Suede B-Sides/Non-Album POLL (Anderson/Butler/Gilbert/Osman line-up)

TOO DIFFICULT! Could be 'To The Birds', 'He's Dead', 'High Rising', the full version of 'Stay Together', 'My Dark Star' or 'Killing Of A Flashboy'... but fucking hell am I going to have to seriously think about this!

Has to be Killing of a Flashboy which is my favourite Suede song. Love most of these though especially My Dark Star, My Insatiable One, Stay Together and Whipsnade.

As I had Sci-Fi Lullabies instead of the actual singles for a long time it took me a while to hear Asda Town and This World Needs a Father which are two of their most underrated songs.

The fact they put out two brilliant albums and non of these songs are on them just shows what a real force they were for those first couple of years.

omigod

impossible: I won't count the "Stay Together" tracks because they're on an EP. That'll make things easier.

So many great songs on this list. Voted The Living Dead for the perfect heartbrokeness of it. However, if I felt like Butler-magic today, which I often do, it would have been another one, probably Stay Together. But hey, we're talking best ever B-sides here!

Richard Oakes plays on Asda Town, not Butler.

Voted The Living Dead, though it was a tough choice alongside Flashboy.

Richard Oakes plays on Asda Town, not Butler.

― PaulTMA, Monday, July 29, 2013 4:16 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, but it's an Anderson solo composition that's a B-side to an Anderson/Butler song. There's a couple of transitional tracks here, such as 'Asda Town' and 'This World Needs A Father' (which is an Anderson/Butler composition that has both Butler and Oakes on it) and nobody has to vote for 'em if they don't want to. Personally, I see this transitional tracks as being part of the end of the first line-up, with the second line-up officially beginning with the first Anderson/Oakes composition ('Together' from the New Generation single).

*this=these

This is the best b-side run ever. NOTHING else comes close.

well, in England there's competition (Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, Morrissey).

To The Fucking Birds

So good I'm going to rank 'em:

Killing of a Flashboy
The Living Dead
The Big Time
Stay Together
Whipsnade
My Dark Star
High Rising
He's Dead
My Insatiable One
Asda Town
To the Birds
Painted People
Dolly
This World Needs a Father
Modern Boys
Eno's Introducing the Band

xp The Smiths come close, that's fair

pretty unimpeachable 2 year imperial phase run this

To The Birds ('The Drowners' B-side)
My Insatiable One ('The Drowners' B-side)
Where The Pigs Don't Fly ('Metal Mickey' B-side)
He's Dead ('Metal Mickey' B-side)
Painted People ('Animal Nitrate' B-side)
The Big Time ('Animal Nitrate' B-side)
Dolly ('So Young' B-side)
High Rising ('So Young' B-side)
Stay Together (non-album single)
The Living Dead ('Stay Together' B-side)
My Dark Star ('Stay Together' B-side)
Killing Of A Flashboy' ('We Are The Pigs' B-side)
Whipsnade ('We Are The Pigs' B-side)

The post-Butler B-sides are definitely less consistent in terms of quality (especially since they were doing that dual CD single thing to boost sales), but I still think there's some sublime moments in there also. I personally couldn't live without 'Every Monday Morning Comes', 'This Time', 'Another No One', the Sci-Fi Lullabies version of 'Europe Is Our Playground' just to name a few from just the Coming Up era!

And I always thought the twosome of 'Together' and 'Bentswood Boys' was a very strong way to introduce the new Anderson/Oakes partnership, especially since Oakes hadn't done much songwriting before (if any) and suddenly he was playing his part in writing for a successful band. Must have been hard on him, especially with him being so young!

Europe Is Our Playground is so good it would even be a contender here

it's a Suede b-side so good it would grace a Suede b-side poll

such an incredible run.
i confess i only know the songs that appeared on sci-fi lullabies.

hard to choose between:
Killing of a flashboy
Whipsnade
The big time
Modern boys
My dark star

i have a soft spot for "he's dead". brett's vocals during the chorus knocked me out when i was first hearing suede.

that organ-y lead part towards the end of "whpsnade" is pure *swooooon*.

been really, really getting into Suede lately. iTunes had (maybe still has) all of the super deluxe reissues for like $11.99 a few weeks ago and i finally pulled the trigger after months of longingly looking at the insanely overpriced physical versions. needless to say, in some sort of suede heaven lately.

this is really an incredible run, i used to have the first disc of sci-fi lullabies dubbed to tape stuck (literally, it wouldn't eject) in my car for like a whole year

"Bentswood boys" is really good.

Coming Up has its darker moments but it's intriguing how melancholy the second disc of scifi lullabies is, comparatively.

Yeah, something like 'Have You Ever Been This Low?' has completely the opposite vibe of Coming Up. Even the slowies (like 'By The Sea') on that record feel celebratory, and I suspect the album was designed to be that way, whereas on the B-sides you have this song that is about being completely sick of touring.

yeah good point.

I'm just re-reading Love And Poison again, and what's interesting is the part where Neil Codling joins the band while the band are rehearsing material for Coming Up (at some point after summer 1995). They gave him a demo tape of songs to learn, and the book lists what's on the tape: 'She', 'Lazy', 'We're So Disco' (which later became 'W.S.D.'), 'Money', 'Saturday Night' (working title: 'Ballad Idea'), 'Young Men', 'Another No One', 'By The Sea' and 'Together' (they were planning on re-recording the track for Coming Up and got as far as laying down a drum track before they scrapped the idea). Apparently, this tape was a very early draft of Coming Up and represented songs that they'd fully written at that point so a lot of what became B-sides were written around the same time as the album.

Unfinished songs/songs that they were working on at the time Neil joined the band were: 'Dreamy' (which became 'Lovely Day', before retitled 'Picnic By The Motorway' at the 11th hour) at the time too, and 'Exercise In D' (which became 'Every Monday Morning Comes') and 'Sad' (which became 'Jumble Sale Mums'), and possibly 'Beautiful Ones' (working title: 'Dead Leg') and 'Filmstar'.

They started recording Coming Up at the beginning of December 1995 (the working title was Old People Make Me Sick), and Neil came up with the music for 'Starcrazy' (then calle 'Tiswas') over Christmas, then 'The Chemistry Between Us' was written after that (a demo idea for 'Simon' was on the same tape), and then 'Trash' (working title: 'Pisspot') was the last thing to be written for the album.

'Have You Ever Been This Low?' (working title: 'Rocky') and 'Sam' were originally written on the American leg of the Dog Man Star tour as possible B-sides for 'The Power' (which was allegedly meant to be the last single from Dog Man Star but didn't come out). From the looks of it, neither song was considered for Coming Up even though they had them around at the time.

The working title of 'Europe Is Our Playground' was 'Sombre Bongos', but no idea when it was written or if it was ever considered for inclusion on Coming Up. Likewise 'This Time' (working title: 'Wedgie') and 'The Sound Of The Streets'. I strongly suspect 'Sadie', 'These Are The Sad Songs', 'Graffiti Women' and 'Duchess' were written after Coming Up was finished as well as 'Feel' (working title: 'Shitbag') which evolved from a rehearsal room jam. 'Digging A Hole' was an old song of Neil's.

at the time too

+d

Second disc of Sci-Fi Lullabies is great too. Europe is Our Playground, The Sound of The Streets, Young Men and This Time are as good as the best songs on Coming Up.

I totally agree with you, with the exception of 'Young Men'!

I love a whole lot of these songs but this is "Modern Boys" for sure - it's the perfect distillation of that languor, that filter through which Suede viewed everything. It hits all the spots just right.

voting "My Insatiable One" as it was the first thing i bought from Suede. "Modern Boys" would be one to consider but it was on the American version of Dog Man Star as a bonus track so that is out. Also "Stay Together" even though was only a single because it is an A-side throwing that out.

great run but doesn't come close to what the Boo Radleys did for B-sides, IMO.

yeah but the Boo Radleys are indie, indie bands routinely put their best work on b-sides

but the Boo Radleys did nothing for A-sides

Man, this band.

thread belongs on the B-Side of ILX if it wants to be credible

Ended up voting for 'Killing Of A Flashboy'.

I love these working titles, especially 'Tiswas'.

Even if you like Suede, I guess it's easy to write them off as an especially 90s way of urban trash. But try walking home through town at 5 in the morning after an evening of (insert chosen form of debauchery) with these tunes on your ear, and they still sound like there written for it..

have you ever really tried it that way?

"...sound like they were written", even.

I have actually. Suede's pretty much my chosen soundtrack for those kinds of walks.

Though not 'A New Morning', I suppose?

Ha, no. I guess this thing pretty much ended after Coming Up, one or two songs off Head Music notwithstanding.

Talking about Head Music and A New Morning... what's everyone's thoughts on the B-sides to those albums?

better than the C-listers on those albums

Have to admit I've never checked them out. Head Music is decent, but tired. New Morning pretty much ppassed me by. Would be surprised if the b-sides was much to cheer about.

Any who'll rep for them?

Xpost

I read their forum sometimes and Cheap gets a good rep from them, which I don't understand.

Their fans there, that is

'To The Birds' and 'My Insatiable One' were both great. If 'High Rising' is the one I think, then that's pretty good too (was it something like "with the high rise, still in his eyes....and we'll go there..."?). Painted People ditto (if it's the "the pills have taken everything" one). Don't think I've heard any of them after that.

they were huge fans themselves of Dolly, it was mooted as a single for a while early on and they did it live loads, then suddenly it vanished from the UK live sets rarely to be heard again and wasn't even included on Sci Fi Lullabies! saw them a good 10 or 12 times live 92-94 and never heard it played once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXF0kP2PMJ0

I listened to Sci-Fi Lullabies myself last night, and left with the impression that the first CD might actually be my favourite Suede album of them all, even if it's not a "proper" album.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

SHE WILL CUM FROM INDIA

Great to see 'My Dark Star' up there... really surprised 'High Rising' didn't get a single vote, though!

Whipsnade deserved a vote too, actually everything apart from Eno's Introducing the Band and maybe Dolly deserved at least one vote.

I thought you'd get more than 28 votes, this stuff should be canon

Yeah I did think that but had to remind myself that sadly a lot of people just don't seem to love Suede B-sides as much as I do. If I'm totally honest I think I'd include them in my five favourite bands ever.

I love Suede B-sides but didn't notice this poll till it was over.

i don't remember if i voted
but it's "whipsnade"

COAST TO COAST
SIDE TO SIDE

I listened to Sci-Fi Lullabies myself last night, and left with the impression that the first CD might actually be my favourite Suede album of them all, even if it's not a "proper" album.

― I wanna live like C'MOWN! people (Turrican), Saturday, August 3, 2013 8:22 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Of course, I'm listening to the first CD of Sci-Fi Lullabies again tonight, and my god this feels like the best album they ever made.

i pretty much agree. and the 2nd disc is the best album the post-Butler album ever made, imo.

the outro to "whipsnade" is so grand, i love the soaring descending lead that gradually gets more and more echoed out as the song fades

I was listening to these tracks again following this thread and was thinking about the reasons why Brett dislikes "Stay Together" while it was such an important track for Bernard.
Beside the context, I think it might be because the lyrics might be his worse and laziest of that time and same thing for his singing/performance.
I like that song but always thought it lacked something to be really great.

I've heard that Brett hates the track partly because of the atmosphere in the band at the time and allegedly because he wrote the song about a person he no longer cares about.

Personally, I quite like the track a hell of a lot, but only in its full length version... the edit sounds quite butchered to me.

STYYYYY TOGETHER

yeah, the full length is better. especially because there's more of Bernard !
Brett's vocals are so weak on this. the "there's a timebomb" part is borderline horrible...
the verses are alright vocally but the lyrics are so self referencial/Suede-cliché which is a tour de force in a way after only one album !
the only Brett part that I like is the silly rap at the end.

I should put this on a McAlmont&Butler thread but since it's the on-going Butler related one...

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/interview/interview-bernard-butler-on-the-sound-of-mcalmont-butler/

Pretty interesting. I had no idea he worked with Nigel Godrich. Also I would be curious to hear a remixed/expanded version of the Tears' album !

I dunno, maybe the lyrics on 'Stay Together' feel like cliché more in hindsight... I can't really remember feeling that way about 'em in the '90s, but given Brett's lyrical output from 1997 up until Bloodsports (which I thought was impressive in the sense that Brett managed to mostly avoid using clichéd "Suede words" in his lyrics) I guess it's easy to look back and say "yeah, that's a clichéd Suede lyric"

"Stay Together" plays like a rough draft of "The Wild Ones," a better song. I loved that EP though – I bought it on tape on release. "The Living Dead."

Xpost

I see your point but I clearly remember thinking that it was cliché and lazy when it was released...
And I was a huge Suede fan at that time !

xp followed by "my dark star".. so good it's not fair

That EP was great indeed !

If they'd released 'My Dark Star' as a single, it would probably be considered one of their best ever singles... that's how fucking good the first disc of Sci-Fi Lullabies is.

it even 'flows' like an album at times...i love how the middle stretch of disc one is this big languid, floating detour (from the "big time" - the intro of "my dark star")

the guitar solo of "my dark star" is another classic bernard solo.. superbly melodic, trademark hypnotic vibrato, a tinge of dirt

I'm listening to 'High Rising' right now, and I can't believe it didn't get a vote here. For me, it's superior to some of the tracks that attempt to do the same thing on Dog Man Star.

In fact, fuck it, I'm going to say it. Sci-Fi Lullabies disc one is much better than Dog Man Star.

Never got into sf lullabies but dog man star is all time for me

Thread makes me want to revisit but sold my double cd

I'd pick Dog Man Star over that first disc of Sci-Fi Lullabies but there's really not much in it. They're both perfect. The second disc is almost as good as Coming Up. Some really underrated songs on there.

xxposts
yeah, the guitar solo in "my dark star" is fantastic.
as for "the wild ones" being superior to "stay together", yeah, definitely.
actually, "wild ones" might be my favorite Suede song. the guitar lines in it are so amazing. arguably Butler's best moment ever !

Fave side 2 songs incl."Another No One," "Young Men," "The Sound of the Streets," "W.S.D," "Duchess," but man, they're really all good.

I saw an article in Uncut a few years ago where Brett said he thought Duchess was the worst song they've ever done which I thought was a bit odd. Clearly he's forgetting Street Life or a lot of those Head Music B-sides. I'd add This Time and Every Monday Morning Comes to that list. Another No One is so beautiful.

One of the things I've always loved about 'My Dark Star' is the way it changes key for the guitar solo, it's a lovely bit of playing too.

As for 'The Wild Ones', I really wish they'd kept the ending section for that or found something to do with it. Hearing the unedited version on the remastered edition was a relevation for me!

Really ? I love Butler but this is one of the rare cases where I find his instrumental part a bit weak. I think they were right to edit the song to its final version.

Yes, really!

i'm going to sign up to do a Suede poll, i think it will be great. i do have to wait a bit as i have just signed up to do The Smashing Pumkins, so i need a little space before i will sign up as i can't and don't want to do two polls in a row.

Following the discussion here, I listened again to the unedited version of "wild ones" and the problem, for me, is that the instrumental final doesn't go anywhere and drags and lacks musical ideas and guitar hooks. It's like a jam where they would still be working on the final format of the ending, leaving space to be filled later with proper melodies and instrumentation.
that said, that's weird that Butler considered this to be the final edit since I find the rest of the song, especially the guitar parts, so inspired and amazing.
but again, I think they were right to edit it down.

'This World Needs a Father' is so fucking underrated.

heh, had not heard that one before - sounds like Suede doing a Roy Orbison song

Stay Together was the first CD single or 'EP' (if not exactly in name) I bought by any 'indie' band after growing up on Queen/Erasure/Dire Straits/Genesis etc, so I guess I was spoiled rotten for value. Can't remember how unaware I was of what a perfect set of songs to obtain on one single was, or if I just assumed it was normal

that Ed Buller interview linked upthread is great! can't believe i'd not read it before.

Yeah, it's a great read - I wish there were more things around like that, it's always great to get some insight into what the sessions were like.

For me one of the most underrated of their b-sides is "Whipsnade".
Such a fantastic song. It could have been on a follow-up album to DMS, in a parallel dimension in which Butler would have stayed in the band and they would have made a lighter album than DMS but not as poppy as Coming Up.
"Whipsnade" is very sophisticated, catchy and lighter than their DMS stuff, the melodies are wonderful, the arrangements and production quite different from their output up to that point. Less gravitas overall.

Totally agree about Whipsnade. It's constantly creeping up my favourite Suede songs list. It's probably in the top three with Killing Of A Flashboy and We Are The Pigs at the moment.

I'm a big fan of This World Needs A Father too. Asda Town from the same single is also brilliant.

Is "Asda Town" an Anderson/Butler song ? I always thought it wasn't.

Oh, I just noticed it's been discussed already upthread !

Totally agree about Whipsnade. It's constantly creeping up my favourite Suede songs list. It's probably in the top three with Killing Of A Flashboy and We Are The Pigs at the moment.

i.e. exactly the three songs that made up the 12"/CD single We Are The Pigs. It was unbelievable buying and listening to that record, playing those tracks over and over. So exciting!

Asda Town was their first released song credited to Anderson alone

yep, whipsnade is perfect

god that chiming arpeggio that comes in during the end.... so good