Best album bonus tracks

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ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
edited March 2021 in Music
... when you get a CD copy or a 'Deluxe Edition' of a classic album you know, and to fill up the disc they've stuck some studio out-takes, demo versions and alternate mixes on the end which mess up the flow of the album, and in almost all cases there's a reason they weren't included on the original album in the first place - they're not really very good.

But there are some exceptions... I'll start with -

Fleetwood Mac - Silver Springs (on Rumours)

"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • droflufdrofluf Frets: 3614
    The live version of "Cavalry Cross" on "Pour Down Like Silver"
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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26749
    The Ground Beneath Her Feet from U2's ATYCLB

    One of their best tracks full stop and I have no idea how they could consider the record complete without it.
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
    The Ground Beneath Her Feet from U2's ATYCLB

    One of their best tracks full stop and I have no idea how they could consider the record complete without it.
    I didn't even know it was a bonus track, it's on my standard edition. But you're right... one of their best tracks, and the album wouldn't end right without it. (The lyrics are by Salman Rushdie, I'm fairly sure.)

    Next one...

    George Harrison - I Live For You (All Things Must Pass).

    Unfortunately, on the CD it's then followed by four completely unnecessary extra versions of existing tracks.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • FreebirdFreebird Frets: 5821
    Train In Vain on London Calling
    If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
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  • vizviz Frets: 10644
    Sweet Lady Luck on Whitesnake’s Slip of the Tongue
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • not_the_djnot_the_dj Frets: 7306
    Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”. 

    One of those “record a couple of new tracks to get old fans to buy a greatest hits album”
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  • mudslide73mudslide73 Frets: 3049
    Music from Big Pink has a number of good ones although some had previously appeared on The Basement Tapes:

    Yazoo Street Scandal
    Tears of Rage (Alternate take)
    Katie's Been Gone
    If I Lose
    Long Distance Operator
    Lonesome Suzie 
    Orange Juice Blues 
    Key to the Highway
    Ferdinand the Imposter



    "A city star won’t shine too far"


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  • KebabkidKebabkid Frets: 3301
    edited March 2021
    'I'm still here' by Crowded House was a hidden track at the end of Woodface.

    The last song finishes, 'How will you go', and there's nothing for quite a bit and then suddenly it comes out at you.

    Musically, it's nothing great but for sheer mischief, and probably the late, great Paul Hester's idea, it takes you by surprise the first time, especially if you have it turned up!
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    edited March 2021

    I can't really think of any particularly good bonus tracks, I've got so many albums... sometimes they're just an extra track from the same sessions which is on all the CD editions anyway, so it isn't really a bonus.  When they add studio outtakes or live tracks on reissues of older albums, they're usually rubbish.

    But I remember when it became a "thing" to use the additional running time on a CD, I bought quite a few albums which would have long periods of silence after the "last" track, then frighten the life out of me by suddenly blaring out a bonus track.

    I've got a Galactic Cowboys album where there are several hidden tracks.  You put it in the player and it says there are 70 tracks or something, most of them are just moments of silence - but then just as you're thinking I'll give up on this, there'll be a proper extra song.  One of them was in-between two numbered tracks, you couldn't just select it, you'd have to play the track before then let it run into the hidden one.

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  • blobbblobb Frets: 2914
    Ooh - when Caravan reissued Land Of Grey and Pink they included this gem. Apparently it had been recorded as an album track, but they decided it didn't quite match with the other tracks, so they shelved it!

    It finally surfaced some years later.

    Frozen Rose (I don't know it's name)



    Feelin' Reelin' & Squeelin'
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  • DesVegasDesVegas Frets: 4510
    My fave is I am the Warlock by Probot feat Jack Black. A hidden track i believe but the best one on there




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  • prowlaprowla Frets: 4896
    "Black Night" on "In Rock" and "When A Blind Man Cries" on "Machine Head".
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    I rarely think of albums as a finite thing these days as I’m so used to listening via streaming. 
    However, the thing that comes to mind is on The Skies Gone Out by Bauhaus where there is an uncredited spoken word piece at the end. I somehow thought it was John Peel but I don’t think it is. Freaked me out at the time. 

    Freebird said:
    Train In Vain on London Calling
    One of my favourite tracks by them ( and continues my Viv Albertine obsession as the song is about her) so this probably wins. 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    I love the version of Moby Dick on the companion CD of Led Zep II. Not only does it not have the drum solo but it also has a final chord that for some reason never made it onto the original release. And it's one of the best riffs ever.
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  • FreebirdFreebird Frets: 5821
    ICBM said:
    Fleetwood Mac - Silver Springs (on Rumours)
    Wasn't it totally excluded from the original album? It's such a good track too, especially the longer version!
    If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
    Freebird said:

    Wasn't it totally excluded from the original album? It's such a good track too, especially the longer version!
    Yes - Lindsey Buckingham wouldn't allow it onto the album, much to Stevie Nicks' fury... it ended up being released (as a shortened version) on the B-side of the Go Your Own Way single, which was Buckingham's take on the same subject matter and of course *is* on the album. Massively hypocritical on his part, I would say!

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • pmgpmg Frets: 298
    edited March 2021
    ICBM said:
    The Ground Beneath Her Feet from U2's ATYCLB

    One of their best tracks full stop and I have no idea how they could consider the record complete without it.
    I didn't even know it was a bonus track, it's on my standard edition. But you're right... one of their best tracks, and the album wouldn't end right without it. (The lyrics are by Salman Rushdie, I'm fairly sure.)

    Next one...

    George Harrison - I Live For You (All Things Must Pass).

    Unfortunately, on the CD it's then followed by four completely unnecessary extra versions of existing tracks.
    Isn’t The Ground Beneath Her Feet originally from the million dollar hotel soundtrack?  Can’t remember but it’s on my CD of all that you can’t leave behind
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  • steamabacussteamabacus Frets: 1258
    Religious Experience (Singing A Song In The Morning) Take 9 featuring Syd Barrett from Kevin Ayers' Joy Of A Toy.


    Other bonus tracks are the Single Version of this track and also TAKE 103 (!) of this track. Those were the days. :#


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  • mrkbmrkb Frets: 6637
    I love "Foz" on Stone Roses Second Coming - its the kind of track Id like to play along to after a night at the pub.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhIaW-cID0M
    Karma......
    Ebay mark7777_1
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  • Kebabkid said:
    'I'm still here' by Crowded House was a hidden track at the end of Woodface.

    The last song finishes, 'How will you go' and nothing for a bit and then suddenly it comes out at you.

    Musically, it's nothing great but for sheer mischief, and probably the late, great Paul Hester's idea, it takes you by surprise the first time, especially if you have it turned up!
    A bit like the novelty number Kuwait City at the end of World Party’s album Bang! It appears over ten minutes after then of the ‘final’ track. I can’t remember how many times I listened to it before I left it playing long enough to hear it. It’s quite catchy in an ironic, post-Gulf War I kind of way.
    I'll get a round to buying a 'real' guitar one day.
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