Vestigial Traces of Vinyl

I remember reading somewhere that when artists were sequencing songs for albums, they used to put an up-tempo, energetic song at the beginning of the B-side.  I suppose this was an attempt to make the B-side worth listening to - either at all or from the very beginning.

But I just realised that that decision in sequencing is still apparent even after those albums have been released on CD.  Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery both have clear distinctions between the sides.  The A-side of Tarkus is the Tarkus medley, and the B-side of Brain Salad Surgery has (at least most of) the Karn Evil 9 impressions.

I think the difference is most clearly illustrated with Brian Wilson's SMiLE.  The songs were written in 1966, but no versions of the album were official released until 2004.  Yet despite its release as a CD, the 2004 release still has that dichotomy of sides.  What would have been the B-side contains the suite of elements - earth ("Vega-tables"), wind ("Wind Chimes"), fire ("Mrs. O'Leary's Cow"), and water ("Blue Hawaii").

Since most albums aren't sequenced specifically for vinyl release anymore (and many aren't even released on vinyl), that dichotomy of sides has faded.  The only way you can really see it now is if there is a collection of inter-connected songs.  And since most of the music being released to-day seems to be stand-alone songs, there aren't many instances of either inter-connected songs or side-specific sequencing.

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