I like The Boss a bit, but I generally can’t stand his long, romantic, working class-hero ballads: “Thunder Road,” “Sandy,” etc. When I saw Him and His E Street Band at the soon-to-be-demolished Spectrum in Philadelphia, on His tour supporting The River, I was strongly annoyed by most of the first 2 1/2 hours of his set, especially when he played the title track from his new release and all the Philly and South Jersey Boss fans in attendance stood on their seats and waved their lighters. Ugh.
Finally he played “Born to Run,” “Rosalita,” and that “Devil in a Blue Dress” medley. Finally the show was a lot of fun. For some reason, today, I was reminded of some fun Boss songs that never appeared on his real studio albums (if memory serves), like “Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)” (if that’s the actual title), and his versions of “Because the Night” and “Fire.” How much more would I have liked The Boss if he’d released more of that stuff, no matter how clunky it might have been produced, on his real albums rather than all those lighter waving make-out songs? The answer is At least a bit better. The more journeyman bar band songs by The Boss the better, as far as I’m concerned!
Do you have an artist you might like better if the unreleased and b-sides you’ve heard by said artist actually appeared on their studio albums instead of the more typical fare that never impressed you?
Erm, am I supposed to be listening to b-sides by an artist that never impressed me?
Then “Tracks” Box set is the Bruce for you Mr. Mod
You are not alone in the frustration over Bruce’s song pics for his records. Especially in the days of vinyl limitations of time. Little Steven and Might Max are among those who claim the best songs “got away”…thankfully to be released on the Tracks set
The pop songs are the ones that tended to get left off, either because they did not fit the album “theme” or because there was another similar song chosen instead on the record.
Short List of “Lost Songs” (all on the Tracks box set now)
I Wanna Be Where The Bands Are
From Small Things
This Hard Land
Murder Inc.
I Wanna Be With You
Roulette
Fire
Because The Night
Stand On It
Pink Cadillac
Janey Don’t You Lose Heart
Loose Ends
Be True
This is the follow up to The River that got away
2009 has been the year of the reissue with bonus tracks. VERY few have received a 2nd listen from me.
Replacements, Motorhead, The Who, Costello (yet again!), Nick Lowe,
Especially in the 80 min CD era, there is very little that is left on the studio floor that should not be.
Philly radio stations played Springsteen’s “The Fever” throughout my childhood. It also didn’t officially come out until Tracks. I definitely like it better than many if not most Springsteen hits and classics.
it isn’t always the case with just B-sides. For example, some of McCartney’s early singles were only on 45. Give Ireland Back To The Irish and Hi Hi Hi should have been on their respective LPs.
As far as B-sides, some of Elvis Costello’s are fantastic.
Springsteen is really one of the few great examples. I don’t know why a lot of these artists release B-sides only. It probably is a record company decision to generate cash.
Nirvana’s Sappy is my favorite of their songs. It is only on the benefit album No Alternative. It is not on any of their studio albums.
Faithless The Wonder Boy is my favorite Radiohead song ever, and it only ever appeared on a free record they gave out to their fanclub, and as a bside to the Creep cassingle.
i can’t think of another.
Weezer has some great B-sides! I can’t say that I rate them better than their album stuff, but they are all pretty enjoyable tracks. One of the most notorious was a track called “Jamie” that first appeared on the DGC Rarities compilation (A pretty rad comp in its own right). The story behind the song was that it was done as a recording project for a friend. The friend was studying production. The final mix got a B+ for a grade. It’s a fun little song.
Of course, when I got around to making an “odds n sods” CD mixof Weezer B-sides, I called it “B Plus.” Such a clever lad I am!
R.E.M. is another band whose B-sides and outtakes are pretty good. Again, I can’t say “better,” but there are some worthy tracks out there.
TB
Am I the only person who has a beef with the remix/recording of “The Fever” on tracks?
Prince’s B-sides from DIRTY MIND through SIGN OF THE TIMES were frequently as good as his long player cuts. “Erotic City” would have only improved PURPLE RAIN.
They added a shitload of reverb, right? Yeah db, I hate it too. The dry mix MMR/YSP used to play was perfect in my book.
I think Springsteen evem dug up Vinnie “Mad Dog” Lopez to re-record the drums, jerky thirty-years-later perfectionist that he is…
A friend told me yesterday that The Boss’ “Thunder Road” was voted the #1 song of all-time by listeners of Philly’s AAA station, WXPN, in their countdown of the top 885 songs. That’s not a tremendous surprise, knowing the station’s demographic and the longtime Bosslove this town has demonstrated, but Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” was voted #2!?!?! That’s a fine song, but really, is this supposed to relieve the guilt felt by the station’s upper-middle class listeners who’ve strayed from their religion? Was this the result of ballot box stuffing?
Vinnie Lopez was asked to come in and record his VOCAL part on The Fever, the original track is the track from back in the day (full band), just one without vocals (or at least without completed ones)
I don’t know a decent version before this one, so I am fine with it