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