Sometimes, what you think you will like turns out to be on the B side, instead of the A. However, it requires flipping the record.
Back before music downloads, CDs, even cassette and 8-track tapes, there were records. There were records with a whole album and others with singles. A single would have the song that was expected to be the hit on the A side. Flip the record and you would find a song few thought would be very popular.
In 1971, Rod Stewart released “Reason to Believe” as a single. It climbed to No. 62 on the charts, but the song on the B side, “Maggie May,” became Stewart’s first No. 1 song.
For the Beatles, “Strawberry Fields Forever” was on the B side. Other big hits on the B side, included Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” Kiss’ “Beth,” and Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock,” to name a few.
There is a great political lesson for each of us in the hits from the B side.
We listen to what we like. We tune into the television and radio stations whose talking heads swing their telecasts the way we like. We read the columnists, online sources and social media influences who agree with us, those on our A side. The B side is of no concern to us — it is not worth flipping over to give even a listen. Songs on the B side are not for us and we will avoid flipping the single.
Back when singles were the normal way musicians released new music, newspapers were the main source of political opinions. Television offered one or two stations with no clear political leanings. We were forced to be exposed to both sides of the record, both sides of an issue.
The opinion page might have a column from a Republican and second from a Democrat, or a conservative one day and a liberal the next. One day the right leaning reader might be happy, but the next they might disagree with what the liberal wrote but they would read the column. The liberal reader would agree with the column on day two, not on day one, but they would read the opposing view. By doing so, both heard the A side and the B side. They heard both sides of an issue.
Today, we can tailor our media intake to only what we already agree with. Basically, a public relations message reaffirming what is played only on our A side.
If you lean to the right, the B side is out of tune and not worth listening to. If you lean to the left, you believe the opposite.
However, sometimes the B side has something worth listening to and if we are willing to flip the record, we could find something we like.
Being unwilling to listen to the B side, we can find ourselves with tunnel vision, leaving us tone deaf to any other views,
If we never listen to the B side, we close the door to all kinds of possibilities. On the A side, we enjoy U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name,” but if we took a chance and flipped to the B side, we heard the “Sweetest Thing.”
Take a chance and give the B side a listen. You may not like the song played, but you might, or you might find an interesting chorus, or maybe a riff you can add to something you heard on the A side to create something new — a new mix with a little from the A and B sides to create a new political hit.
Brad Staman 