Does anyone else think that too many people nowadays misunderstand what the word Filler means on an album?
It seems like if someone doesn't care for a song they count it as filler. That is not filler.

Filler songs are actually intended to be as such by the artist.
Filler are songs that a band just rushes through without any real dedication or inspiration, just to meet a deadline for an albums release, or to quickly capitalize on a hit or to literally fill up space, hence the word Filler.

Filler does not mean songs you don't like

It's easy to tell the difference. Even if there are songs that someone may not care for, if you listen you can tell if it was intended as filler.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-07-05 21:58 by pricepittsburgh.

Yes, some have suggested Exile includes 'filler', nonsense. Check out early Beach Boys albums for examples of the real thing.

the basic fact about fillers is that the phenomenon is a result of triumph of the LP format in Rock/Pop history. It forced bands who had two or three songs that made good singles to record some more stuff to have enough songs to fill an full album (i.e. 10-12 songs). in other words: fillers became necessary when the market for popular music expanded and band found out that big money wasn't made by selling singles but LPs (just think about The Who who were a very successful singles band but nearly broke before they recorded Tommy)

It was widely used for many years until Botox was introduced ....



ROCKMAN

Who the hell you ranting at Pittsburgh?

Fillus Filler

indian girl on emotional rescue,
winter on GHS
cherry oh baby on B&B

these are examples of filler.

factory girl = not filler

Break The Spell = Filler
Short And Curlies = Filler

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yeababyyea
Break The Spell = Filler
Short And Curlies = Filler

indeed! on an album of filler, short and curlies would be the filler... come to think of it, it kind of is....

One person's filler is another person's treasure. Case in point, Winter. It is adored by many, including myself. Go call it filler over on the MT thread and you might lose your own...

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latebloomer
One person's filler is another person's treasure. Case in point, Winter. It is adored by many, including myself. Go call it filler over on the MT thread and you might lose your own...

good point. part of the definition of "filler" should be that someone somewhere will strongly argue that it's not.

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Turner68
indian girl on emotional rescue,
winter on GHS
cherry oh baby on B&B

Winter? my favorite song on the album, I have no idea where you came up with that one.
The other two, just because they're the weakest (by far) songs on their albums does not make them filler, these were bad ideas that shouldn't have made the cut.

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yeababyyea
Break The Spell = Filler
Short And Curlies = Filler

Break The Spell - trying to seperate any filler from the just weak on these later albums is more than I can manage
Short And Curlies - 100% filler, Stones by the numbers.

Panel-beaters love the stuff ....



ROCKMAN

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Turner68
part of the definition of "filler" should be that someone somewhere will strongly argue that it's not.

No. no it's not

Winter?
C'mon. I know you just wanted to illicit an angry response!

It's not that difficult a filler is just a songs that runs exactly the time you need to fill the a record
Let's amuse the last song on a record is a filler then there are great fillers and bad fillers...

The only one that comes to mind is "Surprise, Surprise" and "I'm Moving On"

"Walking the Dog"
"Susie Q"
"Surprise, Surprise"
"I'm Free"
"I'm Moving On" Live
"What to Do"
"Something Happened to Me Yesterday"
"On with the Show"
"Salt of the Earth"
"You Can't Always Get What You Want"
"Moonlight Mile"
"Soul Survivor"
"Star Star"

Made up my mind about "Surprise, Surprise"

__________________________




Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2015-07-06 02:24 by NICOS.

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HopeYouGuessMyName
Winter?
C'mon. I know you just wanted to illicit an angry response!

I really do consider it filler. I never met anyone who liked it until I came upon iorr. I was no trying yo offend. One persons filler is another's hidden gem. Heck I like sleep tonight...

If artists could create enough excellent songs to fill their records every time they would. Obviously some songs aren't going to be as good as others. Everybody puts the best stuff they have on the release...the term filler is completely misleading, imo and artists don't use the term to describe their creations.

Although Jagger may have coined the term when Don Was suggested putting a third Keith song on a Rolling Stones record.

On the other hand there was a time when some bands were putting out one or two new songs and filling up the rest of the record with known good ones from other records. The Allman Brothers had a few releases like this and possibly other posthumous releases by others. That's really the only time the word filler makes sense to me.

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pricepittsburgh
Does anyone else think that too many people nowadays misunderstand what the word Filler means on an album?
It seems like if someone doesn't care for a song they count it as filler. That is not filler.

Filler songs are actually intended to be as such by the artist.
Filler are songs that a band just rushes through without any real dedication or inspiration, just to meet a deadline for an albums release, or to quickly capitalize on a hit or to literally fill up space, hence the word Filler.

Filler does not mean songs you don't like

It's easy to tell the difference. Even if there are songs that someone may not care for, if you listen you can tell if it was intended as filler.

On a double album that is scraping the barrel of things that are optional for time on an album to "fill it out", EXILE has that (and their 3 recent, on vinyl anyway, double albums, VL, BTB and ABB, clearly have filler). After all, they dipped into previous sessions to fill out the album since it's not all from France because, as Keith stated, they wanted to 'throw it all in there' - even though it clearly wasn't "everything". And obviously they didn't finish all that they could've from the France sessions. They used some leftovers from the STICKY FINGERS sessions for whatever reason instead.

Why people can't objectively hear filler on EXILE is beyond me.

They would expound upon filler later on due to not wanting to finish whatever tracks or because, perhaps, they were the easiest ie fasted to complete. BLACK AND BLUE (and SOME GIRLS, considering what they opted to not finish for that album specifically on top of what they did finish for that album, specifically, that would go on the next two albums yet alone what they would eventually put out on the 2011 or whenever reissue with extras and STILL NOT have all that was good finished!) could be viewed that way - but for what some people feel is filler, like Cherry Oh Baby and Respectable, as bad as they both are, they obviously felt a nod towards the genre and attitude and whatever else and wanted to include it, regardless of how good it was, as part of their what they do.

Short And Curlies? It's easy to assume they had better from the IORR sessions - but maybe they just couldn't bother. So we got Short And Curlies, a song that probably took 2 hours from start to finish.

They would go on to have filler on every album. Heaven is interesting filler on TY. UNDERCOVER, DIRTY WORK, STEEL WHEELS and on and on and on... all have filler.

I have been meaning to make this point for a while... and this is the right place...

I have been listening to Goats Head Soup since around 1974 (I wasn't a Rolling Stones fan yet, when it was first released)
The song I liked the least was Coming Down Again... BORING, BORING, BORING... I didn't even realized that it was Keith singing.
.
Fast forward a few decades.... It is my favorite on the album. It would be stupid to say that it is one of my favorite Stones songs... but it is, along with around 300 others!

The point is, I am beginning to think that Jagger/Richards know a lot more about music than even we give them credit for... Coming Dpwn Again... I love it!
Winter? I never DIDN'T LIKE THAT ONE! CAPISCE?

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HopeYouGuessMyName
I have been meaning to make this point for a while... and this is the right place...

I have been listening to Goats Head Soup since around 1974 (I wasn't a Rolling Stones fan yet, when it was first released)
The song I liked the least was Coming Down Again... BORING, BORING, BORING... I didn't even realized that it was Keith singing.
.
Fast forward a few decades.... It is my favorite on the album. It would be stupid to say that it is one of my favorite Stones songs... but it is, along with around 300 others!

The point is, I am beginning to think that Jagger/Richards know a lot more about music than even we give them credit for... Coming Dpwn Again... I love it!
Winter? I never DIDN'T LIKE THAT ONE! CAPISCE?

I liked coming down again immediately and never liked winter.... Let's talk in another few decades and I think we will agree :-)

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GasLightStreet



Why people can't objectively hear filler on EXILE is beyond me.

Because I love every song, is why. It's not an objective concept.

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Aquamarine

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GasLightStreet



Why people can't objectively hear filler on EXILE is beyond me.

Because I love every song, is why. It's not an objective concept.

Loving every song is not being objective ie critical, being able to identify the difference between great, good, OK, boring, bad and awful. Some people love the boring songs on Zep's LED ZEPPELIN 4 even though they're just... not very good.

As I pointed out, there are people that love Winning Ugly and think DIRTY WORK is a great LP so... it makes sense, I guess, that some people find absolutely zero wrong with EOMS.

4 sticks is definitely filler

Filler was when the record company wanted to cash in on a band that had two hit singles (with two b-sides) and threw them in a studio for three days so they could release an album. The new songs were filler.

The album by Wild Cherry that has Play That Funky Music on it.
that's filler.

It's different than not batting 1.000

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GasLightStreet

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Aquamarine

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GasLightStreet



Why people can't objectively hear filler on EXILE is beyond me.

Because I love every song, is why. It's not an objective concept.

Loving every song is not being objective ie critical,.

That's exactly my point. It's impossible to be objective about what's filler and what isn't, because different people see different merits in different songs.

I love Four Sticks, too, and so did Plant and Page who frequently played it when they toured together.

<<Filler was when the record company wanted to cash in on a band that had two hit singles (with two b-sides) and threw them in a studio for three days so they could release an album.>>

Yes, but by that definition this also includes....


Rolling Stones No. 1, recorded after having had two hit singles (with two B-sides).

Nothing on Exile is filler. They set out to make a double album. They recorded more than enough for three albums. Yet, they selected every song to purposely be on Exile. So no filler.

One of several potential definitions of 'filler' is provided by stonehearted, above.

What tracks constitute this title, however, cannot objectively be defined.

By definition.

.....

Olly.

Ramblin Man by ABB was considered a filler by Dickie Betts and became a No.1 hit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-07-06 03:50 by More Hot Rocks.