No Rock And Roll Fun

A VERY LONG PAUSE, THEN ULTIMATE DISAPPOINTMENT: There's a Stylus magazine consideration of that old faithful, the 'hidden track' online at the moment which considers the merits of dozens of the little surprises hidden -usually - after the main business of an album is wrapped up. Sadly, they find no room for the most dunderheaded example of the genre, which was when George Michael missed the point somewhat and listed his hidden track on the sleeve of Songs From The Last Century.
We're not fans of the extra track ourselves - they're the music equivalent of long lost children in soap operas; they turn up when ideas have been burned out and even at their best provide us with little more than a limp reworking of what's gone before; and usually they're just ugly, unwanted and awkward intusions into the records themselves. The need to put a massive block of silence before they come on - otherwise, of course, you probably wouldn't realise they weren't meant to be there unless you were counting - creates terrible gaps of nothingness when you're listening in a car, and has the pain of sudden return if you've been drifting off nicely to sleep. And they're so commonplace, surely the surprise value has been used up as well now? Pointless and normally a waste of time. Stop them. Now.
[Finders fee: TMFTML]