David Bowie: Outside

Wow, and I got the last one on Amazon.co.uk for 52 £ last week!

 

‘Outside’ is perfect as it is. It is a masterpiece. There is nothing that can be jettisoned from it without ruining the record. The spoken interludes are essential. Their improvised instrumental backing tracks add to the strange atmosphere of the album. This is not a case where an album is bloated just because it's the CD era and artists don’t know when to stop. This album is an epic and meant to be a huge labyrinth of sound and story.

I have played this album more times than I can count in the past two decades. Probably hundreds of times at this point. It is in my top 3 Bowie albums. It is tuneful, atmospheric, dark yet strangely exuberant. It is a latter day masterpiece and not a second of its 74 minute run time is filler or waste. Don't make me come over there.

 

I agree, but I still can't find the love for Get Real
Also, the live version of Moonage Daydream from the Hallo Spaceboy single is magical!

 

It's ok for a bonus track but I don't think that much of it.

"Nothing To Be Desired" is far more interesting.

 

I forgot about that one...will have to pull it out.

 

Outside is a pleasant album if you ignore the 14 year old girl eviscerated and splayed between two speakers.

Is this really the guy who sang with Bing Crosby?

 

I like your style!
Agree 100%.

 

Man oh man did I struggle to get into this one. I used to frequent the Teenage Wildlife message board and there was a group of hardcore supporters who swore this was his best work. I still don't love the album but there are a handful of great tracks on it. I honestly don't think I have listened to it in a decade or more.

 

Ha, ha! Difficult album that one. I've enjoyed it since it came out, but "Black Tie White Noise" is the one I'm really starting to like. The more I listen, the better it gets. Have had that and the "Real Cool World" CD single on for three days straight!

 

I've had BTWN forever but only got into it in the last couple of years. Still mean to give Outside a go. One day.

 

Nothing to be desired works best as part of the outtakes.

 

Absolutely right.

It needs the spoken intro, that lets it build.

 

I think "Earthling" is better than "Outside", but outside is great aswell!

When the present Bowie hype has calmed down, I will look for the 10th anniversary "Black Tie White Noise" CD.

 

Gabrels on lead.

 

I do like Earthling.

 

So those Leon sessions that appeared on youtube... Well, the flac has found its way to the internet.

 

As far as I know, all these files are mp3 sourced.

 

No, these are legit, I'm talking about the full suites that surfaced

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFSw9pf0Nkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GgYBKvufh4

 

I had the Japanese CD of this from day one because I wanted the lyrics so Get Real has always been there at the end.

It's not a "love" for Get Real! I think it works quite well as light relief (pop) at the end of a fairly intense album. If it were a film it would be the music the credits would run to or equivalent to the Chiffons Sweet Talking Guy at the end of the Cure In Orange, pretty irrelevant and inconsequential but it works!

 

This was news to me. Good news too.

 

I just found the DE of Outside on spotify and plan to listen to bonus tracks this afternoon.

 

Some information about the Leon "outtakes" that leaked

Paperdragon, Bowie Station:

"I talked to one of the musicians who is on this and got a more complete story. First, these aren’t outtakes at all and, second, they weren’t initially intended to be a Bowie album. The idea was to form a sort of supergroup behind Bowie and Eno, and record an album as a one-off project for that group. This is essentially that album. So what we have here is a fully-realized concept album for a group that never came into existence.

It was then presented to the record company, who as we all know rejected it as “uncommercial.” After that, Bowie used parts of it as the basis for an entirely new project, which became 1.Outside. So, had this been released, Outside would have never happened. So, rather than this being outtakes from Outside, it’s actually more true that Outside was based on outtakes from The Leon Suites, an album in its own right."

 

Wow - so this would have been the completed record? Brave. (By Bowie but very cowardly by the record company.) So there are still outtakes. Reeves and Bowie talked about hours of them.

 

I'm getting excited about this, on second listen. Thanks a lot for posting. Hoping someday it will get a proper release. Beautiful. from 16:04 for instance

 

I listened to the segue, "I'm With Name" yesterday and the percussion is brilliant and impossible to figure out, almost.