The iPod churned up The Clash’s “Gates of the West” last night, and I couldn’t help thinking that I’d have listened to it a lot more over the last 28-odd years if it had ended up on London Calling where it kind of belongs, sonically anyway. It did end up on the expanded CD version of Black Market Clash, but back in the day it was just a B-side of a 45 (I think) and I didn’t heard it until years later.
It got me to thinking how the whole single-song mp3 golden age in which we are living, while making it less likely that an album will be listened to all the way through, has the side effect of rescuing some great songs from oblivion that would otherwise be languishing in a cutout bin or hidden away under Various Artists. Some other examples:
The Hold Steady, “Girls Like Status,” would be one of my favorite songs on Boys and Girls in America, except that it appears only on the soundtrack to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, which in the pre-download era I never would have bought, or noticed.
Maybe my favorite New Pornographers song is “Graceland,” which seems to only have been released on a compilation of co-labellists. Ditto the Whiskeytown song “Choked Up.”
The king of this is probably Bob Dylan, as the Bootleg Series Vol 1-3 revealed his propensity for leaving off the best song from each of his albums from the late 70s on (example: “Blind Willie McTell” would have been the best song on Infidels by a wide margin in my opinion).
I know the Beatles and the Stones had a raft of great songs released only on 45s and then on CD compilations, but that seems like low-hanging fruit.
I’d like to hear about some more of these great songs that have fallen through the cracks CD-wise.
David Bowie: “Holy Holy” (two versions were released on 45…the second briefly appeared as a bonus track on the Ryko version of The Man Who Sold the World, incorrectly identified as the original, which has never been reissued and which I have not heard to this day)
Procol Harum: “Drunk Again,” “Blue Danube”
Jethro Tull: “A Stitch in Time”
Yes: “Something’s Coming” (from West Side Story)
(I think the above are all currently available as bonus tracks on the chronologically appropriate CDs)
“Hey Hey What Can I Do” by Led Zeppelin comes to mind. It was released as the B side of “The Immigrant Song” and although it was released on the various artist-LP The New Age of Atlantic in 1972, it wasn’t officially released on album by Zeppelin until their first box set in 1990, and again as a bonus track on Coda in their Complete Studio Recordings set.
“Pink Cadillac” was recorded by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band during the recording sessions of Born in the U.S.A. It was bumped in favor of the song “I’m Goin’ Down” and released as the B side of the “Dancing in the Dark” single. It finally appeared in the box set Tracks in 1998.
The Grateful Dead had the makings of a terrific follow-up to American Beauty but could never quite get it together enough to record it. Among the songs were Wharf Rat, Tennessee Jed, Ramble on Rose, Jack Straw, and Mr. Charlie. Instead of appearing on a studio album, the songs became concert staples. Most turned up on official releases, but only as live cuts.
“Gloria” by U2, didn’t make their greatest hits of the 80’s CD, apparently because Bono and some other members thought that an uplifting and powerful song sounded “dated” (whatever that means).
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s live version of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” has appeared on various Christmas compilations, and finally in 1985 it was released as the B-side to “My Hometown”, but as far as I know, it has never appeared on a Springsteen album or box set.
In the mid 70s, my friend had a 45 of David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel” that was radically different from the album version and what we usually heard on the radio. I mainly remembered the chanting. I never was able to convince anyone this actually existed until it popped up on the “Sound+Vision” box set in the early 90s.
Nirvana’s “Verse Chorus Verse” originally only appeared on a charity compilation. 10 years later it made it into the big-ass “With The Lights Out” box set.
One of my favorite Frank Black songs is “Pray For The Girls”, which can only be found in the children’s section on the album “The Powerpuff Girls:Heroes & Villians”
Silver Springs was left off of Rumours by Fleetwood Mac for either being too long or for making the album too depressing. I think it’s better than at least half the songs that made the cut.
The Velvet Underground had more than an album’s worth of solid material that didn’t get onto a proper album. I would say songs like Stephanie Says, Ocean, Foggy Notion, and We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together could go up against some of they’re best material.
Nirvana: released “Spank Thru” (on a Sub Pop comp), “Even In His Youth” (B-side to “Teen Spirit”), “Oh The Guilt” (split single in '93), and “I Hate Myself and Want to Die” (Beavis and Butthead comp). Fortunately they all made it to the box set.
Pearl Jam: “Yellow Ledbetter” (B-Side to “Jeremy”), “Leaving Here” (great Marvin Gaye cover on charity comp), “I Got Id” (single only release).
Smashing Pumpkins: “Said Sadly” was a great acoustic duet ballad that was only available on the “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” single. Not only is it the rare SP song with James Iha singing lead, but it’s got one of Veruca Salt’s members as his partner.
One older release that’s apparently gone was “Snow Queen”, a folky Elton John song with one of Taupin’s best lyrics. I’ve only seen it as the B-side to “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. Neither John’s box set nor remastered CD’s seem to include it.
Slightly embarrassed, but it’s a great song…
The b-side of Yes’ earnest ‘Don’t Kill The Whale’ is the fantastic ‘Abilene’ which i think is spelled differently on the label to the cover.
I think it’s my favourite Yes song and I’ve yet to see it on CD
It was released as a single (their first for A&M, backed with “Good Captain Clack”), but it sank like a stone. I never heard of it until I found a cutout copy of the single in the 10-cent bin at the Thrifty drug store in 1970.
There’s Blossom Dearie and Lyle Lovett’s duet on Dave Frishberg’s “Peel Me a Grape” that AFAIK was only ever released on a Banana Republic in-store giveaway – it’s never been on a release by either of them that I can find.
One of my favorites by them World Without Mercy was the last song on the Viloent Femmes cassette release Blind Leading The Naked.
For whatever reason they left it off the CD release.