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Always feel short-changed when an album track appears as a B side
I don't mind if they are different versions such as the live ones, the instrumental of A Storm Breaks, the extended Up All Night or the reworking of She's So Modern. I'm OK with album tracks ahead of poor B Sides. For a lot of people who bought the single, it was a way of hearing a little more of an album before deciding to buy it. Blondie had B sides from earlier albums like Rifle Range on later singles which was a little introduction to their past. With Sweet, you were more likely to get an album track on the B-side than the A-side, as it was used to showcase their heavier rock sound along with getting an easy songwriting credit.
As long as it's not half a dozen remixes of the same song, an odd practice designed to get around the chart rules back in the nineties, I don't really mind what the B side is.
So Strange
How do you do
Real Different
Lying Again
Europe looked ugly
It's All the Rage - is the one I know best so probably my fave. As has been covered before, lyrics very difficult to make out in places, but just love the sound and the energy in it.
Europe Looked Ugly and Real Different for me - really strong hooks in both.
Always had a soft spot for Dun Laoghaire as a track too.
As for A side material, not sure any would have charted well, but Do The Rat at the right time might have shifted some units. That said, all the tracks mentioned plus So Strange, It's All the Rage and perhaps Late Last Night are far superior to one or two later A sides...well one definitely.
The only real weakish b side, for me, is Precious Time, all of the other b sides are pretty good and some are fantastic. Personal favs are Real Different, Late Last Night, Born To Burn, and Europe Looked Ugly.
It's hard to know how any of the b sides might have fared as singles, but remember at one stage Rat Trap was not even considered as being worthy of being released as a single. It's easy to look back in hindsight and see a master plan of correct singles and perfect moves by the band and management, but in reality a lot of the success was down to luck, not in terms of quality of songs, but rather in, for whatever reason. choosing one song over another as a single.
Maybe they thought Mondays was atypical of the Rats and should have remained an album track, or even b side. Rat Trap. as mentioned. was seen as a steady album track and no more. The bands two biggest singles could have remained as album tracks, and who knows if two other songs from Tonic and Surfacing would have gained the band alternative number one spots?
The original demo of Mondays is so different from the final cut as to beg questions of the bands direction at the time. Certainly the original demo form of Mondays was pretty experimental, and would not have been a 'safe bet' for a proper finished song, never mind a number one hit single.
The original demo of Mondays is so different from the final cut as to beg questions of the bands direction at the time. Certainly the original demo form of Mondays was pretty experimental, and would not have been a 'safe bet' for a proper finished song, never mind a number one hit single.
The original Mondays was close to the final version (as played in San Diego). They tried the other versions before deciding the original idea was the best, so they went with it. I think it was always intended to be an A-side, as they wouldn't have aired it so soon. Don't believe the hype.
