How would you rate "Outside" (1995) by David Bowie?

(Nathan Adler)

Then there was nothing left to do but to bring on the Nut Soldiers

Round up the packet sniffers

And clear up what remained of that sensational mouth(?)

It’s sensational her mouth(?) just a little untight

Excuse me while I wax poetic

The ashes that ran, fleshy debris and silicone chip-bits

Electrocutes the evil and smells

Thank you,

For me its like plain chaos, and I am the fixer.



Someday 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!



It was a great conversation.



Hey Funny, say goodnight - Say goodnight

No no, say ‘Goodnight funny’, No no, say ‘Goodnight funny’



Hey hey, here we are back at the Laugh Hotel!



I was sittin there at the Laugh Hotel the other night looking for window demons,

When out comes this Leon in a jungle weed,

A mop of the slouch unreal maybe triple locker(?) ,

a trip of the tongue from the slump male

 

(Algeria Touchshriek)

I’m Mr. Touchshriek of Touchshriek Mail Over and Fantasy

And I sells egg shells off the sheshores and empty females

I met Leon Hunt...

Bit of a dark spiral with no end, I thought

Sunday mail over with his deeply felt greys.

 

(The Artist/Minotaur)

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

Each dirty tune produces

Its own nobility of form

Each pays a different piper, a daft pauper

O machine, how did we fail thee?

I guess I feel like a machine

That cannot be cranked anymore

My gabbers(?) are broken and bent,

Like a wall strangled by Ivy...

 

(Nathan Adler)

I remember a dame called Ivy

Drove around on a hearse

Someway south in Oxford town

Near the mosque

Graffiti, cappuccino, you name it

They had it all, those were the days

In those days everyone was psycho-political

What a humbug packet sniffers they are now

Take Leon... please!

 

(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

Scum, red dog,

We might be here, for quite a long time, here

In this web... or internet, as it were

And and and and red dog

Gotta get away

 

(Baby Grace Blue)

Umm.. Test, testing, testing

This, hmmm, Grace is my name

And, there was, umm

It was like phot... a fading photograph of

A patch, a patchwork quilt.

And they've put me on these...

Ramona put me on these interest drugs

So I'm thinking very, too, bit too fast like a brain patch

Like I’ve got this so..(sigh)

This soul brain patch, and its got...

I got the shakers on it with this neuro-transmit.. (sigh)

And ah.. they won’t let me see anybody

Except the breeders in the enclave

And the check players, and I can still hear some....

If I want to sometimes and I ask

I can still hear some pop...popular musics

And aftershocks, and they say what...

They say what were...um...What were you doing?

What was I doing when I saw the small friends?

And I said that (cough),

I’ve been watching a television of, a television of

Geoffrey’s ‘Eat the Breast’ about, um.. the British revolution

And something about the second protector, er...

Was a news coaster in err.. the homelands

Yes, the new homelands, Um..

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

The one who was on a television, um..

Who made soul patches the law, and..

That’s all I can remember

And now they just want me to be quiet

And to worship the lot,

And I think something is going to be horrid...

 

(Ramona A. Stone)

Hello Leon,

Would you like something, really fishy?

I gave up flogging in Oxford

The enemy is fragile, ohhh

Who has seen this furious man?

Who will rid me of this shaking head?



It was just a fading photograph drunk on the black leather sofa,

Glass fronted, forgotten by the last tenant.



Who will rid me of this shaking head?

Who has seen this furious man?

The enemy is fragile

But he has no, has no

The enemy has always been here

You could have been fighting to the death, but nooo

Well wrap up and we’ll go dancing Leon

Dance fishing?

Something in her mouth

There’s something in her mouth

Something mysterious

There’s something in her mouth

Between... patois and Beckett

I bet it is a speech

 

(Algeria Touchshriek)

My name is Mr. Touchshriek

Of Touchshriek Mail Over and Fantasy

I sell egg shells off the shesores and empty females



I'm thinking of leasing the room above my shop

To a Mr. Walloff Domburg

A reject from the world wide intellect

He is a broken man

I am also a broken man

It would be nice to have company

We could have great conversations



Possibly, just maybe... after a nice cup of tea

From a trip of the tongue

We’ll creep together, down a memory lane

And then we’ll be young

And full of bubbly ambition

Instead of the slump males that we are

Looking through windows for demons

Watching the young advancing all electric



A small shop on the corner is really no more

Than the dark spiral with no end

I’m in a street behind the museum of modern parts

The buildings are close together

No more than 10 feet between one side

Of the street, and the other

There’s not much in the way of daylight

But at least we don’t get the rain... Which is a blessing



Some of the houses still have inhabitants in them

I'm not sure if they're from this country or not

I don't get to speak much to... anyone or that sort of thing

If I had another broken man

Oh, I dream of something like that

Not sure if they're from this country or not



I mean, who am I supposed to be driving?

 

I agree, but there was a part of Bowie that always wanted to be Iggy. It's just that it's much more convenient to cover your old mate's songs (particularly if they're ones you co-wrote) when you're short of material, as he was 82-84.

 

Disengenous, yup but I'm not sure I understand your point? The Tina 'duet' has only been zoomed in on because of the liver version from 85 that was later released as a single. The Tonight version is really just TT doing some barely audible backing vocals. I was surprised they didn't make more of it at the time of the 1984 single release but it was still very much a David Bowie record.

But Bowie was instrumental in helping her secure her deal with Capitol. Remember the pix from after a show in New York '83 where he got the label execs to check her out? They celebrated by getting sh1tfaced with Keef on Moet after the gig. Just call them bubbles, dahling.

 

Since he co wrote the song I do not see it as a cover. It is a reimagining or reworking, and China girl is a great song.

 

Not my work by the way! I can already see lyrics that I believe are incorrect!

 

Yes Night only supplied me with someone else's version of the lyrics.

So how do you listen to Leon? All by itself? Before the original album or after it? Or do you change it up?

 

I don't. 1. Outside is fine as it is

 

1. Outside has got some great tracks on it, A Small Plot of Land being my favourite.

The other standout tracks are:
- Hallo Spaceboy
- Segue - Ramona A. Stone · I Am with Name
- We Prick You
- I'm Deranged

The album is a mixed bag though and the rest of the tracks aren't essential for me.

 

My first post on this forum. Been lurking around a bit over the past few years...

But recently I've been 'rediscovering' Outside and here's just my 2 cents. I've been going back and forth to it over the past few years, always having doubts. But recent extensive listening to the album have made me really appreciate it very much. It's no top Bowie for me, but just a tiny bit below it. A lot of great songs imo with The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty) as my favorite. The guitar work and buildup near the end on that track are absolutely amazing. Other favorites are the title track, Hearts Filthy Lesson, Hallo Spaceboy, We Prick You. Most of the segues are interesting, but don't really do much for me. Wishful Beginnings and A Small Plot Of Land are my least favorite tracks.

I've been thinking that some ambient pieces or soundscapes (in the same vein as on Low) might be more fitting instead of the segues. Really too bad that Bowie didn't finish the follow-up albums to Outside. I would have liked that (a lot) more than Earthling and Hours. A new sort of 'dystopian' trilogy with Eno...

So in a nuthsell: very good record with a lot of gems, but needs some polishing. I voted 'Pretty great, worth recommending'.

 

i too thin that wishfull beginnings is the low point. but i believe the segues form the back bone of the album. without them you do not have a conceopt album.

 

They need to release Leon.

 

Apparently I'm Afraid Of Americans was originally planned for Outside. I like it the way it is though, I wouldn't mess with Outside - just release whatever else is in the can - for me this stuff is so significant I can't believe it's just being left to rot because it's not commercial.

 

That would be great, but I don't expect it to see the light of day.
I need to have it on my shelf.

 

Sad but true.

 

New interview with Mike Garson. In the second half he talks about recording some 50 hours during the Outside sessions on 48 tracks, intended for a trilogy. He says the fact that the tapes got stolen made Bowie hold back on the two other albums.

 

More on the Outside sessions, the stolen tapes and the way they were released on bootleg, plus his willingness to finish the material with Brian someday in this Vogue interview, towards the end.

David Bowie’s Musical Director, Mike Garson, on Keeping the Flame Alive—And the Unreleased Trilogy That Almost Was

 

"We did the 45 hours, and then David and Brian Eno turned that work into songs. And there was a lot of leftover material—enough for two more albums then—but then some ******* stole the tapes and put out all these bootlegs of incomplete improvisations, and it took the life out of the material before he died. The bootlegs themselves were just improvs, not shaped pieces—but it took the life out of the material."

So are we to assume that the Leon Suites floating around the internet are the incomplete improvisations that were bootlegged?