A Fascinating Look at Rock ‘n Roll B-Sides
Today is the second installment on a new feature series focused on those wonderful rock ’n roll B-side gems we’ve discovered over the years from our old friend Scott Bourne. Read Part One HERE.
Back in the formative years of what is now called classic rock, most music fans discovered new music either on the radio, or on their own record players. The common record company practice in those days was to release a single with the anticipated hit song on the A-side and some throwaway track on the bottom of the record – the B-side.
As it turns out, there was some damn good music on those flipsides. This new series focuses on those B-sides that were as strong, if not better and/or sometimes more popular, than their A-side counterpart.
The Bus Rider Anthem
From a band with many…
Stomp Stomp Clap! Stomp Stomp Clap! Isn’t this all that really needs to be written?
Apparently, after years of watching the master frontman/showman Freddie Mercury, demand audience participation during every show, Brian May wanted to write a little chant-like ditty to further explore this two-way dynamic the band loved so much. In doing so he created, arguably, the most recognizable percussion riff in music history. As anybody who rode a school bus from 1977 on knows – yes, the track is the band stomping their feet on the ground twice followed by a single group clap. That track was then multi-layered with a touch of delay many, many times over.
What I love, besides Brian May’s, very Brian May solo at the end, is the song is sung a-capella. Though it is impossible not to hear the A side “We are the Champions” follow “We will Rock You!” (at least in our minds) the latter was actually the B-side. Sometimes B-sides are better than the A-side. Sometimes they are more popular. Most of the time they are neither but having a B-side, which can be heard at every field, stadium, ball park, or gym event around the world for 45 years and counting, is even more rare!
Not bad for two stops and a clap but as the meme says :
I don’t just want to be cool: I want to be lead guitarist of Queen, writer of “We will Rock You”, Doctorate of Astrophysics, Brian May, Cool!!”
Everybody knows the studio version but Queen actually opened most of their shows in the late 70’s with a full band “faster version” of “We Will Rock You” which I love as well.
A Song About a Girl
No, not that girl…
1) Jim Morrison was a slightly above average poet and a good lyricist.
2) Jim Morrison was a VERY good Rock singer – Rolling Stone ranked him #22 of all time; readers put him at #5 – BUT
3) Jim Morrison was an EXCELLENT crooner. In fact, he names Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby as his main influences as a vocalist. He preferred singing in this vein.
I chose “The Crystal Ship” (B-side to “Light my Fire”) today because it is, what I believe, to be Jim’s strongest as a lyricist and vocalist. It is the true musical embodiment of what he wanted The Doors to be: lyrical, moody (af!), atmospheric and romantic.
He has said “The Crystal Ship” was written on the beach while watching an oil rig in the distance. Yes, he was apparently tripping at the time while lamenting a lost relationship but he was also well versed in Irish Folklore to know a “Crystal Ship” was used by a Goddess to whisk “heroes” off to a land beyond Earth and Sea. He delivers his need “to meet again” to perfection with both a lyrical and vocal wistfulness. I firmly believe if you adjust your ears to this crooner perspective “The Soft Parade”, “The End”, “Love Street”, “Universal Mind” “Touch Me” and “Riders on the Storm” etc… reveal what a novelty “Light my Fire” really is and
4) why this B-side, though certainly not as popular in sales, is the VASTLY superior song.
(The link below is from The Dick Clark Show)
A Song About a Girl
No, not that girl…
So far, I have discussed B-sides which have been gifts to fans, were surprise hits because of brave DJ’s and songs which were flat out just better and proved the suits in the corporate offices – were wrong!
Today, I am going to look at the negative aspect to a B-side; one which practically unraveled a band. Whatever you think of KISS they were behemoths in the 70″s. I personally LOVE Kiss “Alive” . Though released as a live album, there are many reports, along with admission from band members, that the recording was so heavily overdubbed and recreated in the studio that it is “Alive” in name only. Regardless, it is an excellent collection of fiercely delivered songs. After completing the first chapter of their musical life with “Alive”, KISS wanted a more cinematic and theatrical sounding LP, so they brought in the legendary Bob Ezrin, fresh off of producing Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to my Nightmare”, to work on the new album, Destroyer.
The finished product is a monster of an album which pushed Kiss into the new direction they were hoping for and began the very influential 3 album mid 1970’s run that followed. Hidden in the album and put on the B-side of their 3rd single, “Detroit Rock City,” to placate their wild card of a drummer, Peter Criss, was the contemporary soft rock song – “Beth.” WTF was this? It had no relation to anything KISS did before – not even close.
So, where did it come from and what was the net result? Well, actually, we all know the net result. It was a massive runaway hit and, in very real terms, it saved their career. The former question is what basically “Destroyer'(d)” the band. First, as Paul, Gene and Ace along with many others attested early on and even up to 2018: Peter Criss blatantly stole the song, word for word, from the guitarist of his former band, Chelsea.
There was never a Beth, only a Beck, the name of the Chelsea guitarist/songwriter’s girlfriend. The recording of “Beth” is soley Bob Ezrin’s creation : he changed the name from Beck, so no one thought KISS wrote a song about my personal guitar hero, Jeff Beck, and created an arrangement to be played with an orchestra. Not one member of Kiss actually plays on the track, only Criss’ voice is used.
Tectonic plate shifts were already appearing in the band when the song broke WIDE open. Then things got nutty! Criss, in typical fashion, used the newfound leverage he got from the smash single to settle old and new scores against his band mates, refused to give any money to the person he stole the song from and fed his massive drug and alcohol fueled bad boy ego. I mean he was “The Catman” for a reason…lol! Kiss were famously never a fully functioning unit and little things between band members always caused interpersonal issues but it took a massive single from a B-side, which was meant to be a throwaway, to irreparably fracture and ultimately dissolve the original line-up of the most popular band in America – at the time – all thanks to a B-side.
Here is Peter lip and finger synching “Beck”on The Paul Lynde Halloween special in 1976.
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Rock On!
Scott Bourne
Related: On the Flipside – Part I.
