When people ask me what’s my favourite album, I often tell them it’s EPs that I like – this is usually followed by blank stares. For me they are just perfect – four or five songs making a very happy 10-12 min listen. I’ve put a couple of examples of EPs with exclusive content ie: none of these tracks appeared in another format. The first one was easy, featuring Beatles Stones Kinks and Who. The second one digs deeper with The Big Three, Lulu, Spencer Davis Group and the Artwoods. the Big Three one is tremendous because it captures the sweaty atmosphere of the cavern. I’ll be doing the double Magical Mystery Tour in a later mix
My question is – what EPs are there from the 70s? I’ve got Jethro Tull’s Life’s a Long Song and Thin Lizzy’s New Day. Any others from the 70s?
I agree with you.
My favourite Rolling Stones records are the first two EPs and the early 45s.
In the late 1970s Charly definitely put out discs with 4 tracks on them, usually the four hits of a group. To all intents and purposes, EPs.
I’m sure there was a Free one, Traffic, various rock ‘n’ rollers like Larry Williams and Carl Perkins, even Kippington Lodge. See For Miles did the same, didn’t they?
The “Ready Steady Who” EP (my favourite Who record) definitely got a reissue in 1983.
Glad you agree. my first mix had the Beatles Long Talk Sally, the Rolling Stones 5 by 5, the Kinks kinda kinks and The Who ready steady who. Makes for a nice 20 odd minute listen.
I rather like the Tom Robinson Band’s “Rising Free” EP from 1978.
I think I have that in the loft.
The Free EP from 76 collected All Right Now, My Brother Jake, and Wishing Well.
It was re-issued in 82. The 12″ picture disc had a clock on it.
(People were putting clock mechanisms in picture discs and mounting them on the wall. With this one, you didn’t need to buy the clock (unless you wanted to know the time))
Faces EP (also 76) collected Memphis, You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything, Stay With Me, Cindy Incidentally.
In both cases, these are Greatest Hits EPs
Not an EP from the 70s, but certainly heavily influenced by all things 70s, the Lickerish Quartet released their first EP yesterday…..
Basically 3/4 of Jellyfish (and something I was droning on about on here a few weeks ago to absolutely zero response…..)
Punk and post-Punk used EPs a lot (even Genesis released Spot The Pidgeon in 1977), the most well known being Spiral Scratch by Buzzcocks. My personal favourite is Gang Of Four’s Damaged Goods. They rerecorded the three tracks for Entertainment! in a shiny expensive record company studio. They don’t sound so good.
Hmmm, yes, one of the tracks on Genesis’s “Spot the Pigeon” EP opened with the excellent line…
“Who put fifty tons of shit on the Foreign Office roof?”
It’s a question to which we’ve never really had the answer, I think.
Always a fave listen….
I’ve got The Searchers play the System and it’s a goodie
Ride – Today Forever. The only Ride product I bought. Didn’t feel the need for any more. I was happy with this.
Loved the Status Quo live EP when l was younger
Yes indeed – I might still have a battered copy in the loft….
Bryan Ferry’s solo EP, punningly titled Extended Play, was a top 10 hit in 1976.
80s
You can buy a wee box containing all The Pogues’ albums but the most essential record is the Poguetry In Motion E.P.
In memoriam:
E.P.’s ROOL
I also agree with “The Rex..” having a few EPs oneself such as all the UK Buddy Holly/Crickest eps
Also The Merseybeats “On Stage” on Fontana
The Kingsmen “Louie Louie” on Pye International
Troggs “Tops1” on Page One Records
The Ventures “The Fabulous …” on Liberty Records
Johnny & Hurricanes “Rocking Goose” on London Records
Anybody remember this Walls Ice Cream EP with Mary Hopkins & Jackie Lomax et al.
Various Artists “Take Six – This Is Mersey Beat” Inc.. Rory Storm/Faron’s Flamingos/Earl Preston & The T.T.’s plus others. on Oriole records.
Just some I have – EPs were my earliest buys before LPs became avoidable for me, much the same I guess for most of us “Old Misanthropes” like myself.
Thanks all, that’s a huge help and I’ll be posting some more EP mixes asap, including postpunk. For the 60s I found a pretty good one called Hermania, plus the Cliff/Shads Thunderbirds one, plus really good ones from Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers
The Clash had the Cost of Living EP. With the advent of the CD single in the late 80s and 90s, most single releases became EPs with 3 or 4 tracks on them. There were some interesting R.E.M. ones with loads of non album stuff.
Automatic For the People era collected here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Automatic_Box
Yes, meant to remark above that P.I.M. was a 12” E.P. CD singles were frankly only worth the cash if they were strong E.P.s. My bugbear with the 7” version was the sound was never great and they scratched even more dramatically than regular singles (although sometimes attempts were made to overcome this with twin single releases or, even more quirky, the 10” E.P. which may have been an attempt to improve the sound but really did not..
Apart from anything else, the E.P. could be the first time a group had their picture on a record. Certainly the case with The Stones, as the first E.P. post-dated the first two 45s (without picture sleeves), but pre-dated the first L.P. by three months.
And great as the cover of “Revolver” is, the “Nowhere Man” E.P. sleeve seems far fresher in 2020 as it is rarely seen.
There’s Eddie & the Hot Rods Live at the Marquee (Get Out of Denver, 96 Tears etc) and The Pink Parker (Hold back the Night + 3) by my near namesake Graham Parker from 77 & 78 respectively that immediately spring to mind.
Billy Bragg had the Between The Wars EP in 1985.
“Pay no more than One Pound twenty five pence”
It went well with Pay No More Than £2.99 for the Life’s A Riot With Spy vs Spy LP.
Queen’s First EP in 1976
Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy from Day At The Races, and then 3 more from the 3 previous albums.
Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To…)
Tenement Funster
White Queen (As It Began)
A couple of Robert Wyatt EPs in the early ’80s.
“Auraco/Caimanera/At Last I Am Free/Strange Fruit” on a Rough Trade 12″ in 1981 and then “I’m A Believer/Yesterday Man/Team Spirit/Memories” on a Virgin 12″ in 1984.
I think RW released a box set which gathered together his e.p. output? Rather a good release, I think…
I have that @fitterstoke it’s very good.
Technically a 12″ single (one of two I have bought), there was a Marc Bolan release, five tracks, from about 1981. It was green with dreadful artwork, as you would expect, though not nearly as bad as “The Wizard” 45 reissue from the same time.
I can’t find any evidence on it online.
Don’t remember what else was on it, but it was the only place for years you could get “Pewter Suitor,” a flop single from 69.
And the Stones’ three E.P.s definitely came out on 12″ singles in about 1983, and I still have “Five By Five” in that format.
T.Rex often had two tracks as B sides, typically excellent songs better than many album cuts. They weren’t described as EPs though.
As was the 1975 rerelease of Space Oddity. These tended to be called Maxi-singles though
My mum had the Jimi Hendrix “Gypsy Eyes” EP which also had Remember, Stone Free and Purple Haze on it. My first introduction to the great man.
Another one from 1995 – The Beatles’ “Baby It’s You.”
4 tracks and made to look exactly like a 60s E.P.
I’d go so far to say that, “Long Tall Sally” aside, it is the group’s best E.P.
Going back to the question in the OP, I had a search in the loft and found a few e.p.s from the 1970’s…..
Jethro Tull – Ring out Solstice Bells, with three other toons and a nice picture cover;
Kate Bush – Live on Stage – four live tracks from her 1979 tour, with a gatefold picture sleeve;
And
Chou Pahrot – the famous Buzgo Tram Chorus e.p.
I also found a few 2×7” in gatefold sleeves – but I don’t suppose they count as e.p.s, do they…….?
Another one –
“Percy” – The Kinks (1971) – with the four best songs from the album/film – God’s Children, The Way Love Used To Be, Moments and Dreams.
From that there Punk era 4 From the Square by The Flys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjixyjD-Qyc
All aboard! The E.P. may have once have made sense but all it is now is a lazy attempt to garner “Cred”. Pah!
I think there are quite a few new artists who either don’t yet have the material for a full album or can only afford enough studio time for a few tracks, so they self-release an EP on Bandcamp as a taster.
One thing I used to like about EPs in the 60s – they quite often had ads for other EPs by the same artist, or other artists on the same label…it seemed like a window into a bigger world than clueless child me could imagine.
Some ’70s EPs: Hot Valves by Be Bop Deluxe (1976, see below), 3D EP by XTC (1977, lead track Science Friction), Wide Open by Skids (1978, lead track The Saints are Coming)
The debut release from Squeeze was the Packet of Three EP in 1977.
Cat on A Wall
Nightride
Backtrack
I have a 12″ of this secreted in the loft somewhere.
…and of course the magnificent Basher…
Hi Rexbrough, your Mixcloud mixes have been the soundtrack to my lockdown. You have a very appreciative fan here in sunny Sidcup. I love them all.
Thanks! I enjoyed your mix too – “Brian Eno and The Tremeloes”. Now there’s a great combination.