PJ Harvey - 'The B Sides' (1995)

Versions:
CD
CD (with To Bring You My Love)

Tracklisting:
1. Reeling (Four Track Version)
2. Daddy
3. Lying In The Sun
4. Somebody's Down, Somebody's Name
5. Darling Be There
6. Maniac
7. One Time Too Many
8. Harder (Studio Version)
9. Goodnight

Best Tracks:
Somebody's Down, Somebody's Name
Lying In The Sun
Maniac

I touched on this one in the To Bring You My Love blog. This is a promo only album (I remember reading somewhere years ago that it was a mail order only thing. Despite my encyclopaedic knowledge of PJ Harvey, I could be wrong), and it was also released as a bonus disc with To Bring You My Love.

PJ Harvey has a wealth of great b-sides and non-album tracks. I could be, and probably (definitely) am, a little biased. Though, more than any other artists I've ever fallen in love with, PJ Harvey's vast back catalogue is full of obscure treasures. The more you dig, the more you're rewarded. When I first starting listening to PJ, back in the days of Napster, I downloaded all I could get my hands on. And, I was always impressed with the quality of her b-sides. To Bring You My Love was the album that made me fall in love with her, and I ended up loving the b-sides from that album just as much as the album tracks. I made a CD of b-sides to listen to in my CD player, mostly To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire? b-sides, and I absolutely played it to death. So in love with PJ was I, that I’d take my discman to bed with me so I could listen before I went to sleep (which isn’t uncommon, but this was the only time I ever did it). My two favourite CD’s to play before bed were the b-sides CD and a bootleg called Black Monsoon, which was a live recording from the To Bring You My Love tour.

With the decline of singles in the music business, b-sides are becoming less and less common. And, this saddens me. For the most part, however, PJ Harvey has consistently given us b-sides, in one form or another. And, most have equalled the tracks that ended up on her records. As I said, when I first discovered her, I was taken with the quality of the b-sides, particularly those from To Bring You My Love. I remember reading an old interview with her many years ago, where she said that she left some of her favourite tracks off of To Bring You My Love because they didn't fit anywhere on the album. And, she was right. Despite the quality of the songs that didn't make the album ('Somebody's Down, Somebody's Name', 'Lying In The Sun', 'Maniac'), To Bring You My Love is so meticulously sequenced that any of these songs would have, indeed, been out of place. And, this has rung true for most of her career. She'll put a stunning song on a b-side ('Nina In Ecstasy', '66 Promises', 'Reeling', 'Angel', '30', 'Sweeter Than Anything', 'Liverpool Tide', to name but a few), where it will remain largely unnoticed, save for those of us devout to enough to savour anything and everything she puts out.

I will, no doubt, gush about these songs as I review the individual singles for this blog. But, back to The B Sides.

It's fitting that it was later released as a bonus disc to To Bring You My Love, it serves as a nice companion piece. All of the To Bring You My Love b-sides are included, except for the wonderful 'Long Time Coming' from Send His Love To Me. It's exclusion is curious - not only is a great song, it would have also brought The B Sides up to 10 tracks. 9 tracks seems a little paltry. Also missing is her rousing cover of Howlin Wolf's 'Wang Dang Doodle', from the Man-Size single. The only other b-sides not included were demo versions of tracks from Dry and Rid Of Me, all of which (aside from 'Man-Size') are easily available on Dry Demonstration or 4-Track Demos. At 32 minutes long, there was certainly room for both 'Long Time Coming' and 'Wang Dang Doodle' on The B Sides. Even more perplexing is the addition of the 4-Track Demos versions of 'Reeling' and 'Goodnight' - neither were ever b-sides. However, given that The B Sides was released when PJ Harvey was transitioning from a band to a solo artist, this decision - along with the omission of 'Wang Dang Doodle' - does make sense. The only Rid Of Me b-side included is 'Daddy', which sounds nothing like PJ Harvey, the trio. 'Daddy' is also interesting when viewed as a bridge between Rid Of Me and To Bring You My Love. That said, the band version of 'Reeling' is, for me, the definitive version. The inclusion of 'Goodnight' could be due to the fact that it was often played on the tour supporting To Bring You My Love. The first version of it I ever heard was the live version from Glastonbury 1995, which remains one of my favourite PJ Harvey songs. It's a shame that, with 'Hook' and the beautiful performance of 'Water' from Glastonbury released as b-sides to Send His Love To Me, 'Goodnight' remains unreleased (I do hope the whole show sees a proper release someday). It took me a long time to warm to the demo version. The only other curious fact about The B Sides is that 'Harder' is listed as the 'Studio Version'. While it was recorded during the same BBC session that produced 'Long Time Coming' (and is included on the wonderful My Life bootleg), the studio version of 'Harder' is the only version that was officially released. In the heady days before Discogs, morsels like this ('oooh, maybe the live version has been released on an obscure single?!', 'What if there's a studio version of 'Goodnight' somewhere?!') would send my brain into a frenzy.

It’s a nifty little compilation to have. The only problem is that finding the individual singles from which these tracks were culled is much easier than finding a copy of The B Sides. After many years of searching, I finally found my copy on eBay about two years ago. I think I paid about $60 for it (and have watched, in dismay, as it sold for as little as $30 since), which I was happy with, since I'd spent so long looking for it. The first copy I got was the 2-CD version of To Bring You My Love, which was much cheaper. While it's a nice addition, the stand-alone version, complete in a digipak with fantastic exclusive artwork, is the better version to have. If you're dedicated enough to fork out for it, of course.

One of the great things about PJ Harvey, and also one of the most frustrating, is her reluctance to re-issue her old material. While it is certainly admirable that she, unlike many of her contemporaries, hasn't repackaged and re-released her back catalogue, she may be the one most deserving of such treatment. The lady has released a vast amount of material that hasn't been included on her albums. I can only hope that she one day sees fit to release another compilation of her non-album tracks, much in the same vein as The Bad Seeds' dignified B-Sides & Rarities set. For now, The B Sides is the closest we have. It was the first, and last, compilation of it's kind. Being that this CD is almost 20 years old, it's due for an update.