [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](#): > > It also made my players random function totally useless. I really hated those stupid silences. The CD that did that for me is the purposely bad skiffly track at the end of Second Coming by the Stone Roses, where there are a bunch of blank tracks which, if imported into a randomizer, cause weird pauses in the music just long enough for me to wonder if the shuffler has stopped working. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652/40 "2019-01-13T20:50:03Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > The hidden track “Eurotrash Girl” from Cracker’s _Kerosene Hat_ album made it onto their _Best of…_ album so apparently it was a pretty popular discovery among listeners. Another precinct heard from. For me, their only good song. Heard it on the radio. Didn’t see it on the CD. Searched the Internet over, for my _Eurotrash Girl_. Oh, track 99. (And the kid who bought the CD didn’t even know it was on there. A win for Dad.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-or-worst-album-filler/827652.md?page=3)