Hidden But Not Forgotten: The Stylus Magazine Non-Definitive History of the Hidden Track

Stylus Staff

“Don’t Look Back” — The Backwards Index


James Brown — Star Time

While Star Time doesn’t exactly qualify as having “hidden tracks” per se, the box did play a key role in the hidden track evolution once it hit CD. One of the very first of the super-deluxe, multi-disc, career encompassing CD box sets (heretofore known as “last-minute holiday gifts for music lovers you have to buy a gift for but don’t know very well”), James Brown’s Star Time started the compact disc revolution in earnest, and even won a Grammy. Outside of that, however, certain tracks on the box were early examples of what has become known as “backwards indexing.”

Basically, the term refers to the bit of “hidden” music before certain tracks on the CD that start before the actual song. The timer on the CD player counts down from negative numbers during the back index tracks, and when the timer hit zero, the official song starts. So if you played the CD from start to finish, you would hear all of the extra pre-song stuff, but if you cued up the tracks to hear something specific, you only got the song. A nifty device, used later to great effect on the expanded version of the Who’s masterpiece The Who Sell Out to accommodate the little “ad jingles” that made the original LP so unique.

For the Godfather’s part, backwards indexing was used to incorporate such seemingly mundane games as count ins, false starts, or a few seconds of James muttering something in a quasi-foreign tongue into the mic. It was used to particularly great effect on the intro to “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved.” Because when you’re talking about Mr. Dynamite, even his cast offs could put you in a cold sweat.
Todd Hutlock


Various Artists’Songs In The Key Of X: Music From And Inspired By The X-Files

Five years after Star Time, a collection of X-Files-related tunes would be the premiere of the kind of hidden back indexing where you actually had to go looking for it. First off, the hidden track here is actually two hidden tracks, a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tune called “Time Iesum Transeuntem et non Reverendem” followed by the X-Files theme as done by The Dirty Three. Fine tunes both, if hardly jaw-dropping. The device would be used elsewhere and to better effect later on (i.e. Super Furry Animals’ Guerilla and UNKLE’s Psyence Fiction among others — see below), but as much as we can tell, sticking the hidden songs before the disc begins started here.
Matthew Weiner


UNKLE - Psyence Fiction

The rotating personnel project of Mo-Wax mastermind, James Lavelle, shot for the stars and missed, but still left listeners with a beautiful, albeit scattered, mess. Fortunately, one of the most mediocre moments, scrapped for obvious licensing issues, was never found on the North American release, and is track zero on the German, Australian, Japanese and UK limited versions. Simply entitled "Intro" and credited to “Heroes & Villains”, this two minute pastiche incorporates a surprisingly large array of popular artists, (Air, the Stone Roses, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Nirvana, Radiohead, and more). With the popular emergence of the mash-up in the past year, it would seem that the production team was ahead of their time, right? Nah. The sum of the parts far exceeds the whole, as this optional introduction comes off as standard issue cut-and-paste for people of the caliber of DJ Shadow and Lavelle. Back to the lab again.
Fredrick Thomas


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