Petition for release of David Bowie "OUTSIDE" Album Era And Outtakes

Some one has started a Petition For the "Publication Of The Entire David Bowie "OUTSIDE" Album Era And Outtakes", It has been a bit slow getting off the ground so I thought I would put a link up here throw it out to a wider audience and hopefully more people will sign it. Those that have heard any of the bootlegs from these sessions ie The Leon tapes I am sure will feel they deserve a full and proper release.
Sony: Publication Of The Entire David Bowie "OUTSIDE" Album Era And Outtakes

 

They could call it:
"Outside Outside".

Good luck w/the petition!

 

Signed

 

Or inside outside, but pretty sure that has been used a few times before.

 

We are at 536 so far, which is now about 10 people a week since I signed. Come on people, it is free to sign!

 

Outside is Bowie's double LP album. David wanted to release a triple CD. The record company said it was too risky. This means there are still at least 2 hours of well recorded music out there ready and waiting to be listened too, 1 hour of which hardly anyone has even heard.

According to David, there was a total of 27 hours of tape recorded. With the official release of 1.Outside we have 70 minutes of this. With the leaked internet "Leon", in all it's different versions, we have at least another 76 minutes. And this is not demo quality, this is the real thing. Clear, crisp spacious and cluttered, beautiful and unsettling at the same time. This is quality sound that David wanted released.

 

A petition to release a record? Really?

 

Interestingly, David held back releasing what we did get because he was afraid it would sound too much like Walkers new upcoming album "Tilt".

Once David heard Tilt he phoned Eno and said he was going to release his album because although Tilt was good, it sounded nothing like Outside.

 

I've heard the Leon suites from these sessions that leaked online, and this isn't exactly mass-market stuff that will pick up major rotation on streaming playlists or radio stations. Eno will have to have final cut, and he doesn't work for free. New album artwork will have to be commissioned. It likely needs more studio time for remixing/mastering. Add in marketing and manufacturing costs.

Even if 30,000 people sign the petition, out of deference to Bowie's vision, that doesn't mean all of them will buy a full price CD or vinyl. Bowie diehards will buy it, of course, but given the expenses and pitfalls I've mentioned, it's hard see how this could break even for a major label, unless it formed part of the exclusive content in a big box set, like The Gouster did.

 

There seems to be some confusion over outside and Leon, From what i understand Leon came before 1.outside it was a fully completed mixed and mastered set that was presented to several record companies for evaluation in a 2 or possibly 3 cd format, what leaked was just just about half or a third of that proposed release, the record companies showed little interest so David booked studio time in New York to record some more consumer friendly tracks and over dub some of the songs previously recorded in Montreaux, So 1.outside used very little of Leon basically they used some edited segues and tracks like The hearts filthy lesson ,Ramona a. stone and a small plot of land. Another reason why Leon never got released is because all the musicians were given writing credits according to Reeves Gabrels Eno at the time was not happy sharing credits he wanted most of the recording to be credited just Bowie and Eno. Most people who have heard the leaked 74 minuets of The so called Leon suites have received it favorably and i personally feel though it would not be a big seller Like 1.outside it will gain a following over the years and if released along with 1.outside in a boxset would also be a collectors item and some fans myself included would be willing to pay a premium price for such a release.
I dare say record companies do not take much notice of these things but at least it bring things to there attention. i personally think this material will see the light of day sooner rather than later.

 

In.

 

Signed

 

I agree with what Nickfa said and I agree with some of what Aphexj says.

This is defiantly not for mass consumer market appeal, it is for collectors and Bowie diehards and those music people who like theirs on the outer limits. This is why it needed a petition. And if 30,000 people sign the petition it still may not be released, do to money concerns. But it might, and for that it is worth it to type your name into the petition.

I do not think the leaked Leon needs to be re-recorded at all. It sounds impressive as it is (see Nickfa). I do not know what rights Eno would have to it, would he be part owner?

There exist album artwork for it but it is all over the place and surely would have to be reworked for an official release. But right now people are climbing all over Gouster stuff that adds about 2 "new" songs to his catalogue. We are talking hours of music with the Out outtakes. So I think a big box set is just what it needs and deserves.

 

1 hour 11 minute version.

David Bowie - The Leon Suites 1994
(1. Outside Outtakes)

Suite 1: I Am With Name
Suite 2: Leon Takes Us Outside
Suite 3: Enemy Is Fragile

 

i don't believe in a official release, but like the Toy album is great thing to hear the leaked version

 

Bowie's take on it:

 

Leon - 1. Outside outtakes

On March 12 1994, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Reeves Gabrels, Mike Garson, Erdal Kizilcay and Sterling Cambell improvised a three-and-a-half-hour opus at the Mountain Studios in Montreux. This work formed the basis for the album 1. Outside. As Bowie put it: "One of the days we worked, we had a blindingly orgiastic session where it just didn't stop. Almost the entire genesis for this album is contained in those three-and-a-half hours, but it's nearly all dialogue and narrative description and wandering off into characters. I play out a character for maybe five minutes at a time. I mean, I developed an entire interior life of him whilst I was on the mic".

The recordings were mixed at Westside Studios, London in the summer of 1994 and were intended for release as a double-album. Reeves Gabrels wrote on his website: "We hoped that it would have come out intact and un-compromised by financial/commercial pressures. It would have been a very serious musical statement (and maybe even pissed more people off than Tin Machine)". However, Bowie was unable to interest any record label to release 1. Outside in its original form because it was considered too uncommercial.

Somehow 70 minutes from these mixed recordings have escaped. The CD features tracks that can hardly be called songs, as they do not follow conventional arrangements with verses and choruses. They are more like sketches, often with changes in tempo and structure within a single track. Included below is a run-down of the songs, which, because of their nature, have not been assigned titles unless these are known from other sources. Although only a few tracks ('I Am With Name' and 'Leon Takes Us Outside') ended up on 1. Outside, the story line set out throughout these tracks forms the backbone of the album.


I Am With Name/Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): the CD opens with a familiar song, 'I Am With Name', but instead of the 1. Outside's four minutes, this version lasts well over 10 minutes. At 4'00" into the track, Bowie launches into a rap which repeats phrases such as "I won't keep it/It will hide me/He should take them/I won't tell it/She can't take it/He won't do this/He said tell it/She said spot this/He should do this/He should be there" and "It will kill that/He should hide me/I won't hide me/She can't be there/I won't tell it/They won't eat me." At 6'10" Nathan Adler is introduced in a segue which is nearly identical to the first segue from 1. Outside: "Old Touchschriek was the main name-server/Suspected of being a shoulder server or faint a hack/This old guy didn't know from **** about challenge response systems/He was way back in the age of cellular clones/We knew that Ramona A Stone was selling interest drugs, magic cookies [...] But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself/Let me take you back to when it all began." Next is the 'Ramona A Stone' segue that opens the song on 1. Outside, but again with slightly different lyrics. The segue and the song ends with the spoken "We'll creep together, you and I. We know who the small friends are. My, this is a crazy world. At this time, you could think of me as a 'syllannibal'. Someone who eats their own words".

Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): the second track, which lasts five minutes, starts as a ballad: "We creep together/We'll creep together, you and I/Just a trick of the two/From the slump male/A mumble slough unreal/How many drew the mark?/We'll creep together, you and I/Way back in the Laugh Hotel/I'll reel out the window/You die for diamonds/But you won't live for love." The song then changes tempo: "I am a rose/I am a face/I am a chrome/I am Ramona A Stone/We'll end in chrome/This is the chrome/This is the chrome, my friend, the chrome".

Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): the next outtake (6'45") starts off with a segue that possibly should be contributed to Leon Blank: "Then there was nothing left to do but to bring on the Nut Soldiers/Round out the packet sniffers". It features an introduction to The Leek Soldiers, after which the song continues with a repeated "Twist, fly, boy." At 2'35", Nathan Adler reappears with another excerpt from the first segue which is similar to 1. Outside: "Leon was up on that oh-so-heavenly party stage with a criss-cross machete/He could not wait for 12 o'clock midnight/He slashes around, cuts a zero in everything/I mean a zero in the fabric of time itself." This is followed by a short version of the rap as in the first track and the statement "Some day, the internet may become an information super-highway/Don't make me laugh!/A 19th century railroad that passes through the badlands of the Old West [...] Someday, the internet may become an information super-highway/Do not make me laugh!" At 5'50", the track ends with an excerpt from the 'Algeria Touchshriek' segue.

Leon Takes Us Outside/Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): another familiar song, 'Leon Takes Us Outside', opens the fourth track (6'50"). At 2'00" into this track, Bowie starts exclaiming "Choir!" and after another change in tempo at 2'40" he sings "First time, that I felt your grace/A tear ran down my cheek/The first time that I saw the boil/Put it on the neck." Next enters Nathan Adler with another segue and the song closes with Bowie singing "Moving through the crowd/In Oxford Town/Moving on the sidewalks/Faces to the ground/Oxford Town".

Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): this tracks (lasting 5'30") starts off with another Nathan Adler segue: "Someone once said that beauty is only deep-skin/While it has always been a stone in my flesh [...] You're better off without it/I mean, who eats the hard skin now, huh?/It ain't Ramona A Stone, that's for sure". This is followed by the detective singing "All the baby's left at home/And the sky is made of chrome/A breath-filled sky and it's made of chrome/There was a night of an OK riot [...] OK riot, with waving air [...] Yeah, I'd rather be chrome."

We'll Creep Together/Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): 'We'll Creep Together' is also familiar, albeit from the 1. Outside EPK only. However, here the song has two extra verses: "We'll find the small things, you and I/We'll just have small friends, you and I/We'll be small together/We'll be small together/We'll be small together, you and I/We'll end together, you and I/We'll end together, you and I/We'll end together/We'll end together/We'll end together, you and I". The synth line and drums of 'We'll Creep Together' continue into another Nathan Adler segue, which ends with the familiar "But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself". While the track proceeds as an instrumental, Bowie adds a line familiar from 'The Hearts Filthy Lesson': "Oh Ramona, can you hear me/Oh Ramona."

Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): the seventh track (5'15") consists entirely of spoken segues: "What are you in terror of?/Life needn't step on baby fingers/The minutes fall and the demons find their ways unencumbered/Half dead, poisoned by their own fatal art". Next is Nathan Adler and following him is Baby Grace Blue: "I think we're stuck in a web/A sort of nerve net/As it were, a sort of nerve-internet, as it were/We might be here for quite a long time, here, in this web or... internet, as it were/Gotta get away, gotta get away".

Nothing To Be Desired/Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): 'Nothing To Be Desired', which was released as a B-side only, forms the basis of the next track (5'50"). The lyrics include "The editors have done an excellent job/The selections are generous, the notations are scrupulously thoroughly/To believe that the quality of a CD-ROM can be conveyed through translation may seem presumptuous, but I believe the enterprise is greatly successful [...] The editorial apparatus of the CD-ROM leaves nothing to be desired." At 2'30" the song changes tempo: "In far-off California, there is no natural plan/Its mighty branching and its preponderant bowls weigh heavy on a sun-tag morning" and at 3'00" the track develops into a long version of the familiar 'Baby Grace Blue' segue: "And then I recognized the small friends, because one of them was a very infamous and he was a grand visionary, he was the grand visionary, he was who was on a television".

The Enemy Is Fragile (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): track eight (4'10") starts off with "Hallo Leon, would you like something really fishy?". On the Stamford Hill site, Reeves Gabrels identified this track as 'The Enemy Is Fragile'. "The enemy is always there/You could have been fighting to the death, but no!/Well, wrap up, and you'll go dancing, Leon!/Dance fishy?/Something in her mouth/There's something in her mouth/Something mysterious".

Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): next is a 2'23" piano ballad. The atmosphere of this track is quite similar to 'The Motel'.

Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): the penultimate track on the CD is a long version of the 'Algeria Touchshriek' segue, lasting five minutes: "Possibly, just maybe, after a nice cup of tea/Some trip of the time/We'll creep together down the memory lane/And then we'll be blind and full of bubbly ambition/Instead of the slump males that we are/Looking through windows for demons/Watching the young advance in all electric".

Unknown (Bowie/Eno/Gabrels/Garson/Kizilcay/Campbell): the final track, rather clumsily mixed in when the Touchshriek track fades out, is a totally different, up-tempo song: "Leon, lift up your eyes/The very stars are calling/Your name is Leon/Leon is your name/Murder!".




from web site link:
David Bowie - Illustrated db Discography > 1. Outside outtakes

 

Signed with my blood.

 

I'm sure there will be lots of stuff from Outside when the box set project catches up with that time period. Not the next box set, buy possibly the one after that. Give it a couple of years, and we're there.

 

I hope you're right. The track record of the box set project isn't so great when it comes to unreleased material, The Gouster not withstanding. It may be that the Bowie camp is planning individual deluxe editions once these box sets are done, but I would imagine that is some way down the road yet, if it ever even happens. I would be happy to just have some good quality digital downloads of this material if it would speed up availability. We're not getting any younger here.

Thanks for sharing the Bowie video. Love watching Bowie and Eno dicking around in the studio...

 

The influence of Eno in modern music is so big that we shall never measure the impact.

 

Not true, Outside was delayed because Virgin forced DB to include some more accessible material (No Control, Oxford Town and then finally the revamp of Strangers, which Bowie hated doing)

 

I'm more in favor of Inside Outside.

 

Well I have heard both stories and I think both may be right. Just not sure which moment came first.
I am guessing Bowie held back until hearing Tilt. Then when he released the tapes the record company said hold on there a minute.

So the record company wanted Strangers on Outside? I was thinking Bowie wanted it on a proper release and not lost in Suburbia.

 

From what i have read or been told various record companies turned down Leon in 1994 and it was Bowie's idea to record more tracks in early 95 and the album was actually completed before he had a record deal with virgin. Eno's diary does mention Bowie's concern about Scott Walkers new album and he was relieved when he heard it as outside was quite different , Eno also mentioned in the diary there were times when he thought outside would never come out.
There is a clip in one of the outside EPK's where Eno is talking about strangers and calls it Bowie's Bryan Ferry song and I could be wrong but he might have suggested that it was recorded, Bowie certainly liked playing it live.
In a fairly recent interview with Reeve's he said at first Eno was very uneasy about the whole band getting writing credits for what was then Leon, so that could have been another reason why it was not released, quite a few of the New York songs were credited Bowie and Eno.