Features She’s Got Re-issues: Why Bonus Tracks Aren’t Always A Nice Little Extra

‘Blur 21’: a beast of a box set

Yesterday, a six-disc version of ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ was announced. Six discs. From an album which, on its original release all the way back in 1967, was eleven tracks long. The Sex Pistols’ ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ will have yet another similar treatment in September, and let’s not forget ‘Blur 21’, a collection which features three separate versions of ‘comedy’ B-side ‘Red Necks’ plus a piano-led ditty titled ‘Sir Elton John’s Cock’.

It works. It sells. Fans lap it up. There are DIY editorial types dribbling over the prospect of two of the releases above. Dad’s Christmas presents are sorted.

One of my favourite albums – if not my favourite, I’m rubbish at lists and can never decide if it’s this or ‘Elephant’, even if ‘De Stijl’ is usually my favourite White Stripes record – is Weezer’s ‘Pinkerton’ (Yes, I both wear horn-rimmed glasses and had an unhappy time at University).

The deluxe re-release of this particular record is relatively tiny, a two-disc affair. It’s interesting to hear radio mixes from long-gone singles. Even more so songs which didn’t make it past rehearsal rooms’ walls. Demos of album tracks are a mixed affair; the process may be fascinating but bad recordings are just bad recordings. I have no time whatsoever for live versions of anything.

The biggest bugbear of this conveyor belt of re-issued classics is, however, the insistence on adding extra tracks to discs which feature the original record. ‘Pinkerton’ ends on ‘Butterfly’. That was the rule set in stone (or tape, or something) at some point in 1996. It ends, you know to get up and find something else to listen to. What you don’t want is a B-side. However much you love said B-side. That’s not how it works.

‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ continues past ‘European Son’ on both stereo and mono outings to alternate versions of singles. At least ‘21’ honours the original albums alone, as admittedly, do both ‘Different Class’ and ‘Odelay’ on my shelves at home. God help the man who’d put something after ‘Only In Dreams’ on the Blue album (he didn’t, he’s safe for now). But remember this, suits in high-rise glass-fronted offices in west London: the reason we’ll buy these is because we love the albums. The albums as they were released in the first place. So think twice before messing with them, yeah?