Five B-sides that put the albums they were left off to shame
Let me take you back to a day my friend and I were vinyl hunting at a record fair, and we saw a seven-inch which immediately grabbed our attention.
It was the ‘Hokey Cokey’ on vinyl. Yes, the song you know from birthday parties that you went to when you were younger, it turns out you can own it on vinyl, who knew? We stood laughing at the record for some time before deciding to part ways with the £3 it was worth and take it home to listen. When we put it on, what we were met with wasn’t the ‘Hokey Cokey’ at all, but a strange synth punk track called ‘Don’t Go Short’.
The label had been worn down after years of use, so it was impossible to tell which was the B-side and which was the A; it wasn’t until playing it that we realised we had dropped the needle at the wrong point. However, what a beautiful surprise, as ‘Don’t Go Short’ was nothing short of a banger that we continue to talk about to this day. It emphasises a story which is as old as time itself: sometimes, the B-side is better.
There are plenty of different singles which have been released only to feature a B-side which is far superior. You can forgive an artist for getting them the wrong way round, sure, but it’s harder to look past the fact that a lot of these excellent B-sides don’t even end up being included on entire albums. Some completely dominate the LPs they were missed out of, and so it’s time for us to give them their moment in the spotlight.
Five B-sides which put their albums to shame:
Arctic Monkeys – ‘You’re So Dark’
There are a lot of people who consider AM one of the best albums that Arctic Monkeys ever put out, and for pretty good reason. When you listen to the tracklist of this outstanding record, the lads from Sheffield don’t hold back in bringing rock ‘n’ roll into the 21st century. After that album, they left behind the distorted guitars for something a lot more orchestral with Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, and while both styles work well, they’re also miles apart, so maybe there should have been a track that could bridge that gap.
Well, there is; Arctic Monkeys have always had a bit of a flair when it comes to stellar B-sides, with ‘Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts’, ‘Catapult’, ‘Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend’, all different songs from different eras that probably deserved a place on the album they were left out of. However, one of their B-sides for AM, ‘You’re So Dark’, took things a step further, where it isn’t just a good song but a track that represents the group’s present and future pretty wonderfully.
It still has the sexy rock-infused style of AM in spades; however, it also has a much grander feel to it, the kind that the band would start exploring on future albums. This song put the albums it didn’t feature on to shame because it managed to accomplish what both of them were attempting to do within the span of a few minutes.
Fleetwood Mac – ‘Silver Springs’
I suppose when you have a band like Fleetwood Mac, all trying to write songs for the album Rumours, there are going to be a couple of gems that slip through the cracks. In this instance, it came in the form of ‘Silver Springs’, a song that puts some of the others on the main LP to shame and sees Stevie Nicks sing her most passionate lyrics to date.
The track genuinely feels like a knife in the heart at times, and the song is so flooded with emotion because Nicks wrote it shortly after she and Lindsey Buckingham had broken up. Lines like “I’ll follow you down till the sound of my voice will haunt you,” were inspired by how she felt her band member was going to haunt her forever. “It was me realising that Lindsey was going to haunt me for the rest of my life,” she said, “And he has”.
Led Zeppelin – ‘Hey, Hey, What Can I Do’
Led Zeppelin has always been praised for their ability to merge different sounds and still create something cohesive, wherein they played rock music, sure, but they blended it with styles from other cultures and other genres. However, one of the sounds that began to fold its way into their style around Led Zeppelin III was folk, and the change proved hard for a lot of fans to handle.
It’s not necessarily that the B-side ‘Hey, Hey, What Can I Do’ puts the band’s third self-titled record to shame, but it’s more that it acts as a bridge that fans could use to cross into this new realm of Led Zeppelin. It should have been included on the album so that listeners could dip their toes in the water before diving straight in; Led Zeppelin missed a trick by leaving this song as a B-side.
Pearl Jam – ‘Yellow Ledbetter’
When Pearl Jam first made their album Ten, Eddie Vedder wanted it to tank as he always had an aversion towards fame. “I would love for everybody to listen to what we write, but I want it to be a slow process,” he said, “I think it would be counter-productive for Ten to be a huge seller […] In order for people to get the most out of Pearl Jam, it has to be a slow growth. It does worry me that we will be a big success and that our songs will be taken out of context. We are not user-friendly.”
This is a mindset that has followed him around for the rest of his career, as Pearl Jam seemed to have constantly tried to stay away from churning out hits. They did this by writing about controversial or strange situations, which take centre stage in the track ‘Yellow Ledbetter’. This is sung from the point of view of a man whose brother has been sent to war and it’s one of the most emotionally charged Vedder performances ever, but it didn’t land on an album and was sent to the realms of a B-side.
The Last Shadow Puppets – ‘In The Heat of The Morning’
It really speaks to Alex Turner’s songwriting ability that two of his B-sides have made the list, but this is the strength of the songs he puts together. This is the case for a lot of Arctic Monkeys albums, and it also happened on his first record as The Last Shadow Puppets with Miles Kane.
When the two of them teamed up, they put together a range of excellent songs that were a diversion from the records they had been making in their respective careers. There are some great tracks on the album, but they all pale in comparison to ‘In The Heat of The Morning’, which was left to be a B-side. Granted, they were likely deterred from using the track, given it’s a David Bowie cover, but it works so well that it should have been on the album.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter
All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.