Hidden tracks - why?

Subject: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 01:30 AM

I got Amy MacDonald's 'This is the life' for my birthday and very nice it is. I was listening again last night and just left it in the player then, after a minute or two silence, came another track! It was Dougie Macleans 'Caledonia' followed by a pipe tune that sounded very familiar. My first reaction was surprise, then I was quite pleased then I began to wonder...

Why the hell do some artists or producers or whoever put hidden tracks on CDs?

Any ideas?

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: GUEST,jOhn
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 01:37 AM

to make you jump.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 01:37 AM

For fun.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Rain Dog
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 03:08 AM

It was a slightly amusing idea when it first came out say 10 years ago or more. I don't see the point of them now and they just annoy me.

Now hidden chapters in books,I could go along with those. Or a hidden episode in a dvd box set of a tv series. I could along with that. Or hidden pages of the newspaper, I like that idea too.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 06:00 AM

Jim Moray's 'Adam Ant' is a great example of a hidden track. Funny, poignant and well worth the wait.

Me, each time I eat a Melton Mowbray pork pie, I'd like to find another one hidden just behind it, right next to a hidden pint of Taylor's Landlord.

Hello Dave, btw!

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Will Fly
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:18 AM

The most extreme example of this that I know is The Tractor's 2nd album (Farmers In A Changing World), where the hidden track was separated from the "last" one on the album by about 15-20 minutes. Any longer bidders?

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:28 AM

Bang! by World Party has a hidden track 22 minutes on from the last 'real' track. I remember nodding off first time I heard the album and waking to assume the CD had finished. Scared the life out of me when the CD player started on it's own 10 minutes later!

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:30 AM

Cop a load of this!

My new favourite album cover... Thanks, Will!

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Will Fly
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:41 AM

Aha - a new convert? Great band - led by Steve Ripley, with good session players and guests like Bonnie Raitt, Leon Russell, Ry Cooder, etc. I've loved 'em for years. Steve Ripley was a key figure in getting the remains of the Texas Playboys back together for a session - hence the presence of excellent old guitarist Eldon Shamblin on one track.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:45 AM

Not so fast, Will - haven't actually checked out the music yet! - just the cover. But it is a fab cover...

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Will Fly
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 08:28 AM

Just anticipating... hence the "?" :-)

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: clueless don
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 08:36 AM

I believe there was a famous hidden track on a Beatles LP. The track was something like "Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl...", or maybe it was "...a pretty fine girl...", or something like that.

I was told (didn't hear it myself) that a David Bromberg LP had a hidden track, where he kept repeating

BOOOONE!
Debbie BOOOONE!
Debbie BOOOONE!

Don

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 08:52 AM

Just a gimmick

A hidden bonus in my paycheque ... now that WOULD make me jump.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 09:13 AM

It's just a bit of fun. On The Nic Jones Unearthed CD I put a looped track of a fragment of Nic singing in his kitchen while his kids were playing. Not a complete song, but, a lovely view of Nic at home with his kids.
Could have been worse. I have one verse of Nic singing my Old Mans a Dustman, with his young daughter shouting, "Thats my dad Nic Jones....He plays the guitar!!!"
.......It got vetoed by Helen (Nics daughter!)
In reality, does it matter?

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 09:42 AM

I love finding hidden tracks, at least the first time.. After that, having a 20-minute pause before the *actual* last track is just a bit annoying. Not as annoying as having "hidden track" written on the artwork though- what's the point in that?

It's also possible to have a hidden track BEFORE track 1- you can only hear it by skipping backwards from track 1. The only album I know of that uses this trick is Goldie Lookin' Chain's Greatest Hits (not folk by any stretch of the imagination, though they did sample Steeleye Span on The Maggot..)

The other really clever way of making a hidden track I've heard was on a 7" single by S'Express (this is turning into a Guilty Pleasures confession!) which had actually had two grooves on the B-side so that, every so often, instead of the track you were expecting, you got this weird spoken word sketch. Nearly jumped out of my skin the first time it came on.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Nick
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 10:10 AM

Are they perhaps the music industry's equivalent of Easter Eggs
in software programs? I always liked the flying simulator game in Excel

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Acorn4
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 11:49 AM

How about songs with hidden verses - say in a 42 verse murder ballad for instance -you finish applauding then the song starts up again!

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Rain Dog
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 11:58 AM

I like that idea Acorn4

I would like to add songs with hidden lyrics as for example "The Mysterious Axman's Jazz"

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Rifleman (inactive)
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:05 PM

Great sales gimmick, plain & simple, no matter the genre of music.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: GUEST,John from Elsie`s Band
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:12 PM

Acorn4,
       Just imagine, after verse 21, a 5 minute time out and a cup of tea!

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Rain Dog
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:13 PM

I cannot believe many people buy a cd just because they know there is a hidden track on it.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Rifleman (inactive)
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:14 PM

It happens, Rain Dog, it happens.Imahine giving tea away with the CD...sales would skyrocket!!

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Rain Dog
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:18 PM

Depends if the tea was hidden or not I guess.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Will Fly
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:24 PM

You mean as in "Depends if he ea was hidden or no I guess" perhaps?

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Rain Dog
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:28 PM

My mis ake Will Fly

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Rain Dog
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:32 PM

Of course you could simply hide all the tracks by just selling an empty case.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Rifleman (inactive)
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:35 PM

Shhhhh.. don't give the majors any ideas they get enough of their own already *LOL*

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Barbara
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 02:08 PM

from memory:

Her majesty's a pretty nice gel, but she hasn't got a lot to say
Her majesty's a pretty nice gel, she changes from day to day
I wanna tell her that I love her a lot
But I gotta get a bellyful of wine
Her majesty's a pretty nice gel,
some day I'm gonna make her mine, oh yeah,
some day I'm gonna make her mine
(ends on the V downbeat...)

I can see why you'd hide that track, if you wanted to keep your KBE..
Blessings,
Barbara

FWIW over here in the US, I thought it was "Amanda" not "her majesty"
until I saw the text printed somewhere.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 05:19 PM

Good points all - I think I do like the idea after all. Like someone said a bonus is a bonus after all:-) Love the idea of a bonus pie. Maybe with the pint you could find a glass of Glen Morangie hiding under it?

One thing I have found myself doing - Staying right untill the end of the credits when I go and see a film. Ever since the bonus scene at the end of James and the Giant Peach oddly enough. Now that probably tells you a lot about me...

:D (eG)

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Timo_Tuokkola
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 06:26 AM

I kind of like the idea of a bonus track at the end of a cd, as long as it isn't listed on the back. What's the point of calling it a special bonus track if everyone who buys the cd already knows they're going to get it?

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 06:35 PM

An extra track is fine. What pisses me off is including several minutes of silence and another number in an existing track. If I hit the random play button I don't want random silences.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 03:09 PM

Barbara - I'm pretty sure it's Madge, not her majesty...

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 03:11 PM

oh, and Don - same message! :)

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: GUEST,Tone Deaf Leopard
Date: 14 Feb 09 - 01:12 PM

Our CD "8 x2" has eight songs on, but we get requests for track nine. For a laugh, I suggested that we put on a jokey ninth track. (not a song)

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Feb 09 - 01:14 PM

We generally stay put till the end credits are finished in a film, so if there's a surprise at the end we tend to see it. Typically by that time we are the only people left in the audience. The thing is, the music with the credits is part of the film, and sometimes a good part of the film.

Moreover, you only get to see the song and music tracks at the very end, and there's often stuff I want to know in there. The amazing thing is how few of the songs I can generally remember noticing during the course of the film.

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 15 Feb 09 - 03:20 AM

I thought it could be a way of including a cover of a song but not actually going through the complications of getting the permissions for it.
Sal

Subject: RE: Hidden tracks - why?
From: GUEST,woodsie
Date: 15 Feb 09 - 03:32 AM

The weirdest "hidden" track was on was on Moby Grapes's Wow album you had to change the Deck speed from 33.3rpm to 78rpm to play it!