I Love Deep Cuts

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.

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.

Me and my friends totally lost our shit when The Who did "Tattoo" at one of the Bridge School Benefit shows.

xp went with Please as the token U2 deep cut on the spotify playlist

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

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

I think this is probably the correct definition

don't want to limit the thread though, I'll do my own cherrypicking from what's posted

I will, for instance, pick that Elvis cover which is nothing short of fantastic!

I will, for instance, pick that Elvis cover which is nothing short of fantastic!

Yes yes yes! It is glorious. Here is another Elvis deep cut, one of my very favorite of his songs. With a great message, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsMj-0GfF8A

awesome^

my favorite all-time Elvis deep cut, from How Great Thou Art (1967)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6nma5vM4Gk

johnny cash seemed to have liked it too

Yeah, and some Public Radio stations re-ran the 2007 music doc "He Touched Me: Elvis's Gospel" this Easter Sunday just past, with cogent commentary from his colleagues and well-chosen music (I noticed he had white Jordanaires singing along with the Sweet Inspirations while Civil Rights struggles continued elsewhere, prob not so far away, in some cities). When I worked at a Deep South CD store from the mid-90s through early 00s, his gospel outsold all his other stuff, no matter how much his overall catalog grew and how well it did (pretty well, just about holding its own with hip-hop and the Dead).
I heard a long, kind of studio pro jam with Elvis, on his cover of "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," 12'20" or so: speedy, slick, repeating the same words and vocal effects ad infinitum---there's also a five-odd minute edit, both on youtube, and the shorter one has a nice fade, but both are quite a bringdown from his version of "Tomorrow Is A Long Time."
Greatly prefer Jerry Lee's version of Dylan's "Stepchild," which came out onRock & Roll Time, 2-3 years ago:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvVI53abJ1g

Also: his take of Dyl's "Rita May"---studio versionsounding kinda Tex Mex at times:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfsQIVgf3Yg

Live version much faster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TpC-OmgwEs

i don't know much about elvis deep cuts, but i do like those bootleg mixes of "dark moon" alright

Couple of random ones - Beatles “She Said She Said”, Eurythmics “The Walk”.

Oh and VU “Stephanie Says” which might actually be my favourite of theirs (and I love them all dearly).

at the moment Sun King is the ultimate Beatles deep cut for me

such a great song. i've had this years-long project of trying to find covers i like of every beatles original. i'm down to four, and one of them is "sun king". nobody plays "sun king"!

Yes! I think it should resonate with a lot of contemporary bands, but it's kiiinda hidden on the b-side of Abbey Road which is, probably, mostly thought of as "Here Comes the Sun" and "the medley" (maybe with "Golden Slumbers" as the standout song)

Isn't "Sun King" basically a direct rip of Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross"?

it was very much inspired by albatross but direct rip is a bit harsh

In an interview in 1987, Harrison said that the recording was inspired by Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross". "At the time, 'Albatross' (by Fleetwood Mac) was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, 'Let's be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get going.' It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac... but that was the point of origin."[2]

it's more like "what if albatross had killer harmony vocals on top of it?" it's, with all due respect to fleetwood mac, an _improvement_ on albatross in my book, silly lyrics and all.

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

i nom harvey mandel's "cristo redentor"

idk maybe it's just a vibe i'm thinking of. nevermind me.

cristo redentor is definitely rad. maybe it's just me but i hear a lot of what gilmour would do in that song.

Underworld pulling out stuff like "Banstyle", "Spoonman", and "Oich Oich" at some of their 2008 shows was a real surprise

they often get pegged as a pure singles act but I always thought The Police had some great deep cuts. particularly Copeland's stuff. some days I think "Rehumanize Yourself" is my favorite Police tune.

"voices inside by head"

my

i agree frogbs, i love Does Anyone Stare from Regatta

*Does Everyone Stare

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.