I find 80% of them useless. Why mar a great album by tacking crap onto the end of it? Too often they are badly recorded, or if well-recorded simply bad music. I'm glad I always listen to albums in digital form, which lets me simply delete these things. I also delete non-bonus tracks that are so awful they mar my enjoyment of otherwise terrific albums (*cough* Hare *cough*).

Edited by Stereolab - November 26 2014 at 21:55

It depends. I think the better ones from Broadsword And The Beast make the 2005 version a better investment, particularly "Jack Frost And The Hooded Crow", "Jack-A-Lynn", "Mayhem Maybe", "Overhang" and "Down At The End Of Your Road". In fact, I burned a CD that had the best songs from that era (including the mentioned bonus tracks and all of the original tracks except for "Seal Driver"), along with some other ones that were included on Nightcap ("Lights Out", "Commons Brawl", "The Curse" and "No Step").

I am not very keen on bonus tracks. Most of these bring an album down and deserve the qualification "only for completionists". I usually skip them since I'd rather like to listen to an album as it was meant to be. Yet there are some exceptions, but these are in the minority.

Dayvenkirq wrote: SteveG wrote: What's your opinion on Bonus Tracks? They are just like anything. There are good/great bonus tracks (Yes' "America") and those that are just not worth your time.

This.

I love b-sides and stuff. I generally separate the stuff into a separate section and don't place it with the original album however. It's annoying to have an album and then a bunch of bonus tracks ending it out. Sometimes the stuff is uninteresting enough or I have from other places (think Marillion remasters) I'll keep them around but won't sort them along with the rest of my Marillion. But yeah, if it's an artist I really like I LOVE the rare stuff. Gotta have all of it!

Edited by fudgenuts64 - March 21 2015 at 05:03

Free s.h.i.t is still overpriced...

As strange as it may sound, I usually would prefer the bonus stuff being released as a separate album (such as Marillion did with B-Sides Themselves or Bowie did with Rare) than added at the end of an official album.

Gerinski wrote: As strange as it may sound, I usually would prefer the bonus stuff being released as a separate album (such as Marillion did with B-Sides Themselves or Bowie did with Rare) than added at the end of an official album. Or, now in the CD era, as a bonus CD in the package, but not in the same disc as the original album, such as Dream Theater did with the covers bonus disc in the Black Clouds... special edition package.

ExittheLemming wrote: Free s.h.i.t is still overpriced

p.a.r.t.y. p.o.o.p.e.r.

KingCrInuYasha wrote: It depends. I think the better ones from Broadsword And The Beast make the 2005 version a better investment, particularly "Jack Frost And The Hooded Crow", "Jack-A-Lynn", "Mayhem Maybe", "Overhang" and "Down At The End Of Your Road".

In the first decade or so of CDs I think the trend was to put rare tracks, B-sides and the like in stand-alone compilations and box sets (i.e. Marillion’s B-Sides Themselves, Yes’s YesYears), but later the tendency was to toss them on CD reissues as bonus tracks.  Often the result is that the same tracks you may already have picked up on box sets and the like will turn up again as b.t.’s.  Most, if not all of the rare and unreleased studio tracks on Tull’s 20 Years box set later turned up as b.t.’s; all eight of the ones on Broadsword & the Beast were previously on 20 Years.

The Dark Elf wrote: The greatest compilation of B sides, singles and unreleased material (at least not in the U.S.) was Jethro Tull's Living in the Past. To this day I consider it one of Tull's top five albums, because of unbelievably good songs like "Witch's Promise", "Singing All Day", "Sweet Dream" and "Life Is A Long".

Totally with you on that.  They were savvy enough to realize that such an album could be a collection of great songs, even one that would yield a hit single, at a time (the early 70s) when such collections weren’t so common.

 

Likewise, most or all of the FGTR-era tracks on the first Genesis Archive box later popped up on a later issue of FGTR.

moshkito wrote: My favorite of all was when the CD was finally released of Caravan and the New Sinfonia, and the concert was complete, because the stuff that was on the original LP was not, and was obviously missing whole sections. I loved that album, but the CD made it even more spectacular and I would imagine that it should have been a double album if the orchestra had not gotten union blues!

Agreed, that was always one of my fave live albums, one that benefited enormously from the expanded treatment.

 

More buried treasure?

 

Little Feat – “Waiting for Columbus” was greatly expanded, and even to someone like me who isn’t a really hardcore L.F. fan it’s a pretty spectacular set.

VDGG – “The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome”.  Finally got to hear the studio versions of Ship of Fools and Door.

Peter Hammill – “In Camera.”  The 3 b.t.’s are from BBC sessions, especially welcome is the VDGG track Emperor in His War-Room.

Flash --  “In the Can.”  The Esoteric reissue contains the welcome addition of the B-side Watch Your Step.

Moody Blues – “Octave.”  Several live tracks from the ’78 tour were added.

Kevin Ayers – “Joy of a Toy.”  I just got this last year, and though the b.t.’s include multiple versions, one of them features Syd Barrett!

Love – “Forever Changes.”  Studio rehearsals, alternate versions, a couple of unheard tracks; if you love this album, you can’t go wrong.

 

More trash?

 

ELO – “Eldorado.”  A brief bit of noodling (Dark City) and an instrumental medley, neither necessary.

Pentangle – “Basket of Light.”  There are two “alternate” versions of Sally Go Round the Roses, and I literally can hear no difference between them, or between either and the original version.  The guitar solos in all three sound nearly identical.

Eric Burdon & the Animals – “The Twain Shall Meet.”  I looked forward to this because it contained the single version of Sky Pilot (split in 2 parts).  I was expecting the superior (IMO) version from the U.S. single, only to find nothing more than a mono mix of the album version, which apparently was the U.K. single.  Did they even try to get the U.S. single version?  Totally fumbled the ball on that.

Finnforest wrote: I'm an album guy so I like the reissues to be just the album as it was released.  I play the bonus stuff once if it looks interesting, but after that I eject the CD as soon as the regular album is over.  I think most of it is pretty tedious. Some notable exceptions would be early Kate Bush demos which I love, the stuff that Gilmour heard her play and the outtakes from the first two albums.  There is a pretty sweet Heart version of Stairway that was added to Little Queen.  And on Rumours, they corrected the bonehead decision Lindsey and Mick made to pull Silver Springs off in favor of "I don't want to Know".  Stevie was horrified.  So Silver Springs is back on Rumours where it was supposed to be.  Here is one of those early Kate songs that I love....don't be too hard on her, she was only 14.  Also includes a lovely photo montage of Kate as a child.