This one’s been stewing for a while, but I’ve been nudged into action by a Gavin Martin post on F’Book.
Some (rare) albums are so unbelievably complete that they almost have their own micro-climates and ecosystems. One such is Bobby Charles’ Bearsville album, it’s sweaty, bayou atmosphere – all hanging moss and 90-in-the-shade – belying its upstate New York birthplace. And that was going to be one of a bunch of albums I love that prove the point, that adding bonus tracks to a CD can wreck a great record. But before posting I thought I’d check the most recent issue of The Band’s astounding second album. And this is what I found:
2. Rag Mama Rag (2000 Digital Remaster) 3:04$0.89 Buy Track
3. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (2000 Digital Remaster)3:33$0.99Buy Track
4. When You Awake (2000 Digital Remaster)3:13
5. Up On Cripple Creek (2000 Digital Remaster)4:34$0.99Buy Track
6. Whispering Pines (2000 Digital Remaster)3:58
7. Jemima Surrender (2000 Digital Remaster)3:31
8. Rockin’ Chair (2000 Digital Remaster)3:43
9. Look Out Cleveland (2000 Digital Remaster)3:09
10. Jawbone (2000 Digital Remaster)4:20
11. The Unfaithful Servant (2000 Digital Remaster)4:16
12. King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (2000 Digital Remaster)3:39
13. Get Up Jake (Outtake – Stereo Remix) (2000 Digital Remaster)2:17
14. Rag Mama Rag (Alternate Vocal Take – Rough Mix) (2000 Digital Remaster)3:04
15. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Alternate Mix) (2000 Digital Remaster)4:16
16. Up On Cripple Creek (Alternate Take) (2000 Digital Remaster)4:54
17. Whispering Pines (Alternate Take) (2000 Digital Remaster)5:06
18. Jemima Surrender (Alternate Take)3:48
19. King Harvest (Has Surely Come)(Alternate Performance)4:28
This is near criminal. The Band is a perfect example of a wholly self-contained piece of work. It isn’t so much timeless as deeply rooted in specific passages of time. It provides a home for the most electric of guitars and the wheeziest of woodwinds. Tubas parp along to a southern backbeat. It is to America what the Shipping Forecast is to Britain.
No, I really did not want to listen to Rag Mama Rag (Alternate Vocal Take – Rough Mix) (2000 Digital Remaster). There’s a reason why this wasn’t on the original record: It wasn’t good enough. And I want the fly-blown rural complaint that is King Harvest (Has Surely Come) to end the album for me. They done bust the mood, and the mood is all.
And Bobby Charles should ride into the sunset on the back of Amos Garrett’s gleaming, tremulous guitar and Garth Hudson’s swirling accordion.
OK, so those two examples are a bit similar, so how about The Who Live At Leeds? The original is one of the great live albums. The reissue, clogged up with all the ghastly bits from A Quick One that we’ve conveniently forgotten, slows to a crawl.
Now, one doesn’t want to be too absolutist about this – the most recent Free reissues have added lashings of gorgeous live stuff, plus in the case of Fire and Water, remixes of the original 8-track masters that Blackwell deemed too underdeveloped, but when given a good, modern mix sound unbelieveable. Depending on the original album, it can work, especially if the original is to some degree flawed, as were Free’s.
But some records are sacrosanct. It’s enough to have to not get up and turn the album over (quiet, you vinyl obsessives at the back), but if the final architecture of a great album is then wrecked by a jerry-built extension you can find yourself barely able to listen to it again.
Turn it off after the “last” track, I hear you say. So instead of allowing that last smidgen of sound to hang in the air, I have to vault across the room to hit the stop button before the Mid-West Radio Alternate 7″ Single Edit kicks in…
At least have the decency to put the original on one CD and the detritus on another.
11 Responses to Why Bonus Tracks are usually No Bonus at all
Couldn’t agree more. As someone who occasionally project-manages reissues, I’ve never quite understood the rationale for ‘supersizing’ everything. CDs can hold about 75 minutes. It doesn’t mean they SHOULD hold 75 minutes. Tacking on extra bits and pieces can completely destroy the original vision behind the record.
I find 12-inch remixes a particular annoyance on 80s catalogue. I’ve generally already heard the song at its optimum length by the time I get round to the bonus tracks. And yet the feedback I get suggests that people, generally, consider the extra stuff good vfm. So maybe we’re in a minority.
I completely agree with you both, but we are in a minority. I was in the wine section of a large Sainsburys yesterday and everywhere you looked the shelves were full, apart from the spots bearing red sale stickers (announcing discounts of 25, 33 & 50%), where every single bottle was gone. These weren’t necessarily the best buys in the wine section, even at those discounts, but people simply cannot resist the perception of a good deal or free stuff – and that applies to pointless bonus tracks on albums too I’m afraid.
It’s not just barely distinguishable alternative takes and 12″ versions though. Even when bonus tracks sound enticing they can be a problem. I love Lou Reed’s 1973 live album Rock N Roll Animal, so was quick to grab the 2000 reissue which added two extra tracks – taking the album from 40 to 48 minutes in length. These clearly weren’t filler. He had played them at the gig, and they had only been left off the original vinyl for space reasons. But guess what? Having these versions of How Do You Think It Feels and Caroline Says in the middle of the album bogs things right down and does nobody any favours.
And almost every double album I’ve ever bought (with the exception of live albums) can be hugely improved by judicious editing down to the equivalent of a single album. Don’t even get me started on Prince’s triple farce Emancipation!
Completely agree. Too many albums have been ruined for me by the experience of having to rush over to stop the “bonus cut(s)” coming on… it’s like someone sticking a new chapter on the end of a novel. THE BAND has to end with “King Harvest” or not even begin in the first place… same with STICKY FINGERS and “Moonlight Mile”. The worst is some crappy live version of one of the preceding tracks on the album… annihilating in one fell swoop the mood that the song-suite has created.
Well I really can’t see this as something to get very worked up about – one could also argue that Jemima Surrender should not follow on straight after Whispering Pines – if you hate the bonus tracks, then just avoid the new CDs, although perhaps a gap between the original album and the additions might not be a bad idea.
Now if you want to complain about the number of Band boxsets (three and counting)…
Bonus tracks are the record industry’s way of beating the bootleggers, except they don’t really know what they are doing. The quality bootleg labels of yore were providing more of an underground service to the hardcore fans by giving them access to material that the record companies had shelved away as unlistenable (those Little Feat boots from the 70s spring to mind). Today much of this same material (now sold as “bonus tracks”) are glued on to the end of classic albums with very little thought as to how it affects the balance of the original material. Filling up records that are already perfect with lame outtakes, out-of-place single sides and indifferent live recordings is a really bad deal for both musician and music lover.
Reissuing and repackaging reissues is another con that should be explored. Next time, maybe.
Right on. I rarely want to hear out-takes.
I was delighted recently, when interviewing a revered HM guitarist whose name I’ll withhold to spare him a fight with his record label, to be told that he had no idea why anybody would want to listen to out-takes.
His pioneering HM band is about to re-issue its early catalogue boosted by a “treasure trove” of archive material but he says he sees no point in it. “If we’d wanted to release that stuff we’d have released it back then,” he grumbled.
He didn’t ask me to withhold his name, by the way. I’m just displaying a bit of tact.
Yes, there’s a case to be made for issuing some rare versions and out-takes etc which are, perhaps, radically different, or which demonstrate how a song evolved but, on the whole, I prefer to respect the judgement of the people who spent days, maybe months, in a studio crafting a piece of work. What they release as the finished version is almost always what I want to hear.
Mostly the decision to release the laughingly titled ‘bonus’ material is a purely financial one. It’s almost as bad as the ghoulish ‘tribute’ or ‘celebration’ albums that get released when an arist dies. It’s about money. It’s not about music.
And, let’s face it, the people who really want to hear this stuff will find a way to get it.
Ultimately, I suppose, downloading will do away with much of this. When the physical product is no longer being made, those rare tracks will only be downloaded by people who actually want them.
I love download culture. It’s fast becoming the saviour of music.
I’m sympathetic to both sides. The space CDs afford LP reissuers to tack on tracks of wildly variable value/relevance/congruence has been a mixed blessing. Pencil’s point about flatulent add-ons is well taken, but what to do with worthy cuts such as those Lou Reed numbers Simon Witter mentioned? They bog down the flow of the album, but aren’t you glad to be able to hear them? Perhaps they should instead be relegated to an odds’n'sods compilation, but what if there aren’t enough tracks for a really good one by so-and-so – do you leave such tracks off the reissue anyway? And won’t reissuers who don’t throw in extras now get slated by fans expecting such bonuses, no matter how mediocre?
Perhaps the best thing would be John Poole’s suggestion of a discreet gap following the original album, perhaps followed by a little aural signal or announcement to intro the bonus material.
Being as how I am largely responsible for the upgraded Live At Leeds (or downgraded, depending on your point of view), I suppose I should hang my head in shame but I’m not going to because I actually love it, all of it. Yes, we have beaten the bootleggers (dodgy complete Leeds shows were available before the legit CD came out) but it’s my belief that we’re doing most fans a favour, many of whom probably already have the original so can take or leave the new version anyway.
At Leeds Uni on February 14 1970 The Who performed a cracking show from beginning to end. The only reason they didn’t put more songs on the original LP, ie make it a double, was because their previous album Tommy had been a double and it was deemed unwise to do two in a row.
It my belief that in 1970, and probably also a year or two before and after, the Who were far and away the best live rock band in the world, the best to listen to and the best to watch. It is therefore important that this era in their history is as fully documented as possible, and if that means extending Leeds then so be it. There isn’t that much around that was properly recorded and Leeds is as fine as example as you can find of this band in their prime.
I don’t share Mark’s opinion that A Quick One is ghastly. It’s performed here with a casual panache, just like the Who did while blowing away the Stones on the Rock’n’Roll Circus TV show. It’s also preceded by Pete’s witty spoken introduction, a forgotten feature of Who shows that I felt needed to be documented somewhere. He’s also pretty funny introducing the three hits singles too.
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, I felt it was important that a live version of Tommy was made available. Everyone knows that the original LP of Tommy had its production flaws but that it came to life on stage. Until the release of this Leeds no live Tommy was available anywhere (the Isle of Wight CD hadn’t come out then, and that’s inferior anyway). Now it is.
I think you will be hard pressed to find any genuine Who fan that isn’t delighted with the de luxe Leeds. Regularly cited as the best live album ever, it’s now not only that but also a complete, unabridged document of the greatest live band ever at the peak of their powers.
In principle I ought to concur wholheartedly – I certainly would like anyone to see the early takes of my articles and books – I’m afiard I have to beg to differ with the majority.
I luuuurve these glimpses into the creation of my favourite songs. Yes, in the vast rump of cases the outtakes and demos weren’t as good as the final product, but that doesn’t make the process any the less fascinating. The Beatles’ Anthologies threw up oodles of pearls such as the endearingly rough takes of Fool On The Hill and Hello Goodbye; Van Morrison’s recent Veedon Fleece reissue gave us gorgeous and subtly different slants on Cul De Sac and Twilight Zone; the remix of Paprika Plains on Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter was startling and thrilling; the No Direction Home soundtrack was full of remarkable and unexpected twists on the familiar; the jazzy rendition of Queen of the Highway on Morrison Hotel may well be Jimbo’s greatest vocal performance; finding the full “Lost Verse” take of Who Are You was a helluva catch; best of all, that Band boxed set served up a version of 4% Pantomime that captured this most magical of sessions in all its ragged glory (Van and Richard Manuel in unison – not even Oliver Twist could ask for more).
The extras aren’t always worth it, no, but when they are, boy am I grateful.
Still not convinced, any more than I was that the Complete Mozart Edition was worth spending money on. Just because Mozart wrote astonishing amounts of good stuff at his best doesn’t mean we need to hear the bits he knocked up when he was 12.
And the more time you spend listening to variations on songs you already know the less time you have to explore new music, which, may I remind one and all, was what made us excited about music in the first place.
Bonus tracks are used by most record labels to get you to shell out for albums that you already own.
The next level of rip-offs are the 96 kHz/24 bit downloads. These are starting to appear via people like Linn Records.
Given that bonus tracks are often bits of old music that weren’t considered good enough to use in the first place, record companies are laughing all the way to the bank.
Having said that, I wouldn’t mind getting hold of a copy of the remixed version of Free’s Fire And Water.