Song of the Day — December 7
The Hidden Track
The Hidden Track
07.December.2020
Too Many Artists
The Hidden Track
Beginning of Recorded Music
Let there be no argument; the 90s were certainly the halcyon days of the music industry.
At least in recent memory.
Artists, fans, and business people would agree — regardless of genre, the music was good, the business was good, and the touring was good. The one part that was not good?
The hidden track.
I'm not too fond of the hidden track.
Before the +/- 80 minutes you could squeeze on a compact disc; you had the 44 minutes (22 per side) of a vinyl album. In the event you ever wondered why blank cassettes were 45 minutes, there’s your answer (one album per side).
Record labels rarely marketed two albums on one cassette. Yea, cassettes could go up to 120 minutes (60 per side), but I think even the most die-hard King Crimson fan would argue that 120 minutes is just too damn long.
Did you ever try to make a 120-minute mixtape? Exactly.
Now vinyl purists or audiophiles will be quick to note that vinyl records can have a hidden track using a “double-grooved” technique. Traditional vinyl albums have one groove; the technology exists where you could hide a track by creating a second groove, or “double-grooving.”
Lest you are confused, “double grooving” isn’t new. It can be used on singles and long-playing albums, and its use dates back to 1901. The first known usage was on the Pre-Dog Victor A-821 Fortune Telling Record. This double-grooving technique is still used today — including Jack White’s 2014 album Lazaretto.
This concept of “double grooving” is not nearly as prevalent as the hidden track.
A good motto in life, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
The hidden track remains a blight on recorded music. That said, like much of the industry then, its peak era is arguably the 1990s.
Now, there are two-types of treacherous methods for hiding songs on CDs:
The “pregap” hidden track — is before the first indexed song on the disc. For example, on Blind Melon’s 1995 second album, Soup, the song “Hello Goodbye” is a pregap song (on the US version).
And the hidden track(s) buried at the end of the artist's album. This would be any disc you played that lists the last song with an oddly long length. If you were like me, the first time you encountered that, you may have thought, “WTF, how is this song 17:00 long?”
Some would argue that some of these songs were good. And that’s true, some were good. Some were even modest hits, like Counting Crows cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” hidden on Hard Candy.
Which then begs the argument, if the song was good, why not just list it?
There may be legitimate reasons — guessing mostly legal — the track is hidden. But if it needs to be hidden, should it be included at all? I fall on the side of “No, it doesn’t.”
The fact that I would have to listen to X minutes of either silence or ambient sound to get to the hidden track annoyed me. It still does, but thankfully hidden tracks are found less on the streaming services.
The only thing worse than the hidden track is an artist thinking they NEED to fill the CD with close to 80 minutes with music.
But what if the track is good like that Counting Crows cover? That’s the exception, not the rule.
By and large, I never found the hidden track to be either that clever or that good.
Take one of the 90s benchmark albums, Nirvana’s Nevermind. Their hidden track, “Endless, Nameless,” appears 10 minutes after “Something in the Way.” I must’ve heard Nevermind, in its entirety, at least a thousand times over the years.
If I’ve heard “Endless, Nameless” more than twice, I would be surprised. I would only recognize it now by Kurt Cobain’s voice. And oddly, this song was not included on the first pressings of Nevermind and American (and international) pressings after 1994.
This list of artists who have committed this hidden track act of treason reads like a who’s who of any genre.
Of course, sometimes the hidden track is an interview or even something marginally interesting or clever. For example, on Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever, there is a track called “Hello CD Listeners” that follows “Runnin’ Down a Dream”:
“Hello, CD listeners. We’ve come to the point in this album where those listening on cassette or record will have to stand up (or sit down) and turn over the record (or tape). In fairness to those listeners, we’ll now take a few seconds before we begin side two…….. thank you. Here is side two.”
That’s clever and fun …and certainly on-brand for Tom Petty.
More often than not, it’s dreck like:
Anal C*nt’s cover of The Door’s “Hello I Love You” is a pregap hidden track on their album Morbid Florist. Arguably, nothing in that previous sentence is needed— the band name, The Doors cover, a hidden track. I will concede the album title is clever.
Track 11 on the CD of Pixies Surfer Rosa, which is just Frank Black having a “humorous conversation” where he repeatedly shouts “You fuckin’ die!” at then bassist Kim Deal. Hilarious indeed.
When it comes to shitty concepts in music marketing, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Jamiroquai. On their album 1996 album Travelling Without Moving, they delighted their fans by adding “Funktion” and/or “Do You Know Where You’re Coming From” at the end of the album. Which song is hidden differs by country.
[FUN FACT: Jamiroquai had success in America with Traveling Without Moving — the one with “Virtual Insanity” — but that was it. Somehow they’ve managed to sell more than 26 million albums worldwide. Traveling Without Moving even received a Guinness World Record for the best-selling funk album in history …let that marinate …of all the funk artists in history, the band with the dude wearing ridiculously oversized hats has the best-selling funk album in history.]
I wouldn’t say I like the concept of the hidden track …but that does not mean I hate the hidden track. Again, Counting Crows cover of “Big Yellow Taxi” is good; I genuinely like it.
If I wanted to take the time, I could compile a list of hidden tracks that are good. But, much like I don’t have time to waste waiting to hear the hidden track, I don’t have time to waste compiling that list.
In short, if the song was so good, put it on the album. If it’s not? Wait for the box set or career retrospective.
Just because you CAN hide a track doesn’t mean you SHOULD hide a track.