Hidden Tracks

Call them what you will - secret songs, bonus tracks, needless annoyances - hidden tracks have become a fabric of the CD age. Their origin is debatable based on what you constitute as a hidden track, however, no matter which way you look at it, we can blame The Beatles back in the vinyl era, setting the framework from over long final tracks on CDs that make them impossible to include on MP3 based playlists.

In both Beatles cases, the amount of silence featured was at least reasonable. Many consider the song "Her Majesty", to be the first hidden track. Buried at the end of Abbey Road, it plays 14 seconds after "The End" finishes. In addition to the long (for 1969 at least) break, the song is not listed on the back cover. Its presence was a mixing error that was ultimately left unfixed for the sake of experimentation. Thus, the secret song was born.

The only other earlier case was featured at the end of the fab four's psychedelic song cycle, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band where the listener can hear a high pitched whistle followed by a loop a inane chatter from the four Beatles at the very end of "A Day In The Life". On the initial pressing of the album, the loop was placed on the run out groove, locking it in an endless repeat (Sonic Youth used a similar technique with the noise at the end of EVOL's closer, "Expressway To Yr Skull"). This track is not considered a "secret song" by some because there is no song structure, but as several artists have proven since, a secret song doesn't have to be anything remotely resembling a tune (ex: the typing at the end of Pearl Jam's Binaural; the siren and foreign chatter at the end of Sonic Youth's Experimental Jet Set. Trash & No Star; the conclusion of most Beck albums from the 90's).

While hidden tracks are more times than not, a complete let down, there are a few that are worth the wait. Here are some of them:

Train In Vain" - The Clash
Follows immmediatley after "Revolution Rock" on London Calling (1979) but is unlisted on sleeve.

Secret song purely by accident, "Train In Vain" was a last minute addition to The Clash's third album - recorded after the record jackets had already been printed.
 

"Endless Nameless" - Nirvana
Starts at approximatley 13:50 on the last track on Nevermind (1991).

Noteworthy secret song among collectors, the song was intended for the initital pressing of the album but was accidentaly left off the master. This was corrected on the followup pressing. For reasons unkown, the song was left off all editions of the album after 1994.


"The Second Album" - Stone Temple Pilots
Featured at 4:55 of the last track on Purple (1994).

A joke track, the song is a hokey Johnny Mathis spoof thanking the listner for buying the record.
(could not be found on youtube).

"Diamond Bollocks" - Beck
Starts at 5:18 on the last track on Mutations (1998).

While all of Beck's previous hidden tracks seemed dead set on irking the listener with loud, incessant, and most of all, jarring noise, Mutations actually sends you off with a song - a fucking great one.


"Running The World" - Jarvis Cocker
found a whopping 30 minutes after "Quantum Theory" ends on Jarvis (2006)

Most likely due to the MP3 era, not to mention the novelty running thin, secret songs have been on the downslope in the 00's. Jarvis Cocker is keeping it alive though, ridiculously plopping his solo debut's best song at the uncoveted secret spot (not to mention with a gap that may be the longest I've ever been witness to, aside from possibly the one on Heathen Chemistry by Oasis).