The B-side gives the artist opportunity to release material that doesn’t seem to fit on albums. With each single, the Pixies showed that they had so many classic songs, they could afford to chuck a few away on B-sides. The song Wave of Mutilation on their album Doolittle was a classic display of the band’s characteristic quiet-loud-quiet dynamic tension. But I prefer the slower UK Surf version, which is softer, bathed in reverberating guitar.
Man of the World, a fragile Peter Green-era highlight, was backed with the thuggish Someone’s Going to Get Their Head Kicked in Tonight. It doesn’t sound anything like Fleetwood Mac, evidenced by the fact that the Rezillos managed to cover it. Conversely, What the World is Waiting for captures the essence of the Stone Roses: hubristic lyrics, loose guitar riffing, skittering drums and lolloping bass. Without What the World is Waiting For, there’d be no Bluetones. But don’t hold that against it.
http://davereinstein.com/2011/02/03/...3-the-results/