I Love Deep Cuts

Nite Bird Flying by Jimi Hendrix fits the bill perfectly. If you haven't heard that, you're in for a treat.

I'm not going to post anymore youtube links because that will make this thread unworkable over time.

I'm no great authority on Bowie and I have no idea what are considered classic album tracks and what might be considered deep cuts. However when I played Lodger recently the one track that really stood out which I'd never paid much attention to before was "Look Back In Anger". Same goes for "Teenage Wildlife" off of Scary Monsters.

What about songs that were unreleased at the time of recording but came out later on outtakes collections and suchlike? Springsteen has a ton of these on Tracks and The Promise.

I'd become thoroughly disgusted by most* of Bruce Robison and the Front Porch Band 'til being instantly hooked by the chiming, climbing chorus of "The Years," written by one Damon Bramblett, who released one instantly hooky, lean 'n' lithe, honky tonk art pop s/t album in 2000, and that's it, which makes him like the Willis Alan "Muskrat Love" Ramsey of the Millenium, as is the original, and they're both known more via covers ("The Years" isn't on the s/t, dammit). Will refrain from overloading this thread w youtubes, but he and several cover versions are worth tracking down.
Totally agree about Brain Capers and "The Moon Upstairs" in particulate has always been a fave rave hot deep cut.
Ditto Jimi's instrumental "Pali Gap," on the fine Rainbow Bridge soundtrack (and what a movie).
*one of the few other keepers on Robison's album is the evocative "Lake of Fire," by Christy Hays, who gets her name misspelled on his site; her River Swimmer comes out later this month and I'll be there.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0068/0042/products/A_69339.jpg

Forgive me, I'm breaking my no youtube links already. Derek and the Dominos Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is one of my very favorites. You know Layla, obviously. Bell Bottom Blues and Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad as well. You'll even hear their world-class cover of Little Wing on occasion. But my personal favorite is Keep On Growing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUVUJ_Wbw4E

Yeah, I was going to say the Mott the Hoople catalog is like the deep cut of the whole of 70s classic rock. Getting into those albums was a rediscovering of what I liked about the whole Who/Kinks/Stones/Ziggy/TRex/Springsteen before I wore them out.

Recently found a mix cassette I'd made in the grunge era, and was surprised I'd included Cream's "As You Said". I can now see early exposure influenced a lot of my digging in chamber pop and psych, but it's a song I'd totally forgotten about until a few weeks ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyx7NZqy0XE

tons of good stuff already, yes!

I've made an attempt to add the cuts mentioned to this collaborative list https://open.spotify.com/user/betamaxdk/playlist/0QRkO6nSdpbrw5VWs0fJ6K

Jimi is one of those artists where I feel deep cuts would be essential in appreciating his work since, at least to my ears, many of his biggest songs have suffered from overexposure

Nice work neils. Very cool!

Here are a few more. Not sure how these escaped FM radio.

Van Morrison - Saint Dominic's Preview
Steely Dan - The Boston Rag
The Kinks - Sweet Lady Genevieve

Stevie Wonder - He's Misstra Know It All
Funkadelic - Sexy Ways
Prince - Forever In My Life
Marvin Gaye - Is That Enough

good stuff, that Marvin Gaye song is exceptional!

very difficult to choose a Prince deep cut, I will add Breakdown from AOA, the last of his that truly moved me

Drake is probably not the most popular guy on this board but all the same "From Time" from Nothing Was the Same is a nice and understated ballad with Jhene Aiko adding vocals

I'm certain there must be a wealth of jazz deep cuts as well...

Is "Mr. Raffles" by Steve Harley a deep cut? (All of Harley's stuff is obscure in the US.) Same album as "Make Me Smile," it was even the second single in Europe, but completely overshadowed by the big hit I think. At any rate, love this track.

never heard about the guy before but I like what I'm hearing, getting Roxy / Al Stewart vibes...

Make me Smile has 16 million plays on Spotify and Mr. Raffles only 300,000 so I think it's reasonable to call it a deep cut (though it must be well known to all Harley fans)

i hate the overplayed songs by my favourite band.
thankfully, this one is still hidden away in the catalogue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBBBWuypBZc

xpost thanks, and yall are reminding me I need to check out that new legit Jimi round-up---- a deep comp never on legit re-reissue far as I know: The Great Lost Kinks Album, not always great but def worth looking for. Thinking it *might* could be re-assembled on youtube, ditto this, very appealingly described by xgau:

Shades of Ian Hunter: The Ballad of Ian Hunter and Mott the Hoople [Columbia, 1979]
Exemplary discophilia. The Mott 45s on side one are all the young stiffs--great album tracks edited down for an AM exposure that was rarely forthcoming, they race along with an almost punky punch on LP. The B sides and miscellaneous on side two are uneven, natch, but worth getting to know (as owners of Greatest Hits have already learned with two of them). Those circumspect enough to have passed up Ian's two solo albums are now rewarded with side three's best-of. And side four excerpts the solo Ian that was never released here to impressive effect. A genuinely obsessive compilation. A-

Many xps but lord, that Mott the Hoople track. The Journey, which sounds like Lift to Experience, might be even better.

For Dylan, not sure if it qualifies or not, but I'd say Copper Kettle from Self Portrait.

I love Copper Kettle. Bob has so many songs at this point, he could have a box set of deep cuts.

Here is a doozy, That's All You Need by the Faces. This is just about perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzRpP0dFkNY

The Journey, which sounds like Lift to Experience, might be even better.

It's close. The Journey has the mother of all guitar riffs. Death May Be Your Santa Clause is another. That whole record is phenomenal. Right now my favorite is The Moon Upstairs but it always changes.

this is such a great thread. my pick is this cut from sade's love deluxe, bullet proof soul. it sounds exactly what breakups with people who don't get you sound like. it has the drum machine and the production they're famous song. there isn't a bad sade vocal but the 'too busy thinking love is a gun' refrain on this one just kills me, no pun intended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smXsEcM4YGQ

lol while i'm at it, the last track on love deluxe, 'mermaid', which sounds like the centerpiece from roxy music's avalon and doesn't have a vocal at all. you'd be hard-pressed to place it anywhere at all but some kind of whiter artist's album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Owm_gPU4nI

Bullet Proof Soul is fantastic! So minimal, letting the voice take center stage... beautiful.

I'll add "Wot's... Uh the Deal?" as a Pink Floyd deep cut, it's a very Floyd song in sound and songwriting and could have fit on DSotM too. Obscured by Clouds is a nice album like that.

I'll also add "Darkness" by Leonard Cohen which to me is such a cool blues ballad, making great use of Cohen's lowest register:

I caught the darkness
Drinking from your cup
I said is this contagious?
You said just drink it up

xp and yes Copper Kettle is great! Have to say I never really paid attention to it before (though I have listened to Self Portrait many many times) so I'm happy you mention it... so sentimental, it's interesting to hear Dylan experiment with his vocal style, trying to find a voice that will fit the subject matter and the genre...

My daddy he made whiskey, my granddaddy he did too
We ain't paid no whiskey tax since 1792

must be plenty of Neil Young deep cuts from the 90s, I'm the Ocean was mentioned upthread, I would go with "Safeway Cart" from Sleeps With Angels - a dark, lingering song, groovy, kinda scary... sounds to me like it could be informed by electronic music of the time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xFc86tzFG4

When I think of deep cuts I think of early FM radio playing entire sides uninterrupted... and stuff like "no quarter"

xxxpost Reminds me, I've been intermittently listening to Another Self Portrait on Amazon Prime, and lots of good alternates and ones that never got released in any version (I think); fave so far is "Little Saro." (Also maybe the complete Isle of Wight set w The Band, but haven't gotten that far yet.)
Marvin Gaye's MPG is pretty much a Deep Cuts Album---deep catalogue at least; I've never seen mention of it anywhere. Opens with a couple of good ballads, his expected, sweet 'n' breezy Motown approach, per Berry Gordy's gentrification project during much of the 60s--but this was released in '69, and you can feel the pressure, MG pushing against the walls, especially on his version of the Bobby Blue Band-associated "That's The Way Love Is," and perhaps word to Gody with omfg "It's A Bitter Pill," also convinces w "I Gotta Get To California"---"right away"---and other urgent messages, yet despite a certain grab bag effect, of songs he chose and others that may have been pushed on him, from here and there, somehow it all *sounds* cohesive enough, kind of The Many Moods of Marvin, but mainly that's how good of an ear and voice he has.
Certainly not one of his masterpieces, but wtf, rock it Marvin:
https://www.discogs.com/Marvin-Gaye-MPG/master/234768

Berry Gordy's gentrification project Not the exciting radio classics, but like when he insisted on supper club, Broadway, elevator fare on albums, with hot hits as bait---not so much bait and switch, but his idea of balance (and some of it was okay, wouldn't mind hearing the Supremes' album of Rodgers & Hart songs, but not gonna go out of my way).

Cardigans - The Road (Long Gone Before Daylight b-side)
Bjork - Nature is Ancient
Broadcast - Misc/Stupido (itunes only Future Crayon)
Bryan Ferry - Which way to Turn
Chelsea Wolfe - I Love You All the Time (bataclan support single)
George Harrison - Simply Shady
iamamiwhoami - John (one off single)
The Invisible - So Well (with Jessie Ware)

and this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGaQy2mY8fU

Forgive me, I totally forgot about George Clinton's majestic Free Alterations. This is one of his very best songs (which is saying something) and you should all listen to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKA5B7ZHhvA

New Wave edition:
- Squeeze - Misadventure (off of Argybargy)
- INXS - Johnson's Aeroplane (off of The Swing)
- Elvis Costello - Big Sister's Clothes

mick jagger's "memo from turner" from the "performance" soundtrack. with ry cooder and synth bass. maybe it was well-known at the time but it's well obscure now.

and yeah there is a sort of relativity to "deep cuts", "fearless" topped out the rym pink floyd poll and i can't but think of it as a deep cut (i think roger waters played it live for the first time at oldchella last year...)

"Revenge" was a hidden track on Whiskeytown's Faithless Street and the only Ryan Adams song I couldn't live without

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE9p0FIHAac

as the only big fan of this correctly despised group I'll say U2 is a band well served by their deep cuts, across all eras, with some songs more well-known than others:

An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart
Surrender
Wire
Heartland
Hawkmoon 269
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
Dirty Day
Slug
Your Blue Room
Please
A Man and a Woman
Breathe
This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now
Summer of Love

if we're talking floyd deep cuts, i've always had an affinity for San Tropez, which sometimes gets maligned for whatever reason. i think it has a nifty chord progression and adorably goofy lyrics: https://youtu.be/Cv5uuhkS4j8

I don't know if Weightless by Thomas Dolby is a deep cut exactly, but it unaccountably got zero votes when The Golden Age Of Wireless was polled. something about it reminds me of some Tony Mansfield productions, a sense of space but also being hermetically sealed at the same time?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyoNaWPkhas

isn't there more to 'deep cuts' than just 'obscure cuts' or 'album cuts'? deep cuts are for late late nights smoking green.. or maybe im wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otMz9hNEMzI

so, like, "planet caravan"?

or "take a stroll through your mind"?

How low do you go?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65vGN_CnHQ

so, like, "planet caravan"?

Idk though, I'm probably just projecting my own chill 70s rock fantasies

the entire Beach Boys Love You album is a deep cut imo

the beach boys entire catalogue is stacked with deep cuts - they've got deep cut singles like "the little girl i once knew" and "breakaway", deep cut album tracks like "feel flows", and "country air", deep cut songs that didn't make albums like "barnyard blues" and "sailplane song"

I always thought a deep cut was by definition an album track overshadowed by the singles or better known tracks on a given album.

Like Memo From Turner is the single from the Performance soundtrack, it can't be a deep cut

Just yesterday I was talking about Elvis's amazing cover of Bob Dylan's "Tomorrow is a Long Time," which was not only not a single, but was stuck on Side Two of the soundtrack to Spinout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VLpgttfEM0

Carly Rae Jepsen - I Know You Have a Girlfriend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz0pNLHFjPQ

Dylan has said that it's his favorite of his covered songs xp

imo The Who's "Tattoo" fits this criteria. one of their most beautiful album tracks and as one of their few acoustic guitars-and-vocal harmonies based songs it gets overlooked.

The Who's Disguises too - so much noise for '66, must be one of those tracks that put Cale are Reed on notice to get their own noise out.

i agree frogbs, i love Does Anyone Stare from Regatta

*Does Everyone Stare

I nominate Police's "Darkness".

I still hear Donald Byrd's mid-60s "Cristo Redentor" on the local jazz station occasionally, it's one of those sturdy chestnuts, not really a Deep Cut if you're a geezer. Mandel's version is though, like most of his discography, alas.
Hey have y'all heard "Heather's Wall"? Kind of a ghost song, though not in the usual sense. It was a single, meant to be on a Ty Herndon album that never came out, far as I know, and the single was quickly deleted, too much of a bummer for country that year. So, a ghost song in yet another sense---it's on youtube, but that's what I call a Deep Cut.

that's a very deep cut!

"songs that sounds kinda like albatross" would be a cool thread
would bookmark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ8Bc6jz-W8

On WBUR's weekdaily Here and Now, the host of Reclaimed Soul plays some of her discoveries---she recommends driving down alleys in Chicago: the Isleys' first (1964) version of "Who's That Lady"--the 70s version played with the fact that Hendrix had apprenticed in their band; think he might actually be on the '64 version? Mainly hearing "Latin" cowbell etc., but intriguing excerpt. Also a *really* different version of "Reach Out (I'll Be There)," by Merilee Rush: never heard strings doing this particular oopsupsidetheheadmove, for instance (Memphis redoes Motown). Other juicy bits--gotta check out her own show!
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/07/05/dj-sessions-forgotten-vinyl-soul-music

Another xpost Deep Cuts album mostly, though I think/hope Chic's "I Need Your Love" got a decent amount of airplay. Seems like a Chic album with well-served guest lead vox---Carly Simon at her best! The only track I kinda listen askance at is the closer w Debbie Harry. From the solo debut, and Nile & Nard produced that too, but the CREEM reviewer who liked it was not a Chic fan, so that put me off listening, and it disappeared pretty quickly, so another DC album but here's this---thanks again Discogs!

Various ‎– Soup For One - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Label:
Mirage (2) ‎– WTG 19353
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country:
US
Released:
1982
Genre:
Funk / Soul, Stage & Screen
Style:
Soundtrack, Disco, Funk
Tracklist Hide Credits
A1 –Chic Soup For One 5:33
A2 –Carly Simon Why 4:06
A3 –Teddy Pendergrass Dream Girl 4:08
A4 –Fonzi Thornton I Work For A Livin' 3:31
B1 –Chic I Want Your Love 6:53
B2 –Sister Sledge Let's Go On Vacation 5:08
B3 –Chic Tavern On The Green 2:15
B4 –Deborah Harry Jump, Jump
Written-By – Chris Stein, Deborah Harry
4:02
Credits
Bass, Vocals – Bernard Edwards
Bells [Tubular] – José Rossi*
Drums – Tony Thompson (2)
Engineer – Bill Scheniman, Bob Clearmountain, Scott Litt
Engineer [Assitant] – Barry Bongiovi, Dave "The Rave" Greenberg*, Jason Corsaro, Jeff Hendrickson, Josh Abbey
Guitar – Nile Rodgers
Horns – Edward Daniels*, Meco Monardo, Robert Millikan
Keyboards – Ray Jones*, Rob Sabino
Percussion – Sammy Figueroa
Producer, Written-By, Arranged By, Conductor – Bernard Edwards & Nile Rodgers
Vocals – Alfa Anderson, Diva Gray, Fonzi Thornton, Jocelyn Brown, Luci Martin, Michelle Cobbs, Robin Clark (2)

This comp=mostly Deep Cuts or deep cuts (too deep for caps), far as I know, aside maybe from Bobby Womack's "I Can Understand It," in terms of a reasonable amount of widespread radio play. The Voice's then-strict word limit and my knowledge limit kept this strictly introductory, but gives a good glimpse I think. I was told at the time that Siano was not fond of the tag "disco" and didn't want it in the title, but the suits/t-shirts insisted. He's gradually re-emerged, and I saw a show preview in The New Yorker fairly recently.

Siano the Times

Mercury rising as disco evolves out of its prior knowledge

January 11th, 2005 2:14 PM Issue 02

Blissed-out, but not always totally

photo: Courtesy of Nicky Siano

Nicky Siano's Legendary the Gallery: New York's original disco 1973-1977

Soul Jazz import

In the early '70s, a teenage DJ named Nicky Siano traveled the space-wise
dancefloor of David Mancuso's Loft, before launching his own Gallery. (Gallery
kid Larry Levan later levitated Paradise Garage; he and Siano also worked with disco mystic Arthur Russell.) Despite acid, balloons, and the food bar, the Gallery wasn't always totally blissed-out.
As described in his CD notes, Siano's sound design, influenced by Mancuso's approach, was logically
based on and changing with the rooms and scenes he performed in as the feast moved around NYC.

The Gallery opened in the summer of '73. Couch-potato arena rock ruled. There and elsewhere, DJs and dancers (especially blacks, Latinos, gays) were among those, at times closely observed, who chose to carve fresh heat from the vinyl beast.Spinning out of this disc, the Gallery is mercury still
rising, through crosstown funk, soul, and one gospel song, personalized: Gloria Spencer proclaims,
"I got it! I don't understand it! I got it!" A jet blasts (like, "Amen!") out of Exuma's "Obeah Man."
The Temptations lay down the "Law of the Land": "You might not like who you are, but you
better start. 'Cause you sure can't be nobody else." But the music rumbles and clatters like a
roulette wheel. Meanwhile, turns out that Bonnie Bramlett's "Crazy 'Bout My Baby" is crazy like a tambourine and a fox, shaking in wait for that slowhand dobro.

Loleatta Holloway, Bobby Womack, Bill Withers, the Isleys,
and Undisputed Truth also make the most of prior knowledge and surprise.
Without waiting for the remix: These are original (full-length) LP tracks and
seven-inch singles. Yet great breaks burst out of (and roll through) good
grooves, good songs. Often.
Seehttp://www.nickysiano.com/ and http://www.timlawrence.info/.

track info courtesty Discogs:
Genie Brown I Can't Stop Talking
Written-By – Dee Ervin
2:54
2 –Undisputed Truth (2) Big John Is My Name
Written-By – Norman Whitfield
4:36
3 –The Temptations Law Of The Land
Producer, Written-By – Norman Whitfield
4:59
4 –Vernon Burch And You Call That Love
Written-By – V. Burch*
3:47
5 –Loleata Holloway* We're Getting Stronger
Producer – Norman Harris
Written-By – A.Felder*, N.Harris*, R.Tyson*
4:34
6 –The Isley Brothers Get Into Something
Written-By – Isley O Kelly JR*, Isley Ronald*, Isley Rudolph Bernard*
7:29
7 –The Pointer Sisters* Yes We Can Can
Written-By – Allen Toussaint
6:02
8 –Exuma Exuma, The Obeah Man
Written-By – Exuma
6:14
9 –Trammps* Love Epidemic
Written-By – L Green*, N Harris*
4:45
10 –Zulema Giving Up
Written By – Wolfe, D
6:11
11 –Bobby Womack I Can Understand It
Written-By – Bobby Womack
6:32
12 –Gloria Spencer I Got It
Producer – Bobby Martin
Written-By – Lucylle Lemon
3:23
13 –The Bar-Kays* Sang And Dance
Written-By – Cauley*, Porter*, Henderson*, Alexander*, Dodson*, Hall*, Stewart*
2:55
14 –The Supremes I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do The Walking
Executive-Producer – Eddie J Holland Jr*
Lead Vocals – Sherrie Payne*
Producer – Brian Holland
Written-By – Holland, B*, Holland, E Jr, Holland, E*, Beatty, H*
3:12
15 –Bill Withers Harlem
Written-By – Withers Bill*
3:22
16 –Bonnie Bramlett Crazy 'Bout My Baby
Written-By – R Mosley*
3:49
17 –Brenda And The Tabulations* A Little Bit Of Love 3:20

exuma the obeah man is pretty fuckin' deep for dancefloors, yeah

the (English) BEAT - Two Swords

I made a car tape of the xp Siano comp for a buddy, and he said that the filler I added at the end of the C-90---"I've Got To Space," by the Classets, I think (speaking of funkin' poppin' deep cuts), followed by Little Beaver's non-deep cut "Party Down," and ending with Ike & Tina's deep-in-several-senses version of "Use Me Up," (written by xpost Bill Withers)---he said those fit perfectly, which may give a better idea of the overall sound and sensibility (Siano digs "story songs," though not nec. in the expected sense: here, he's a set-and-setting acidhead, though things may have gotten more Pranksters live[that xpost Isley Brothers selection has a built-in mindfuck tempo etc. change]).

is Ike & Tina's "whole lotta love" deep? it was on one of those Blue Break Beats comp on Blue Note

Haven't heard that! is it good?? "Use me Up" is the key phrase, but the title is actually "Use Me," and I've got it on this dope deep collection: https://www.discogs.com/Ike-Tina-Turner-Back-In-The-Day/release/5434383

that Whole Lotta Love is cooool

"Use Me" apparently not on EU spotify :/

this LITA playlist has a deep cut feel, not sure what the common denominator is though: https://open.spotify.com/user/lightintheatticrecords/playlist/41BvltUdXIeBfkIe1FiLjY

"Days" is a beautiful Television song

https://open.spotify.com/track/6qK7CuehGu2DVwL8UgaEhV?si=SjzVwnu2T8Gd31zK-UOY7g

thought about posting "To Late to Turn Back Now" by Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose, but that's probably more of a genre deep cut

however, "Emma" by Hot Chocolate is a bona fide deep cut, gorgeous too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFYOHrwi-W8&pbjreload=10

very Bowie vocals

i also love deep cuts, but most of ya’ll probably figured that out by now.

what is it about that moody track in the middle of side two with the almost painfully resonating chorus, or that fierce rocker that had the unfortunate task of being placed after the hit single in the album’s sequence? are those songs not to be taken as seriously as the more promoted ones? even with some of them smashing fucking everything? oh, and that b-side remix that only ever appeared on that one import 12” single? that shit is essential, dude.

why am i drawn to these songs? these wonderful, sometimes ramshackle, sometimes ebullient, sometimes beautifully understated songs. like a lot of questions in my life, i can’t answer that. all i can do is explain where my concept of “the deep cut” comes from.

and unfortunately, like with a lot of things that shaped the way i think about music, my concept of “the deep cut” comes the source magazine. i probably haven’t read it in over 20 years and not regularly since the 90s. but wow, for a few years there, they had a complete hold on me in terms of taste and what i needed to check out. besides the reviews, my favorite part of every issue was a single page with lots going on: there was of course “rhyme of the month” (which then became “hiphop quotable”) in a column running down the side of the page, the ever-beloved unsigned hype feature at the top, and at the bottom in a highlighted box, the treasure trove of selected deep cuts from current favorites, labeled simply “FAT TAPE.”

(reminder that i am a person living with dissociative identity disorder and as soon as i finished typing that sentence, my inner dialogue immediately erupted in a cheerful resounding hurrah of, “OH FUCK YEAH——FAT TAPE!!!”)

fat tape was so reliable that they kept the name “FAT TAPE” even when nobody bought tapes anymore. fat tape was so reliable that they often put songs in there that would later end up as singles. fat tape was so reliable that they would put songs in there and then absolutely trash the album in the reviews section of the same issue (while also talking up that same song in said review lol). fat tape was so reliable that i began to be able to gauge what page of each issue it was on with one riffle. fat tape was so reliable that i started buying wackass down south bounce shit because they started having their songs show up in fat tape. and fat tape was right — god fucking dammit this shit is dope as fuck.

during my time reading the magazine, i’d say probably 80% of the songs that showed up in fat tape ever got issued on a single of some sort (but oftentimes, they did highlight what would become the second or third single or at least a b-side). a lot of them became very well-known album cut (and, back then mixtape) favorites. sometimes they got really obscure, too. i remember there was a group that got featured in the “alternatives” section (where they would briefly review other hiphop-adjacent genres, mostly r+b) and somehow they had a song end up in fat tape (the group name is lost to time, but i do remember going into my local wherehouse record store and trying to special order it to no avail).

so i guess that’s where i got it from? i was trying to stick out as a dj in the years to come and i became so obsessed with seeing people respond to awesome jams they didn’t know at all by people they knew really well. the hunt was on. should i play “ms. fat booty” or “know that”? or should i say fuck it, fuck the vinyl purists, i’m just gonna play the unreleased jam i downloaded from the internet and recorded to minidisc?

(and then i started to get into rare grooves and beat making —— don’t think i need to explain that one of the main ideas of that scene is kind of the glorification of the deep cut)

it got to a point where i just stopped playing well-known songs some nights. i wanted to bring that fat tape calibre curation to people in real time. of course i went too deep and i got lost. i didn’t dislike singles or more popular songs, i just wanted to hear something different. years later, i find myself less concerned with singles than ever (but i still really love them sometimes, slowdive’s “kisses” is a yearlong favorite by now). i still have that fat tape kind of mentality in my head though, maybe stronger than ever. these days, labels can put out whatever pre-release “singles” they want but the streaming numbers tell the full story. when the last carla morrisson album came out, “diamantes” was just an album cut. i called it a fucking jam immediately. it was in her top ten most played on spotify for a long time after the album came out. even now with the new mariah the scientist album, i was all about “from a woman” on first listen and that’s the one track from the album that’s consistently trending in her top five.

i don’t wanna say i’m some sort of all-knowing music shot-caller, but i can’t even begin to formulate what a life without a constant search of deep cuts would have been like. it’s too much fun not to dig. but what am i looking for? i guess to answer that would be to kind of answer the question “what is a deep cut?”

and i’m looking for a song that contains a definitive characteristic —maybe even a few of them— for that artist. like something that you can only get from them or the people they’re working with. to me, the most definitive deep cut of alltime is “push.” it’s a song that hardly ever got played even when it was new. i wasn’t there to hear the album when it was contemporary, but by the time i got to it, that was my favorite song on the album right away. it’s everything i love about the cure. it went on all cure mixtapes and compilations of feel good jams and is still a reliable companion for long car rides and big sunsets. and it wasn’t just me that knew the song was awesome: it had such a cult following, they started to play it live again in the 2010s and it’s a common setlist staple by now. f`kn rad.

anyway, i don’t have any really new insights here. it’s been a fun journey through music, as cockeyed and askew a path as i’ve carved out for myself. like i say, can’t imagine any other route. i guess i’ll leave with one last thought: i love deep cuts, but i really love when the album takes its title from the deep cut. ooohhh that gives me chills.

blazing post Austin

Yeah, thanks for that.

Thirded

<3 Austin

thanks for reading, all. love you.💙

postscript-
after writing that post, i really started thinking about how quote "S E R I O U S" en quote music discourse* is more widespread than ever thanks to social media and that leads to a genuine question i have: is the deep cut now a phenomenon of the past? even with multiple versions of taylor swift's latest, the fans are making sure everyone gets to hear all of the material - there's not really a chance of anything getting lost in the shuffle. i was also thinking of kendrick lamar in this context: the discourse around him has been so thorough that even his most critiqued songs have their known audiences. as a lifelong deep cut digger, this is a very melancholy thought. what say you?

*genuine apologies if this comes across as sarcastic. it isn't. it's meant to indicate that, as online music discourse has evolved, so has the standard. cliche example, but just look at pfork's shenanigans in their scrubbed archives. they know that shit don't fly anymore. and even my beloved source magazine pulled some of the most journalistically heinous shit of alltime but they got away with it because... sigh things were just different then, i guess. anyway, didn't mean it in a bad way. i know i talk a lotta yak ee dak about critics, but that's only _because_ things were so different for so long and i am a cynical fucker. again: no harm intended. if anything, thanks for leveling the playing field.

Secret Friend is unironically one of my favorite Paul McCartney songs ever and it got relegated to a b-side.

Also yeah great post Austin!

I have also been constantly obsessed about the “deep cuts” since early age. I remember back then I didn’t have much to choose from as my parent’s vinyl and cd collection wasn’t that extense but I remember hearing songs like idk Cat Stevens’ “was dog a doughnut” and thinking whoa this is the “moonshadow” guy? This song rocks!

A deep cut ending up my favorite song of the artist happens a lot.

Another example top of my mind:

My father had several “silvio rodriguez” albums - an artist which I always found a tad corny - honestly find the trova genre in general pretty corny - but one evening with nothing to do I ended up playing the full albums to see what I missed since he has so many fans and I ended up with “sueño con serpientes” which is by far my favorite thing of his. Turns out the whole album is quite good - still not my cup of coffee.

A couple of years ago Jose Gonzalez made a cover of it - and I think even named it one of his top 10 fave songs of all time - which helped a little for other people to discover it but it’s still pretty much a deep cut.

yes great post - there is another really cool thing about deep cuts and that's the fact that every so often you see a band live and they dig something awesome out you never expected them to play. in fact I try to never look at setlists for that reason because it's so cool when it happens out of the blue. it almost feels like a secret handshake with the band. one of the coolest live moments I can think of is seeing Sparks and having them pull out "The Toughest Girl in Town" - a deep cut off a deep cut album. and it happens to be one of my favorite songs of theirs. but I never hear anyone mention it.

trying to think of similar moments...maybe Animal Collective doing "Wide Eyed" last year.

...speaking of trova, what _genres_ could be considered deep cuts? ...or does that even make sense...

isn't that kind of what northern soul is?

(i think i sorta get what you mean...)

every so often you see a band live and they dig something awesome out you never expected them to play.

i remember being really active on a cure fan forum about a decade ago and there were some band insiders that lurked and sometimes posted. the band was doing a charity gig at some tiny pub or something and some posters had gained entry. they just happened to play "push" for the first time since the 80s that night. an audience recording eventually surfaced; there were audible gasps when folks realized what song it was.

(wonder if that recording is still floating around. it was the barfly show.)

I may have dreamed this because it seems so unlikely, but I think I saw Fleetwood Mac play "Never Make Me Cry" off Tusk

Many thoughts about this topic. Too many to make coherent. Anyway. I love deep cuts. A lot.

I almost exclusively listen to full albums, so yeah, deep cuts for the win.

Keep thinking when I read the thread title "I love deep cuts and I cannot lie."

love this out-of-character let's-try-to-be-accessible Amon Duul II track. Won't you come to my heartbeat party?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChzqIyKfLjQ

is the deep cut now a phenomenon of the past?

Surely it's more prevalent than ever, since supposedly most current listeners don't care about albums or even artists anymore, just playlists presumably consisting of hits?

Wes Anderson etc movies killed “deep cuts”

it's not really a deep cut anymore if it becomes a massive hit imo, like if it goes viral because of a system glitch

corrs that's what i was thinking about...
deep cuts might be fan favorites, but when folks who don't normally listen to the artist know the song —whether it was a promoted single or not— it's no longer a deep cut. and again: if streaming numbers are accurate, it really has leveled the playing field. was "cranes in the sky" a promoted single or didn't it just take off as a fan favorite? anyway, i think the next step for deep cuts has actually already been around for a while and that's: catalogue music where the catalogue is in licensing purgatory — obvious example here is the sst catalogue. and just the other day, ya'll reminded me that the best throwing muses album (limbo) isn't on streaming. so, i mean... who knows, maybe "ruthie's knocking" will become a deep cut in time.