You Know What I Hate? Hidden Tracks!

Now, I like the tracks, but I hate that they're "hidden." I always have. I like to play my music on shuffle; it's how I've always played it. Even when I'm playing a CD, I usually hit shuffle. I like being surprised, so to speak (though you can't quite be surprised when you know every song).

Anyway, it alway sucks when a song ends and another never begins to play...unless you wait 20 frickin' minutes! What comes after hate? Because I hated them before, but now it's worse. I have this 1TB external drive and I've been ripping my CDs to it. I swear, EVERY frickin' CD has a hidden track. So I have to cut out the silence, split the songs. It's a pain in the balls.

What is the purpose of a hidden track when it's not hidden? A hidden track is the intro instrumental before the first track on 311s Transistor. That's hidden. You never see it unless you know it's there. And you can't rip it. But one song after 47 15-second songs of silence? Pfffft! Piss on that. Stupid bands.

I like them as long as it's not a long wait.

That's my number one pet peeve in music. It was such a fad in the 90's, everybody had to do it. Thankfully it seems to have receded somewhat since. It does screw up random playing. Often when I get a new CD and I'm on the fence about it, a hidden track is what ends up making up my mind for me as to whether it goes on the playlist or the shelf. And all the worse when the "track" ends up being some kind of joke or random noise. I never forgive a band for making me wait 10 minutes just so they can have a joke on my time.
I also don't care for "bonus" tracks (hidden or not)that end up being some scratchy old live one mic recordings that one of the band members found in a shoebox in their basement or something.

[quote="SAHB Healer"
I also don't care for "bonus" tracks (hidden or not)that end up being some scratchy old live one mic recordings that one of the band members found in a shoebox in their basement or something.[/quote]

Yeah there a blessing and a curse......it seems every reissue has to have bonus tracks. Sometimes their good but alot just didn't need to be heard.

I love any sort of extra tracks. I just don't know why they have to be a chore to hear. But I'm all for bonus tracks. Maybe some aren't the greatest, but I still like to hear them. If I don't like them, so what?

yeah i agree. i hate pressing the forward button just to get to the secret track. i feel like it pulls me back to the cassette era.

Eyesore wrote:

What is the purpose of a hidden track when it's not hidden? A hidden track is the intro instrumental before the first track on 311s Transistor. That's hidden. You never see it unless you know it's there. And you can't rip it. But one song after 47 15-second songs of silence? Pfffft! Piss on that. Stupid bands.

You're talking about Galactic Cowboys Space in Your Face, huh?

Eyesore wrote:

I love any sort of extra tracks. I just don't know why they have to be a chore to hear. But I'm all for bonus tracks. Maybe some aren't the greatest, but I still like to hear them. If I don't like them, so what?

If they have decent sound quality they are a bonus, but a lot of these old bands have stuff off 30 year old cassettes that are really muffled and crappy sounding. I say leave that stuff for the fan club issues.

Another thing I didn't like was the way Kyuss "Sky Valley" was recorded in blocs of three songs to a track. I can't find the song I'm looking for. It is like the FF cassette days.

SAHB Healer wrote:

Another thing I didn't like was the way Kyuss "Sky Valley" was recorded in blocs of three songs to a track. I can't find the song I'm looking for. It is like the FF cassette days.

The band wanted it to be 1 track only, the record company "convinced" them to split it into 3 song suites. There is a note inside the sleeve that says "listen without distraction" or something like that, so they wanted people to listen to the entire record. yeah, it's still kind of stupid...I cut up my own copy of this one years ago.

Theres a Overkill album that does this too maybe WFO I forget but it skips through different tracks til it gets to 99 and then the song isnt even worth the wait. Its just them goofing around.

A lot of versions (if not all) of Savatage's Streets have some songs coupled together on one track. It's very annoying, sometimes I just want to listen to 'Sammy & Tex' without having to endure 'You're Alive', but skipping is a surprisingly big hassle.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Theres a Overkill album that does this too maybe WFO I forget but it skips through different tracks til it gets to 99 and then the song isnt even worth the wait. Its just them goofing around.

Yea, that's WFO... once you get to track #99 you hear what sounds like a drunken jam session where they do bits of "Heaven and Hell" and "The Ripper." Not something you'd listen to more than once... similarly, Fight's WAR OF WORDS has a hidden track called "Jesus Saves" that is squeaky and unlistenable...

However, sometimes "hidden" songs can be fun. The Misfits' AMERICAN PSYCHO has a cool "hidden track" at the end called "Hell Nite," and the PROBOT disc has a hidden song (sung by Jack Black of all creatures!) called "Warlock."

I have two different pressings of Bad Biscut's THE AMERICAN DREAM? CD and each one has a different hidden track!! The first pressing CD has a song called "Lil' Baby Satan" and the other one has a song called "I.F.Y.M."

I think bands do it just to see if people are paying attention.

I hate them too, and act as if they don't exist.

stevegarveyfan wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

What is the purpose of a hidden track when it's not hidden? A hidden track is the intro instrumental before the first track on 311s Transistor. That's hidden. You never see it unless you know it's there. And you can't rip it. But one song after 47 15-second songs of silence? Pfffft! Piss on that. Stupid bands.

You're talking about Galactic Cowboys Space in Your Face, huh?

Already split that one ages ago. Off the top of my head, I'm talking about Tool's Undertow, Primus's Anti-Pop, Danzig's Thrall-Demonsweatlive, Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Reveille's Laced, and countless others.

Eyesore wrote:

Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

The hidden track on that disc is the best song on the album...shame to hide it.

'Look At Your Game Girl' on GN'R's "The Spaghetti Incident? is another hidden track. I guess they hid it due to the Charles Manson connotations, but it's annoying if I want to listen to it that I need to go through 'I Don't Care About You' (which is a fantastic song, but they're for two very different moods).

Smindas wrote:

'Look At Your Game Girl' on GN'R's "The Spaghetti Incident? is another hidden track. I guess they hid it due to the Charles Manson connotations, but it's annoying if I want to listen to it that I need to go through 'I Don't Care About You' (which is a fantastic song, but they're for two very different moods).

I have Charles' original version, didnt much care for the G n' R one, to me it seemed like a last ditch attempt to do something controversial

EDIT: If you like I Don't Care About You that much Smindas, you should really check out the original on Fear's The Record, GREAT punk album.

detuned wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

The hidden track on that disc is the best song on the album...shame to hide it.

It's a great version of that song, sure, but outside of the sorta goofy "Ice Cream," that entire album is brilliant.

DeathCult wrote:

Smindas wrote:

'Look At Your Game Girl' on GN'R's "The Spaghetti Incident? is another hidden track. I guess they hid it due to the Charles Manson connotations, but it's annoying if I want to listen to it that I need to go through 'I Don't Care About You' (which is a fantastic song, but they're for two very different moods).

I have Charles' original version, didnt much care for the G n' R one, to me it seemed like a last ditch attempt to do something controversial

EDIT: If you like I Don't Care About You that much Smindas, you should really check out the original on Fear's The Record, GREAT punk album.

Yeah, I was definitely going to look in to picking up some Fear as I've always loved Lee Ving's vocals on the MD.45 CD as well. Hearing 'I Don't Care About You' sealed my interest, really.

Have to agree with you guys that hidden tracks blow balls. why not just add them as an unlisted track? gets the same effect without the annoyance.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Theres a Overkill album that does this too maybe WFO I forget but it skips through different tracks til it gets to 99 and then the song isnt even worth the wait. Its just them goofing around.

Actually, it's track 98. Tracks 12-97 are three seconds of silence, and then after about five and a half minutes of silence, we get a medley of covers. Track 99 is also three seconds of silence.

There are some awesome hidden tracks like on Flaw's Inner Strength cd and Anthrax's Volume 8 and that is my fav Anthrax song from there whole catalog

MetalRob331 wrote:

There are some awesome hidden tracks like on Flaw's Inner Strength

Indeed. The piano version is killer! But again, that song should just be the next song, separate track, no 20 minutes of silence, just don't list it. It's a pain to get to that song, unless you rip it, split it, and cut out the silence.

The aforementioned Galactic Cowboys disc is the worst offender in my book. When I bought my first CD burner I tested it out by ripping and re-burning Space In Your Face.