MY LOVE, SHE THROWS ME LIKE A RUBBER BALL: TPE wonders, in the comments in the Toto thread below, "is there a B-side other than '(Hey Hey) What Can I Do' [A: Immigrant Song], on which we really need to spend eternity?" That song, the sad tale of a man whose woman won't be true and wants to ball all day -- a volatile pair of character flaws, no doubt -- is surely among the greatest B-sides in rock history. It is unfair to the flip side, though, to suggest that there aren't others. When I was a pimply teen, I treasured my Iron Maiden cover of "Cross-Eyed Mary" (a: "The Trooper") and my Metallica covers of "Am I Evil (Yes I Am)" and "Blitzkrieg" (a: "Creeping Death," 12" picture disc). Later, I obsessed over the U2 b-sides ("Sweetest Thing," "A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel"). Today, I know every clattering mistake in the reverby demo of the Decemberists' "Kingdom of Spain" (a: "O Valencia!"), and The Thermals' "There's Nothing You Can't Learn" (a: "I Don't Believe You"), a buoyantly catchy pop-punk anthem, is better than anything on their new album.
I can't be alone here -- surely you have your own favorite b-sides.
And I forgot what might be my favorite B-side of all time -- PJ Harvey's deranged, gleeful cover of "Wang Dang Doodle."
ReplyDeleteU2 b-sides also include "Everlasting Love" and "Hallelujah Here She Comes".
ReplyDeleteSuperchunk, "It's So Hard To Fall In Love," "Brand New Love" (both Sebadoh covers), "On The mouth," "100,000 Fireflies"
Yeah, Hallelujah was a good song. A pace at which the band did not often play.
ReplyDelete"Sugar," b-side to Tori Amos's "China."
ReplyDelete"Feel U Up," b-side to Prince's "Partyman."
There are too many awesome Elvis Costello b-sides for you to possibly want me to start in on them, but let's at least say EC and Nick Lowe's cover of "Baby It's You."
Also on Prince, "Erotic City."
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite B-sides became a hit in its own right: The Monkees' "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" (A: I'm a Believer).
ReplyDeleteI'm also a sucker for the Joshua Tree/Rattle & Hum-era U2 b-sides, but their cover of "Satellite of Love" from the "One" single is longtime favorite.
"Shaky Ground," from the Lemonheads' "It's A Shame About Ray" single.
Also, The Old 97s' "The Villain" from the "Nineteen" single is another beloved B-side for me.
"Murder By Numbers," B-Side to "Every Breath You Take" (but later interpolated into "Synchronicity" as an additional track).
ReplyDelete"Yellow Ledbetter" was originally the second B-Side to "Jeremy."
U2: Lady with the Spinning Head, Satelite of Love (if I'm remembering right), One Shot of Happy, Two Shots of Sad, Slow Dancing
ReplyDeleteWhy, yes, U2 is the only band whose singles I've ever bought.
Restricting it to official US releases, "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" is my go-to Bruce b-side -- it far outstrips the single (a: I'm Goin' Down) and in a better world would have made the BitUSA album.
ReplyDeleteDo we have to explain b-sides to the younger commenters? See, there were these things before downloads called -- no, before CDs too -- called long-playing records, or LPs, and singles were released as -- no, before cassettes -- as smaller vinyl records and those were called 45s because they spun at 45 RPM instead of 33 RPM on your record player and they had a larger center hole that you needed to buy a cheap plastic adapter for, and....
Jesus, we're old.
"Yellow Ledbetter" is a good call. Sticking with that era, I've always liked Nirvana's "Marigold," the b-side to "Heart-Shaped Box," which would probably be more accurately called a Foo Fighters song, as Dave Grohl did all the vocals and guitars. Kind of a preview of things to come.
ReplyDeleteYes, we're old. Any discussion of B-sides gets me thinking almost immediately of Daniel Stern in "Diner." So doubly old.
ReplyDeleteA recent article in The Onion's AV Club says that "I Will Survive" was originally a B-side. That was an interesting fact, as was the reason: the studio thought it couldn't be a hit because it had too many words.
Deleted some duped comments, in case folks were wondering where things went.
ReplyDeleteHow about BS&tESB, "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"?
ReplyDeleteJohn Lennon and Elton John "I Saw Her Standing There" live in concert, b-side of "Philadelphia Freedom", more for the historical curiosity than anything else.
ReplyDeleteMany, many years ago, my brother bought me the 45 of Berlin's "Take My Breath Away". After I listened to that song for a while, I flipped it over to hear "No More Words", which became one of the first songs on my Angry Young Women mixtape.
ReplyDeleteWhat's a "mixtape"? See, there were these things before playlists called mixtapes...
Wasn't "Pink Cadillac" a B-side to "Dancing In The Dark?"
ReplyDeleteAnd a good "B" side could be played on a jukebox to applause or boos, see above "Erotic City"
ReplyDeleteCassette singles had B sides. B52s' Roam was B side to Love Shack. Love them both.
ReplyDeleteYes Adam (B to My Hometown, IIRC) and yes StvMg, but Janey is superior to both. (And I'd argue that the live "Merry Christmas Baby," which is the B side to "War," from the Live 1975-1985 set, is better than "Santa Claus" as holiday Bruce, despite "Santa" getting the lion's share of radio play over the years.)
ReplyDeleteClosest to Janey among Bruce B-sides, IMO, is "Roulette," (A: "One Step Up," from the Tunnel of Love album) a terrific, super uptempo River outtake riffing off of the Three Mile Island accident, with Max drumming furiously and Bruce singing just as furiously to keep up with the beat.
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts "She's Lost You" from the single for the Bangles cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter" on the "Less than Zero" soundtrack. (For added fun, count the number of ways that sentence dates me.)
ReplyDeleteAlso R.E.M.'s "Memphis Train Blues" on the backside of "Stand."
I'm going to have to track that down. Can't even imagine what it would sound like.
ReplyDeleteRattimus - guest is me. I must sign this post to gain any appropriate coolness points for music chosen by my middle school self.
ReplyDeleteNo More Words had this awesome Bonnie and Clyde video, too.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe this is true... but I think I didn't know that LP stood for Long Playing until now. We had a record player growing up, but the only 45 we had was Tiffany "Think We're Alone Now", with my favorite Tiffany song "Mr. Mambo" as the B-side.
ReplyDeleteI don't have nearly the depth of music knowledge as some of the folks on this list, but I do remember my mother's old 45 collection containing I Want to Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There. That's a pretty awesome combination.
ReplyDeleteI think the way I'm using the term, and the way that I think most (not all) people here are using the term, that's not exactly a b-side. I think of it not literally as anything on the flip of a single, but rather as a song on the flip side that doesn't appear on the album that has the single -- the little extra that gets a person who owns the album to buy the single as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the original "I Want to Hold Your Hand" had "This Boy" as its b-side in England. When it was released in the US with "I Saw Her Standing There" (probably my favorite early Beatles song for the great cascading chord progression in the chorus), it was really more like a double-a-side, with both songs getting promoted and both appearing on Meet the Beatles, which itself isn't a proper album.
I agree with Isaac's definition of a b-side, and also that there is such a thing as a double a-side.
ReplyDelete1. Bob Dylan, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" (live; B-side to "I Want You" from Blonde On Blonde): backed by the Hawks (i.e., The Band), Dylan tears the Highway 61 Revisited version to shreds. For many years, this was the only legitimate (non-bootleg) live recording of Dylan and the Hawks in the '65/'66 period.
ReplyDelete2. The Who, "Baby Don't You Do It" (live; B-side to "Join Together"): not quite within Isaac's definition, since "Join Together" was a stand-alone single, not appearing on any Who studio album at the time, and uncollected on LP/cassette/CD until the torrent of Who compilations following Keith Moon's demise. The four rip into the Marvin Gaye chestnut, turning it into something vaguely foreshadowing "The Real Me" from Quadrophenia. A wholly different approach to the song than the one The Band took on Rock Of Ages, and yet more evidence that the Who were the greatest live act of all. A studio version has shown up on the deluxe 2xCD edition of Who's Next, but can't beat this track for sheer ferocity.
3. An earlier commenter is right; Elvis Costello has a bunch of terrific B-sides. If you have to pick one, go with "Big Tears," the UK B-side to This Year's Model's "Pump It Up."
4. The Who, "Heaven and Hell" (B-side to "Summertime Blues," from Live At Leeds): Entwistle's best song, it opened a lot of early '70's Who shows; see the expanded Live At Leeds. This studio version doesn't have quite the kick of the LAL rendition, but only the Who could afford to waste this one on a flip side.
Honorable mention, in no particular order:
R.E.M., "Burning Hell" (one of two B-sides to the 12" of "Can't Get There From Here," from Fables of the Reconstruction): A stab at rocking out (recorded during the sessions for Fables, not one of R.E.M.'s more energetic efforts), here Stipe, Buck, Mills and Berry sound like a cross between Blue Oyster Cult and an amateurish AC/DC cover band. Hilarious, on the order of the Replacements drunkenly rampaging through K-Tel's "Big Chart Hits of the '70's." (For aural confirmation, go find a 'Mats boot with their version of the Grass Roots' "Temptation Eyes," and call me in the morning.) Speaking of which...
The Replacements, "If Only You Were Lonely" (B-side to "I'm In Trouble" from Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash): Here it's just Paul Westerberg and his guitar, with a country ditty miles away from the punk thrash of Sorry Ma, except for the lines, "And somewhere/Somebody's throwing up."
Husker Du, "Love Is All Around" (B-side to "Makes No Sense At All" from Flip Your Wig): Yes, the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show ("you're gonna make it after all..."), set in the Huskers' hometown of Minneapolis. Hard to take seriously from the band that destroyed "Eight Miles High" on an earlier single, but still enjoyable.
Superchunk, "100,000 Fireflies" (one of two B-sides to "The Question Is How Fast" from On The Mouth): Adam mentioned this one, but it bears repeating, particularly if you've heard the original Magnetic Fields version with Susan Anway's nearly emotionless vocal. Pretty much what you'd imagine a Superchunk cover of a Stephin Merritt song might sound [...]
That just reminded me -- I think (but am not sure) that "Ultrasuede" by Matthew Sweet was a true b-side (to "Ugly Truth" or "Time Capsule"); it is my favorite Matthew Sweet song.
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