Grace Potter & the Nocturnals treated us to a new song they’ve been working on during their May showcase at Joe’s Pub. It was intriguing, and it had something to do with urinating in one’s hand. Sadly, we were told it didn’t make the new record, This Is Somewhere, but as Grace explained before launching into the drinking song: “We’ll release it as a B-side or something.”

This is unlikely to happen, unless the label decides to release a promotional 7” to hand out at shows, which many people won’t be able to listen to anyway, due to a general lack of turntables in the American home these days. Many people have lamented the end of the single, but I’m far more upset the death of the B-side. B-sides originally appeared on 7” singles in the 1950s, but the concept of including a song that was on the album with a single managed to survive both cassettes and CD singles. It won’t survive the digital era.

Sure, in the digital world, the B-side has already been “replaced” with bonus tracks available as downloads only. But it’s not as exciting to me as when I was a teenager, going out on Saturdays to drop all my pocket money on my “new favorite song,” and turning it over to discover some rare gem that I sometimes liked even more than the song I’d purchased the record for. (Think “Talk Tonight”, the B-side to the first #1 hit Oasis had, “Some Might Say.”) Once CDs fully took over, the B-side would sometimes be nothing more than a remix, usually disappointing to me. And naturally there were times when the B-side was just a track that hadn’t made the cut, and I could see why when I heard it. But a lot of times the B-side would be something special, different, cool. Oasis, who were one of many bands that became almost as celebrated for their B-sides as the singles, did so because of their philosophy: a B-side is no excuse not to care.

I miss the B-side; Ocean Colour Scene’s B-Sides: Seasides & Freerides is permanently located in my top 5 favorite albums of all time, and I’m sad to think that I won’t have that feeling of discovery again in a world where everything is just a click away. Some of the songs that I fell in love with as my musical tastes were forming began life as B-sides, and many have found a home at Triple A radio.

Take for example “Yellow Ledbetter”. It might be one of the most famous B-sides in recent years, originally appearing as the B-side to Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy.” It has since appeared on their greatest hits album and their B-sides album; plus, a live version was included with the single “Daughter.” It even appeared on the series finale of Friends.

And speaking of Friends, could there be a better B-side than “I am the Walrus”? This one only half counts; it did appear on Magical Mystery Tour, but it was also the B-side to “All You Need Is Love.” My brother and I used to play that 7” incessantly on our old record player up in the attic; it showed us what acid trips would feel like in about ten years. Maybe that’s where my future as a social deviant was born? Certainly helps explain my fondness for “Dear God” by XTC. This B-side of “Grass,” produced by Todd Rundgren, didn’t appear on the original pressing of 1986’s Skylarking, but it was such a hit that “Mermaid” was bumped from subsequent pressings so that “Dear God” could be included. What a great, weird little song that only becomes more politically pertinent as time passes.

Graduating on from playing our parents records in the attic, I started going to night clubs at entirely too young an age. The big trend back then was playing “cheesy” music from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. There was no Triple A radio then (in Scotland, anyway), so this was quite novel, and a great way for my generation to experience music from our parents’ days that we couldn’t hear on hits radio. Van Morrison’s “Gloria” is the best example I can think of. It has become one of Van Morrison’s best-known, best-loved and most-played songs, but it was originally the B-side of “Baby Please Don’t Go” (Them). Jimmy Page played on the original, and it’s been covered by everyone from Patti Smith and the Doors to Hendrix. I cannot help but howl along to this one.

Challenging Van for Ireland’s biggest act is U2. Now I’m not a fan of them as I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen, but I’ll admit that “The Sweetest Thing” is a pretty catchy song. It was all over the radio in 1998, but that was a re-recorded version. The original was the B-side of “Where the Streets Have No Name.” It didn’t make the cut for The Joshua Tree, but has ended up on many “Best of the 1980s” compilations.

These are just a few great songs that we take for granted when we hear them on Triple A radio, some of which we might never have heard if someone ingenious A&R person hadn’t come up with the concept of the B-side. So even though we might not have many B-sides to look forward to, there are plenty to remember. The most distressing part of all of this is that in my own shortsightedness, I have long since thrown away all the old singles I bought over the years, so I no longer have most of the B-sides I once enjoyed. I suppose I’ll just have to go and download them now.

–Julia Clarke

The intriguing thing about New York–and I discovered this upon my first visit here ten years ago–is that it is virtually exactly the same as you imagine it will be. Like most people, I grew up inundated with images of the city, usually projected onto large screens, so long before I ever got here that I knew what the skyline looked like, and what it was like to cross the street in Manhattan into an oncoming wave of pedestrians. I knew that the roads were filled with yellow taxis and there would be steam rising up through the subway shafts. It really is just the way you think and hope it will be, minus the oversized gorilla rampaging through the streets and plucking distressed damsels from skyscrapers.
However, next week will mark three months since I moved to New York City, and I have to say that as times goes on you discover there are a few notions about the place that are simply false. So here I am to dispel a few myths.

First, New Yorkers are not always in a hurry. There is not a frantic wave of pedestrians surging forth at tsunami speed, all of whose members are determined to get there first. In fact, New Yorkers walk very…fucking…slowly. The later you are for work, the slower they will walk. If construction has forced a sidewalk to reduce to fifty percent of its usual width, meaning less space to squeeze by, they will walk even slower. If the “walk” signal is about to change to “don’t walk”, they will walk slower still. If the entire future of mankind rested on New Yorkers walking at even a reasonable pace . . . well, you can be sure we wouldn’t have to worry about global warming anymore.

Second, and this one is perhaps more obvious, New York is not a big apple.

Third, New York is not host, as was recently claimed, to America’s worst drivers. That dubious distinction belongs to Boston, and always will.

Fourth, and this one has been especially disappointing to me, you will not see famous people on the streets of New York. The only time that you will see Julianne Moore strolling down 5th Avenue enjoying ice cream with her kids is in the pages of People magazine. You will never see celebrities in candid “hey, celebs are just like us!” moments on the streets of New York.

People who lived in Greenwich Village in the 1970s, 1980s, or even early 1990s should pay special heed to this next one: the Village is not a bohemian oasis where art and alternative lifestyles thrive. It is dirty, smelly, and full of drunk frat boys and homeless people. There is a good chance if you go there you will leave with someone else’s blood, vomit, or urine on your person. Let go of the past.

The sixth myth is one I must clear up as I am now technically a resident: New Yorkers are not unfriendly. That’s all I have to say on that subject.

The seventh and final myth I’d like to dispel is this: New York cab drivers aren’t crazy, they are just enthusiastic. I’m tired of hearing complaints about the perilous nature with which they conduct their profession. We pay them to get us from A to B, and by God they will get us there in as little time as possible, often in a straight line, especially when a straight line is not possible/safe/legal. Who are we to criticize this courageous zealousness??? So what if pedestrians must occasionally perish at the hands of their efficiency?

Frankly, if they had walked faster when crossing the street this wouldn’t be a problem.

–Julia Clarke