Thought it might be a nice idea to have a dedicated thread for PJ Harvey b-sides and rarities.
I collected all the UHH singles but beyond that I didn't have much knowledge of Polly b-sides until I started going through YouTube lately and finding some incredible goodness.
What are people's favourite b-sides and rare songs?
In chronological order...
Claudine, the Inflatable One (Peel session)
Wang Dang Doodle
Lying in the Sun
One Time Too Many
Harder (evening session)
Long Time Coming (evening session)
Rest Sextet
Daddy (Spleen version)
When Will I See You Again?
Cleveland
The Bay
Sweeter Than Anything
Rebecca
This Wicked Tongue
66 Promises
Kick It To The Ground
Uh Huh Her (Peel session)
The Falling
Bows & Arrows
Angel
Dance
Liverpool Tide
One of my favourites that I only recently heard is "Long Time Coming" - I think her vocal delivery is super sexy on that.
Sweeter Than Anything is one of my favoritest songs she's ever done. I think the lyrics are some of her best.
The Phone Song is also such a great B-side. I love the interplay of the acoustic and electric guitar and her vocals are great.
Harder is such a powerhouse and was fantastic live in '04. Reeling(4 Track version) is also excellent, though the studio version lost some of the bite from the demo.
Maniac, 66 Promises, Northwood, The Bay & 30 are also favorites.
The Faster I Breathe, the Further I Go
As Close As This
Kick it to the Ground
Memphis
30
66 Promises
Who Will Love Me Now? (not technically a b-side)
Zaz Turned Blue
Nine in Ecstacy
Dry (demo)
Should have been on the album Dry, I think it's on one of the singles Dress or Sheela-na-Gig. Btw, it makes absolutely no sense to put the title track of an album as a b-side on a single instead of on the album itself, and then put a studio version on another album and to make it all the more confusing release it as a tour promo for that next album.
Sweeter than Anything
This is the perfect b-side, it has that typical Is this desire? vibe to it, and to me it seems like a lyrical highlight in PJ's writing career. It has greatly crafted sentences like
'In photographs
I've seen him laugh'
and
'We were never more than a dream
Brief as summer or spring'
Should have been on the album in my opinion, but maybe it was written and / or recorded later.
Featherhead, Ballad of the Soldiers Wife, When Will I see you Again?, Zaz turned Blue all projects that are way off the mainstream chart but all with PJ's vocals INSANELY beautiful.
Why'd ya go to Cleveland?
A John-PJ leftover, and a good one at that; can't really explain how it has a certain Dry-vibe to it, probably because of the young love theme and simple instrumentation that takes it back in time. Though it (fortunately) retains the hysterical insanity of Dance Hall towards the end.
The Bay
A song of which we know that it was deliberately left off Is this desire? It wouldn't have fit because of it's total awesomeness.
Listen closely and you'll discover a 3/4 waltz beat...
66 Promises, Memphis, As Close As This, 30
Stories from the City is incomplete without them for me.
Bows and Arrows
Didn't like it at first, but now it's one of my favorite b-sides. It has a dirty brilliance that is hard to describe in words, you just have to experience this one.
The Falling (!)
This is without a doubt one of the greatest songs released in the Uh huh her era. The dirty brilliance of Bows and Arrows times ten.
The Phone Song
I've always regarded this one as a companion to Cat on the Wall, there is a link through the telephone theme.
Reeling
Love it, especially the studio version. The line 'Have Robert DeNiro sit on my face' is classic.
Sweeter Than Anything
The Bay
Nina in Ecstasy
Long Time Coming
Bows and Arrows
66 Promises
Liverpool Tide
Darling Be There
Harder
Rebecca
The Faster I Breathe, The Further I Go
Maniac
Daddy
i was hoping there'd be a thread like this, i love all of the album threads we've been doing in this forum. i'm not nearly as familiar with her b-sides though i think i do have most but definitely not all of them - at some point i downloaded a big set someone put together that seems to cover a lot of them.
my favorites of the ones i know well are:
66 Promises
One Time Too Many
Nina In Ecstacy
Reeling (if that counts as a b-side)
Liverpool Tide
Uh Huh Her
does anyone know if there's a complete list anywhere of all her b-sides? i guess particularly the ones with official recordings to start. i'm pretty sure the main ones i'm missing are:
This Wicked Tongue (studio version)
Heaven
Wait
Dance
97 Degrees
Is there somewhere I can read about this?Originally Posted by Spikey
They're all great, really, but these are my favorites:
Bows & Arrows: Perhaps a track that was "too P J Harvey?" and was left off of Uh Huh Her. It's infectious and chugging and (mostly) acoustic deliciousness. A kind of harder edged "Pocket Knife."
97 Degrees: It took me a while to appreciate this one, but the thick guitar combined with Peej's eerily jaunty vocal delivery is awesome.
Maniac: I always include this one on my TBYML playlists/re-edit. It has everything one can love about TBYML (the monstrous vocals, fuzzy bass groove, whistle/mariachi freakout and twisted vocals) all wrapped up in one maniacal package.
Liverpool Tide: A really simple song of just Peej and an amped-out electric guitar. It's arresting and really underrated.
Kick It to the Ground: Quite unlike any other PJ song. Like someone recited their poetry at a high school talent show is what I always think of. It's unabashedly juvenile and has some real venom.
The Faster the Breathe, the Further I Go: Not really sure what era this is from (I'm thinking right after Is This Desire?), but it's always been one of my favorites. I love the distorted voice at the beginning that sounds like it's saying "holy... holy shit." Great lyrics and thump.
Instrumental #2: I love that there's a faint drum beat and Polly's singing something in the background, but you can't really make it out. Creepy and intriguing.
yup, it's Is This Desire?-era..it was a b-side to The Wind.
people probably already know about this but this site has a list of all the singles with their b-sides as well a full song list in the lyrics section, which i've been using to hunt down b-sides:
http://www.jphuntley.co.uk/pjh/
My Own Private Revolution - absolutely adore that one.
I love that the TBYML era gave us an entire extra albums worth of material.
I know it's not a b-side but it's a non-PJH album song - I only lately heard "Henry Lee" which I really like
^ you haven't heard Murder Ballads?! It's a good, though highly ridiculous album. O'Malley's Bar is classic Cave. I never realized how awful they looked in the Henry Lee video. Did Nick get back on the junk before they filmed it? He must have gotten PJ hooked on it too. Either that, or they just hadn't been outdoors for several months, and living off canned tuna and water.
This is definitely in my top 5 b-sides, and probably the one I come back to the most from the Uh Huh Her era. (Even though I think it may have been written for Stories). Uh Huh Her is the only album where I think she made the wrong choices concering b-sides/a-sides -- the title track, Bows & Arrows, and The Falling should've been there.
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