Section 3: The Songs - General

3.1 - Where can I find a list of all non-album BNL songs?
There is a list of non-album tracks at mysd.org (check the 'other' secion).

3.2 - What is a B-Side? What are the B-Sides off of all the albums?
Back in the days when singles were released on vinyl records, the single would be on the A-Side of the record, and another track would be on the B-Side (if you're two young, records, like cassette tapes, could be 'flipped over' and thus each side was labelled A or B). Since they had two sides, most record companies decided to give exposure to another song by making it a 'B-Side'. (this is all back when singles were on '45s' - a small sized record just long enough (4-6 minutes) to hold one song per side, hence used for singles. Some famous hits were never intended to be singles, but were B-Sides on other singles. One example is the classic La Bamba. Nowadays, B-Sides tend to refer to a few things. Any song on a CD single that's not the title track is often called a B-Side. But in other cases, B-Sides refer to songs that are released but were cut from an album album, either on a single, or on a compilation, or somewhere else. (eg: Powder Blue is a B-side from Maroon). Other terms that come from the days of records include 'LP' refering to an album, EP which usually refers to a shorter (typically around 5-song) recording, or 'record' which can refer to an album or a song/single depending on the situation.

While we don't know every song BNL has ever recorded and cut from albums, The following is a list of recordings we know about that didn't make it to an album.

Gordon - The only non-album track recorded for Gordon is Fight The Power [Coneheads soundtrack].
MYSD - Unreleased recordings of Break Your Heart and Trust Me were cut and rerecorded for BOAPS.
BOAPS - Re-recorded Trust Me [Shoebox EP], and original song Back [BW 2000 Single].
Stunt - She's On Time and Long Way Back Home [Stunt LE]
Maroon - Half A Heart [unreleased], Born Human, Powder Blue and Inline Bowline [Pinch Me singles]
D1 - I Can I Will I Do and I Don't Get it Anymore [unreleased], It's Only Me and Thanks That Was Fun [Disc One]
E2E - Adrift, Sign Me Up and What A Let Down [unreleased], Yes Yes Yes [E2E SE DVD]
Other sessions - Lovers In A Dangerous Time [D1, OA single, Kick At The Darkness], Ballad of Gordon [Unreleased - recorded for a FOX PSA], It's Christmas Time (Oh Yeah) [Xmas compilations, rerecorded for Holidays], God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen [Xmas compilations and later Holidays], Grim Grinning Ghosts [Disney's Music From The Park], Green Christmas [The Grinch soundtrack, rerecorded for Holidays], Get In Line [D1, King Of The Hill soundtrack], Little Green Bag  [Tom Jones Reload], La La La La Lemons [For The Kids], One Little Slip [Chicken Little Soundtrack].

3.3 - What is the story with Lovers In A Dangerous Time?
Lovers in a Dangerous Time was not on any BNL album before Disc One, (though it was on the OA single). Dispite this, it was a big hit for the Ladies in Canada and helped give them major exposure up here. This is because the song was recorded for a tribute album to Bruce Cockburn, who performed the song (in a much different form) on his 1984 album Stealing Fire. They say (I'll look for the quote) that they chose the song because they knew it the best and were very familiar with it. If anyone tells you this is an original BNL song, they are wrong. That's all there is to it. However, BNL did make it a BNL original by playing it in a more folky style - a completely different arrangment than Cockburn's. They explained (again, I'll look for the quote) that they chose to rearrange the cover because if you wanted to hear the original song, you could buy Cockburn's album. They tried to do a different interpretation on the same song. I'm not exactly sure why they altered the lyric from 'This vibrant skin' to 'This fragrant skin' for their version. Steve sang the song with Cockburn at Music w/o Borders Live in 2001 and he used Cockburn's lyric.

"It came to us in a dream one night"
"We just figured that that song was appropriate for this band to do"
"So we cornered Bruce Cockburn, beat him up, and stole the song" - Tyler, Ed & Steve, I&I #1

3.4 - I remember seeing them on FOX a long time ago doing a PSA - Ed was dressed like an alien
The Ballad of Gordon (also known as Then There Was Me) is a short song that BNL recorded for a FOX public service announcement around 1991. It was aired between Saturday morning cartoons. It deals with racial harmony, as told by an alien [Ed] who comes to Earth, wanting to be accepted, even though he is "different". The song is not available on any commercial release, although bootleg copies recorded from TV are floating around.

3.5 - Is McDonald's Girl an original BNL song? Why don' t they play it anymore?
Contrary to popular belief, McDonald's Girl is not an original BNL song. It is actually a cover of a song of the same name by Dean Friedman. The rap verse in the middle ("She's got a gold tooth...") is from the Beastie Boys song "Hey Ladies." BNL officially retired McDonald's Girl on New Years Eve 1999, after having not played it for many years. It was 'unretired' for the Au Naturale tour due to supposed popular demand.

3.6 - What other BNL songs are covers?
BNL has done a bunch of covers live, but they have recorded a few covers too.
Besides the aforementioned Lovers In A Dangerous Time [Bruce Cockburn] and McDonald's Girl [Dean Friedman], BNL covers include (just to name a few): Gordon B-Side Fight The Power [Public Enemy], and live favourites Careless Whisper [Wham/George Michael] and When Doves Cry [Prince].

3.7 - What about Marijuanaville, or Gin and Juice, or Buddy Holly?
None of these songs you have found are BNL. Mark Eddie does Marijuanaville. The Gourds do Gin and Juice. Weezer does Buddy Holly. They are NOT Barenaked Ladies. End of story.

3.8 - What are the Naked Tracks?
During the recording of Gordon, producer Michael-Phillip Wojewoda suggested the band loosen up by recording a song naked. They did, and ever since then, they have recorded a track naked on every (full length) recording session, which have come to be known as Naked Tracks or Naked Songs:

Gordon - King of Bedside Manor
MYSD - Intermittently
BOAPS - Back (B-Side on BW2000 single)
Stunt - Alcohol
Maroon - Humour of the Situation
E2E - Sign Me Up (cut)

As for the short 4-song session they did for Disc One, some people guessed that Wizard was a naked track. Ed replied on the blog with a cryptic response that seems to indicate no, but then adds confusion.
"I don't think so. That was a short recording session (only 4 tracks), so I don't think we invoked the naked rule. I could be wrong though, we get naked at the drop of a hat... so it could be. " -Ed, BNLBlog, Oct. 8, '03

3.9 - Who gets to sing lead on the songs?
Steve has always been the lead singer of the band. I don't think the other members of the band resent that, they just each have their roles and they all seem to respect and appreciate Steve's vocal talent. But as Steve says,
"A lot of times the person whose musical idea it is gets to sing the song. Occasionally, it gets flipped around. Plus Ed paid $25,000 cash to sing more songs on this record [Stunt]. " -Steve, yahoo chat, 1999

Hence the more Ed writes, the more he writes songs that sound good to him when he sings them, rather than thinking 'what would sound good coming out of Steve?' [I don't know if he ever really thought that, just a theory on my part].

3.10 - Why is Ed singing lead so much lately? Is this a coup to kick Steve out of the band? Run Steve!
"I find singing lead vocals very daunting. I get pretty nervous before singing a lead. I shouldn’t… [but] I sure do! I play guitar with complete confidence, and always look forward to playing guitar parts. I really enjoy singing, but it’s a nerve wracking process for me. Perhaps that comes with the territory when you sing in a band with Steve. He consistently pulls off seemingly effortless powerful vocal takes."

I think the more he sings live on tour, the more confidence he gets in himself to let himself take on more singing responsibility on the next album. People saying that his mouthing along with Steve at shows is resentful seem to be trying to make an issue out of nothing. Ed just loves the songs like the rest of the crowd who are also singing along!

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