In Praise of the 80's B Side

Thought I'd while away today - we're snowed in - by posting a few of my favourite B sides; all of which were deemed acceptable in the eighties.

I've posted the A sides as well just for continuity sake, but it's the flips that make it; and ain't that often the case.

In the dying days of roots and reggae, Smiley Culture had a big hit with 'Police Officer', and for a moment it seemed as if a new wave of artists, other than UB40, might revive a moribund genre.

It did kind of resuscitate it, but reggae was busily transmogrifying; morphing into dancehall: the old school was being majorly renovated.

This release captures the transitional stage; primarily dancehall songs but both tracks included extended dub mixes (not something that was played on the UK Chart Show), revealing Smiley Culture's roots and the connection he still had with the waning genre.

'Shan A Shan', the flip, is by far the better song, as it doesn't rely on a jokey narrative like 'Police Officer'; it also has the best dub outro.

Crank it up, and go skank in the snow.

Why not.

Police Officer

Shan A Shan

Released 1984
Vinyl rip @320kbs. Here

This release needs little introduction.
Except to say this sounds to me like summer - not a bad thing on a day like today! - not in a Beach Boys kind of way, but it takes me back; straight back to the summer of 1984, before an awful lot of shitty things happened; turning out just as Orwell suggested it might!

The B side of this release is an instrumental; allowing that most recognisable of pulsating bass lines to reverberate without propagandic intrusion.

Turn it up and let the vibrations knock all the snow off your roof.

White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)

Released 1983
Vinyl rip @320kbs. Here

I've always loved Dee Snider - I haven't always been the greatest fan of his music, but I was always a big fan of his.

As a showman and metal performer you couldn't really ask for anything else; and this B side highlights Snider's rapport with a London Marquee crowd and includes what I believe is one of the greatest talk to audience recordings ever.

The A side is very throw away; typical of the over produced metal that was coming out of the States at this time.
Except Twisted Sister were always more Slade than Slayer, and for me, that gave Sister the edge.

The B side features a Slade-like opener in 'Tear it Loose', a very 'eavy number entitled 'Destroyer', and then back to Slade mode for the crowd pleasing cover of 'It's Only Rock n Roll'.
And its during the middle section of that song that Snider delivers his lecture on why it is he doesn't go home and ax his family to death; defining the essential difference between the 'sick motherfuckers' (Snider, his band and their audience) and the 'straight motherfuckers' (everybody else).

Cracks me up every time.

I Am (I'm Me)

Tear It Loose

Destroyer
It's Only Rock n Roll

Released 1983
Vinyl rip @320kbs. Here

And finally, another distinctly iconic bass line, and one of the most extraordinary noncommercial B sides ever found on a most commercial release (not including 'Beck's Bolero' of course).

You may well have found this on initial release rather irritating, as it was very nearly played to death. But on hearing it now (27 years later [fuck!]), it actually sounds pretty good.
And if you never had a copy of this, turn it up real loud on the fade... always worth a chuckle.

The B side is what seems like work in progress, and under the heading 'Strawberry Dross' we actually get to hear nine different tracks: some very short (around twenty seconds), some very funny, and some that sound a little like Gordon Giltrap numbers!

Hippies are addressed, as are hats, and Maggie T (not Maggoty, as easily assumed, although...).
So, not your normal Captain Sensible fare, and a very very long way away from 'Happy Talk'.

Wot!

Strawberry Dross

Released 1982
Vinyl rip @320kbs. Here