there's gotta be a book somewhere, right?

my post on the beck thread brought this to mind.

B-sides really did used to be leftovers and throwaways and WHATEVER you can fill on the flip side of the vinyl so as not to take attention from the single. nowadays it's different. b-sides becomes b-sides simply beacuse they "couldn't fit on the album" or when a band does release a single, instead of scrapping together some studio fodder they take the time to actually record something decent. or at least a cover song.

Beck in particular had me thinking about this because I think he treats (or maybe that's past tense now...treated) the B-side with it's tradional intent. his old b-sides were alternate versions of lp-songs, studio improv/jam sessions, "bonus beats", real "extra" stuff that was interesting but not quite outshining the cool "hit" single.

and nowadays (even with Beck) it's all remixes. meh. an electronica (huge umbrella term there) act doesn't even do anything for a b-side, they let someone else do it for them!

discuss

I think bands have more quality B-sides nowdays because artists only put out one album every couple years, instead of sometimes multiple albums in a year.

Beck isn't the only artist to treat B-sides as throwaway gimmick items, though.

I'd like to see your hypothetical book also delve into the EP ala Belle & Sebastian, which are not B-sides, really, but seem to have become more prevalent around the same time singles/B-sides were dying off.

More like "Intelligent Design B-Side" you godless heathens.

I don't know that you can generalize about the b-side. There are quality b-sides from every era. It was often the place where artists could screw around and experiment with impunity, lay down some covers, etc. Also, you should probably distinguish the b-side to a single (i.e. two songs, one on each side) and an EP, which is more akin to a short album.

I've always enjoyed REM's "Dead Letter Office" with all of it's randomness and cool covers.

But, I also enjoyed Nine Inch Nails's b-sides back in the day with all these different remixes.

I guess I'm saying that the b-side is a place to put your trash and throwaways or it can be fertile ground for creativity.

And what about the Japanese import? The majority of the records I buy in Japan have one or two extra tracks, or at least a different version of one from the American LP. I always assumed these were b-sides, but then again, some of these tracks appear on the artist's ep.

b-side evolution: the record single was created. they figured "hey, we can put uhnutha song on the other side if we want". bingo was his name-o.

i think with ealry 45's the b-side was also an awesome song that might possibly be a hit. 60's Motown and Beatles often had hits on both sides.

yeah, a lot of northern soul stonkers are b-sides. then again, many of those motown singers never even went on to release an album. so the two songs are what they had to offer.