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

sorry to derail the thread but reading this made me remember that i was at that festival with the young gods and we only made it to the site because we had a super detailed road map and took unmarked tiny side roads. half of the bands on our stage did not make it to their show....

unfortunately i did not get to see the bowie show. saw him a year later in switzerland fortunately, but man would i have loved to see one of the NIN/bowie shows. the "leon tapes" and "1. outside" are definitely my favourite bowie recordings after scary monsters, up until the final one. i love his vocals on "thru these architect's eyes". just wonderful.

 

I fully agree. Even at the time I wondered why it wasn't.

 

Ooh, you are in for a treat.

 

Thanks for posting this! I had heard about it, but had never actually heard the recording.

 

I chaptered the 3 suites to make more sense of the whole thing. Only the bold font indicates official track names and/or segue characters

1. I Am With Name • Segue: Nathan Adler • Segue: Ramona A. Stone / Unknown [10.21]
2. Unknown - "We'll Creep Together / Ramona A. Stone [This Is The Chrome]" [5.03]
3. Segue: Nathan Adler • Segue: Algeria Touchshriek / Unknown - "The 1337 Soldiers [Twist, Fly, Boy]" [6.42]
4. Leon Takes Us Outside • Segue: Nathan Adler / Unknown - "Wire! [The First Time & Oxford Town]" [6.49]
5. Segue: Nathan Adler / Unknown - "OK Riot [I'd Rather Be Chrome]" [5.30]
6. We'll Creep Together • Segue: Nathan Adler / Unknown [9.06]
7. Segue: Nathan Adler • Segue: Baby Grace / Unknown [5.13]
8. Nothing To Be Desired • Segue: Baby Grace [A Horrid Cassette] / Unknown [5.47]
9. The Enemy Is Fragile [4.10]
10. Unknown [Instrumental] [2.23]
11. Segue: Algeria Touchshriek / Unknown [5.27]
12. Unknown - "Leon" [4.37]

 

This has been an interesting thread and made me play the album again. I had picked 5 tracks and expected some changes after playing, but no: I Have Not Been To Oxford Town, No Control, We Prick You, I'm Deranged, Thru' These Architects Eyes.

After some 100 posts it's surprising to see Outside get more votes than Thru' These Architects Eyes

 

I'm surprised at some of the results so far. We Prick You is one of my favourites, even if you disagree, but it's way down in the dumps here.

 

Never heard this album until today. Wow. Love it. The minute Eno's name came up on a Google search I knew it had to be good. Is Eno not the other musical genius of my generation? And what a producer. What an ear! I also never knew where "I'm Deranged" came from, although I'd heard it a hundred times on David Lynch's "Lost Highway" soundtrack (compiled by Trent Reznor, who I am sure also adored this album!)

 

Poor Baby Grace.
Nobody loves her.

And now they just want me to be quiet
and I think something is going to be horrid.

 

I rank it number 1 post Scary Monster, and number 5 considering the entire Bowie´s discography.

I first heard it in 1995. I was blown away. Fantastic album.

My favorite tracks are:

1. Outside
2.The Motel
3. I Have Not Been To Oxford Town
4. No Control
5. Thru These Architect Eyes.

 

I'm Deranged
A Small Plot of land
Heart's Filthy Lesson
Spaceboy
Oxford Town

'I'm Deranged' should have been the single.

 

'We Prick You" one of my favorite Bowie tracks.....a fan since 1972.

Whats strange is I really dislike "Hallo Spaceboy" Bowie himself was very fond of the track.
I like it even less than "Modern Love" which to me is a Bowie hit that sounds nothing like Bowie.

 

I bought and heard 1.Outside the day it was released.
I don't "rank" albums, but I love this record and still play it often.
A 10 song version of 1.Outside is...what? I can't hear you. At most you could cut the remake at the end.

It was difficult, but I picked:
The Heart's Filthy Lesson
No Control
The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
(Segue) Ramona A. Stone/I Am With Name
I'm Deranged

 

I went with "Outside," "Heart's Filthy Lesson," "No Control," and "Strangers When We Meet."

"Outside" is just such a mood-setter that I don't know what else to say about it. It's this weird, surrealist, future noir world and that song encapsulates it perfectly.

"Hearts Filthy Lesson..." What can I say? It deserved to a single. Sick and catchy.

"No Control" is a great song to sing along with. I love the imagery and build up.

"Strangers When We Meet" is an unpopular "label" addition to the album as near as I can tell, but it's also a good come-down from the impenetrable story and its darkness. A sad song that doesn't feel sad. I'm glad it closes things out.

Not sure I could offer a truncated version of the album as it feels right in its finished form. Anything less would just feel like a fan mix.

I don't have a strict hierarchy for Bowie albums, but I'd have to approximate this one within my top 5 overall and certainly top 3 post-Scary Monsters

 

Outside is with Heathen in my top ten Bowie albums.
The other 8 albums are from the 70's output till Scary Monsters

 

Outside
The Hearts Filthy Lesson
Hallo Spaceboy
The Voyeur of Utter Destruction
I'm Deranged

I list those just to play along. Every track is crucial on this album; there will be no editing down to 10 on my part.

Got it on day of release. With skepticism; I don't like every Bowie album. But this one struck me as perfect on the very first spin. Few do atmosphere like the Thin White Duke.

Post-Scary, there is no DB album near as good. I'd rank Outside equal to the best of the Berlin period.

 

My Outside collection:

 

Unfortunate title. I always think, "Oh, this is one of the few dogs on the album", but then I play it and I'm all, "Oh, it's THAT song, not that one. Awesome"

 

Here are my top 5 (in no particular order)...

• The Hearts Filthy Lesson
• Hallo Spaceboy
• The Motel
• The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (as Beauty)
• I'm Deranged

If the entire album was as good as it's best 60%, it would likely be one of my top 3 Bowie albums of all time. And even as it is, I rank it about #6 or #7. Overall, I'd say 6-8 of the tunes from Outside are as top-drawer as they come, far as I'm concerned.

I'm also kind of semi-obsessed with this rehearsal version of "I'm Deranged" -- which is a fair bit busier, noisier, and I love Mike Garson's solo on it a ton too. This version hasn't ever been released (and is confirmed to be from a rehearsal of the band, prepping for the 1995 tour)...

 

Maybe then you should give the album more regular spins. He sings We Prick You 18 times during the chorus, hard to get confused.

 

Tell the truth, FITS. Tell the truth.

Actually my problem is that I always think it's something from "Earthling", which is still great, but, song-for-song has more dogs than "Outside". 1994-1997 kinda melt together for me sometimes.



And in 5 pages, has anyone yet admitted they hate "Hallo Spaceboy"???

 

Certainly not a favourite for me, second most popular in this poll. But then with most polls, people will vote for singles, even if they didn't storm any charts.

 

The following is only my opinion of course.

I kind of dismissed this album and decided to give it a new chance today but it gave me a headache. While there probably are 4-5 great songs on it, it just looses the plot because of the plot...
For me, concept albums only work

a) When it's an incredibly interesting story
b) When the music is good enough to work divorced from the narrative

None is true about Outside. It's a mildly off-putting true grime story that's not interesting at all. The real songs are hidden in a morass of rapping over dated 90s trip hop jams.

I think Bowie was trying to shock himself into regaining his creative form after his mid 80s pop superstar era and the good if ultimately failed Tin Machine experiment, and maybe it worked, but it's a tough listen that doesn't reap rewards.

 

Irrelevant since the question was what are your five favourite tracks

 

NightGoatToCairoForum ResidentThread Starter
When did you first hear this album?
How do rank it post-Scary Monsters?

To add: I rank it below Tin Machine. Below Let's Dance.