B-sides musings...

[junkymotown]

Put a load of b-sides I hadn't heard for ages on my iPod today... and as I was listening... I had the following thoughts.

a) Why did they ever release Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel? It's awful. Just... awful. And, it does contain the words "Egg and Chips", doesn't it? I didn't just imagine that?

b) Is "Love Torn Us Under" the creepiest MSP song? As I sat in a Metro station waiting for my train, all on my lonesome, it just creeped me out. It has a constant ticking noise in the background, odd chords and a really weird vocal.

c) Wonder why Dead Yankee Drawl never made it as an album track. As I understand, it was written well before GT was released, and is far better than some songs off that album.

And that was it... that was the sum total of my journey to work this aft. :-)

[Mr Richey]

1. Agreed. Bradders should've taken Nicky aside and said "Look mate, like, you've already got one, like, awful song on the album. We can't include two. Like, pick one; Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel or, like, Wattsville Blues. Which is it going to be?"

2. Very unappreciated track as far as I can tell. Always been a favourite of mine but I rarely hear much love for it around these parts.

3. "Dead Yankee Drawl" is fucking AWESOME

[Dancing Kirby]

B) My musing is that the actual title is Love Torn Asunder and Richey didn't in fact rhyme under with under in the chorus.

[junkymotown]

Originally Posted by Mr Richey

Bradders should've taken Nicky aside and said "Look mate, like, you've already got one, like, awful song on the album. We can't include two. Like, pick one; Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel or, like, Wattsville Blues. Which is it going to be?"

The worst case scenario of that though... that Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel made it onto the album. And into gig setlists. Wattsville Blues is surely the lesser of those two evil evils.

[junkymotown]

Originally Posted by Dancing Kirby

B) My musing is that the actual title is Love Torn Asunder and Richey didn't in fact rhyme under with under in the chorus.

that... makes a lot of sense

[nocultureicons]

Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel is great, egg and chips aside.

[Dac X Lee]

I like Bangkok Novotel too.

[UEF]

Black Holes for the Young is amongst the best songs they've ever recorded.

[Porco]

Originally Posted by Mr Richey

1. Agreed. Bradders should've taken Nicky aside and said "Look mate, like, you've already got one, like, awful song on the album. We can't include two. Like, pick one; Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel or, like, Wattsville Blues. Which is it going to be?"

I personally prefer BOTBN over WB, but that isn't saying much for either track...

Any one of Locust Valley, Fear of Motion, Groundhog Days or Masking Tape would have been far better choices to go on KYE than WB (or indeed BOTBN) for me.

[Bobafettish]

Originally Posted by UEF

Black Holes for the Young is amongst the best songs they've ever recorded.

Yes, yes it is.

I think RP McMurphy should be brought back into the acoustic song slot at gigs...

[Suicide Aldi]

Love torn us under is one of my favorite b sides.

[Jimi A]

I'm having egg and chips for tea now.

[The Holy Bum-Bum]

- I quite like Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel. It's fun and stupid and I like the way he says "tea".

- Agreed with the love for both Love Torn Us Under and Black Holes For The Young

- Montana Autumn 78 is awesome.

- Sepia makes me all nostalgic.

- Dead Trees and Traffic Islands has a great last minute, and I do still want to read Nicky's aborted 'Cracker' script.

[Radiomanic]

Actually believed Anorexic Rodin was an Iron Maiden cover the first time i heard it.

Caldey should be entered into next year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Love Torn Us Under IS fucking awesome.

Too Cold Here isn't too bad either, even the whistling part.

Sculpture of Man's intro and outro was blatantly recycled for YSTSFMH.

Pedestal is one of their best B-sides.

Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel is also great, pure rock n roll and Nicky at least doesn't try to sing it.

Black Holes for the Young is a much better duet than YLAINE and LBN combined.

Never Want Again before Autumnsong, was the shittest song the band had ever recorded.

No One Knows What It's Like To Be Me and First Republic are both THB throwbacks and stick out like sore thumbs in the EMG era.

Montana/Autumn 78 must be a GATS outtake, would've fitted perfectly on that album and is superior to around 70% of the songs on there.

Democracy Coma and Dead Yankee Drawl are standout tracks and both should've made it onto GT, instead of alot of the mediocre tracks that actually did.

Velocity Girl is the worst cover the band have ever recorded.

Take the Skinheads Bowling is one of the best covers (not the Lipstick Traces version though).

How the fuck did they go from something like Donkeys to Comfort Comes so quickly? What a contrast, even on EMG there were throwbacks to THB (Removables, B-Sides mentioned above) but Comfort Comes really has nothing to do with GATS despite being on the Life Becoming a Landslide single.

[centralscrutiniser]

Democracy Coma, Love Letter To The Future, Boxes and Lists, 1404, No one knows what it's like to be me are all fantastic songs that were better than the lead singles most other bands were managing at the time.