David Bowie '1. Outside' What are your five favourite tracks?

No, had to get off right after the gig. Can’t remember why now. Probably got a lift from a mate from Birmingham. I lived in Scotland at the time.

 

Stop reading NME!
Oh! Come on, he did good at the 50th gig considering what it could have been.

 

Yeah, I like it, but it was a bit like The Oscars or something. It wasn't hip.
Edit: It was old indie bands who Bowie liked. Were there any teenagers or people with a fresh attitude? Can't really remember.

 

Eh?!

 

When did you first hear this album?
When it first came out. I bought it.

How do rank it post-Scary Monsters?
Behind Blackstar, The Next Day, even behind his 80s pop albums which I like. Better than Heathen.

What would your 10 track version be?
Side One:

1. Outside (4:04)
2. The Heart’s Filthy Lesson (4:57)
3. A Small Plot of Land (6:34)
4. The Motel (6:50)
5. I Have Not Been to Oxford Town (3:48)

Side Two:

1. No Control (4:34)
2. Voyeur of Utter Destruction (4:21)
3. Wishful Beginnings (5:08)
4. We Prick You (4:35)
5. I’m Deranged (4:31)

 

1. On the day of release.
2. It is my favorite DB album EVER.
3. I don't like this question

...but I can tell you what my favorite 5 tracks are:

Hearts filthy lesson
The voyeur of utter destruction (as beauty)
No control

These three are absolute gems for me.

And then there is

I have not been to Oxford town
I'm deranged

 

You know - wheeling out all the celebs for the benefit of TV. A bit of a self-congratulatory love-in.
(In reply to "Eh?")

 

Slick is my man, different strokes I guess

 

@Gorts please restrain me; I cannot be held responsible for etc

 

Sure, he is just as fab in his own way, just not on those numbers.

 

Nope. I didn't know it existed until I looked it up, which I just did.

Thanks!

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

I don't think the arragements served what he was capable of, particularly not "Americans" as Bowie insisted on doing the final chorus again and again onstage instead of ending with the creepy "God is an American" coda from the excellent V1 remix

 

You could compare that to the later Earthling Tour renditions/LiveAndWell.com?

My fault [again] we are now off topic

 

Heart's Filthy Lesson, Deranged and Spaceboy are the standouts for me, though the rest is very good also. These songs in particular though signaled a real return to form. Bowie and Eno brought out the best in each other and it's a shame they didn't work together more.

 

Wasn’t that when he was into Photek, Tricky...? I can’t remember either.

I recall someone I knew claiming they saw him in shades at some hardcore drum and bass thing in London. It sounded unlikely as he was hardly ever in the UK at that period as far as I knew, but the person who said it was not a namedropping type at all, he knew plenty well known people in his own right and cared little for Bowie, so maybe it was true.

 

No, no, I'm the one who brought up the Earthling tour arrangements and that one is great! No idea why they dumbed it down for the Heathen/Reality band, the one moment of the show that always dragged a bit for me, but hey ho they can't all be winners

"Hallo Spaceboy" sounded huge to me with Slick, though

 

Interesting you'd put it below the 80s stuff but above Heathen.

 

Compared to the 95-97 shows?!

 

You know Dave and Eno were communicating in later years, ie not that long ago, about revisiting 1: Outside and all its material? Heartbreaking but true. Sorry to be the bearer of the news

 

I very rarely play this album but Strangers When We Meet is one of the finest songs he ever released.

 

Five Favourite Tracks:

1. Thru' These Architects Eyes
2. The Motel
3. I'm Deranged
4. The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
5. Hallo Spaceboy (the album version)

When did you first hear this album?

I bought and played Outside on release day.

Crucially though, I first heard eight of its 14 core songs on September 20, 1995, the fourth show on the Outside Bowie/NIN tour, six days before the album's release. That was utter madness, DB frontloading his contentious set with so many heretofore unknowns (Reznor left the stage after Hurt, and DB's opening solo salvo is Filthy Lesson/Deranged/Oxford Town/Prick You/Utter Destruction/Plot Of Land). I was a committed fan of some 12 years, but the sheer information overload left me discombobulated. My main takeaways from that 30-minute stretch was that Oxford had elements of Alomar's stop-start Fame funk riff, Prick You had an annoying shouted chorus and Plot Of Land was deeply cinematic. Any Scott Walker overtones would've gone over my head in 1995. Historical accounts are indeed correct: the mosh-pit crowd thinned out a bit once it became clear NIN were off for good, and by the end of the Outside brace there were loads of empty seat groupings and audience restlessness. I loved him even more for it, but I can appreciate there'd be wildly differing reactions.

How do you rank it post-Scary Monsters?

Third place, post-1980, very close behind Buddha Of Suburbia, with Blackstar in the gold medal position.

What would your 10 track version be?

Easiest thing is to scuttle the narrative tracks first, and among the core songs, drop the extraneous Strangers When We Meet. That still leaves 12. The "uglier" songs are key to the flow, and frankly I like the atmosphere they generate. It was a wonderful little period for DB and I think he deserves to ramble on for the full 75 minutes!

 

Bowie had plenty of time between 2005 and 2010 to tend to this stuff

 

"Tolllll the bell,
Pay the Private Eye
All is well,
20th Century Dies"

I'm hoping Eno will get involved in supervising a deluxe 1. Outside at some point, then, including culling some of the unheard sessions into shape. I would bet he will. He Tweets a ton of Bowie stuff still.

Memorably, after his passing, I read a comment Trent Reznor made in Rolling Stone about that tour, that Dave told him he was going to go out and play a lot of unfamiliar stuff, and knowing that he was probably going to take a hit for it, but that that was what he wanted to do at the time for himself.

 

I had to look that up!

 

I recall how plain, but stark the stage was. It did help me focus on the music. I regret not appreciating it more, since I was hoping he would play songs from his '70s catalog. Reeves Gabrels was tearing it up with those fast fingers. I need to look at the setlist again, because I do remember Bowie and the bassist (forgive me for forgetting her name at the moment) doing Under Pressure as the encore. NINs was a great opening act too.