Bowie's Outside: C or D?

Outside is one of those Bowie albums I loved upon release but now think it's overbaked. "No Control" and "I'm Deranged" are marvelous, and "Strangers When We Meet" is one of his best ballads ever, not to mention his use of Colin Newman-esque non sequiturs in a moving way. The rest I can live without.

i feel that is one of the most overlooked songs in the entire bowie catalog.

If I'm remembering correctly, the interludes on Outside album were recorded with the band using Eno's 'strategies for musicians' cards. I'm interested, too, in what all the band did in the full sessions for these.

it's unfortunate but OUTSIDE's attempts (conscious or not) to revisit the magic of the berlin trilogy came up unfounded.

If I remember right, the video for "Heart's Filthy Lesson" really underlined the connection to NIN, it was all creepy gothy and shot to look like it was on washed out old film stock and such.

Heathen is one of my favorite Bowie albums (Alex, did you hear it?), but I did not like Hours much and found Earthling kinda meh.

The more I listen to this, the more I think that had he junked the concept, this would easily would be regarded as one of his best records -- even with the concept, it still is, but I think some/most people can't get past, like, 10 minutes of narrations to recognize that. And pity, b/c then he goes off into Earthling, which is everything people accused this record of. But as its film soundtrackification proves, a ton of these songs on their own stand very tall indeed. Such is the price of pretension...

Exactly.

"Listened to D.B. disk...The only thing missing: space -- the nerve to be very simple."

If memory serves, that was almost word for word Eno's critique of Lodger -- seems like they work against each other that way. Where Eno taking over means he ferrets out the unnecessary elements, it seems Bowie's instinct is to clutter things. Same thing happened with the Berlin Trilogy, where he started off a Nazi-saluting mess and gradually got his act together.

Still, he clutters interestingly.

Last.fm is urgently recommending someone named "David Bowie" to me, so I need to root around in the archives for something to balance my play count. I haven't listened to Outside... well, since it came out. I thought I'd ask what others have asked before -- did any more of the Outside/Eno sessions leak out?

Outside is one of my absolute favorite Bowie albums, and about the only one on which I can stand Reeves Gabriels' guitar. The story goes that, during the sessions, Eno handed out cards to each member of the band that instructed them to play a role like "Spaced-out jazz guitarist from Pluto" or something in order to get everyone to play a little unlike how they'd normally play. So maybe that's why I like his guitar playing on this album -- he's not playing like Reeves Gabriels, but some fictional guitarist.

Also, the album features Mike Garson (oh man... "Small Plot of Land" is good stuff) and Joey Baron (!!)

As for the segues... whatever. I kind of like them, even if they do interrupt the flow of the album a bit.

Still, "Heart's Filthy Lesson," "Small Plot of Land," "I'm Deranged," "No Control," and, especially, "Strangers When We Meet" are among my favorite Bowie songs. "Oxford Town" and "Spaceboy" are up there, too. Really, an underrated album, and one that towers over everything he's done since then.

Yep. And here's a link to said instructions. If I had to pick but one track from this album, it would probably be "A Small Plot Of Land".

For me, the most outstanding track would easily be Leon Takes Us Outside/Outside. Also, the Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette)/Hallo Spaceboy sequence.

1) It's been revived several times, despite a really lazy opening post by yours truly.

2) There exists virtually unanimous consensus that there are at least a few good songs on this.

3) There exists absolutely zero consensus as to which songs those good songs are.

Revive...again!

Eight years to the month later (it appears I spend a lot of time over holiday breaks on ILM), going thru a bit of an Eno phase and I still feel the same way about this record. But there are a few other things to note:

1. Of the many little bits of melody on this record, the coda to "The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)" (awesome title, fwiw)...the "Research is...etc....call it a day" part is a particularly great and overlooked one that hasn't yet been mentioned.

2. It's odd to me there aren't more people praising the hell out of "Thru' These Architects' Eyes" -- it's an unbelievable climax to the record and one of the most majestic and, er, heroic things he's ever done. Fairly monsterous dub bassline, too.

3. Of all the records in the Berlin Trilogy, it seems to me Outside hews closest to Lodger -- stuffed full of melodies, places and references that are individually impressive and, often, overwhelming.

4. "Strangers When We Meet" is one song I always everyone say they like. Other than the kind of hilarious "Gimme Some Lovin'" bass riff that starts it, the song's never struck me before (it's also from Buddha of Suburbia, IIRC). Am listening now -- enjoying it.

I may have said it before: "Strangers When We Meet" is top fifteen Bowie for me, the best example of his lyrical cut-up technique resulting in a beautiful, unsettling statement.

I still like it a lot (interludes included).
Probably overcooked, but still the best Bowie album since Scary Monsters.

Does anyone have a decent boot of the Outside sessions? Apparently, Reeves Gabrels talks about this "4-hour improvised opera" that ended up being used for the interludes on the record. I dl'd something the other night on slsk which sounds like it may be part of it, but whose sound quality is crap, has tons of rough edits, and of the 9 tracks or so, appears to replay the same one at least 3 or 4 times.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, July 15, 2005 12:35 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

I have this, a gift from a Bowie diehard.

Lucky.

"We Prick You" = my secret favorite.

I'll stand by this judgment of mine (nearly ten years on!). Who all saw the tour?

I DID. It was my first-ever concert that wasn't high school hardcore. I don't remember anything about the set list but was so impressed by Reeves Gabrels.

at the time the reviews were horrid for the most part

Really? I only read the review of the show I went to, in Toronto, and it was positive. They did note that the crowd thinned dramatically after NIN.

In LA the Forum crowd remained pretty strong through the end. He was still in his 'I'm not doing the back catalog the old way' phase so I remember the revamps of "The Man Who Sold the World" and "Andy Warhol" in particular. Great staging as well.

I saw the Bologna show and was GREAT.
I remember they started with Look Back In Anger and I almost fainted - just like Ned said, there were great versions of Man Who Sold The World (super icy), Andy Warhol and Nite Flights (Hello Spaceboy was also impressive).

Here in the States it was the NIN/Bowie set-bleed-over thing -- the collaborative tracks were Bowie emerging while Trent was doing some saxophone, Bowie and NIN doing "Scary Monsters," Bowie and NIN doing "Reptile," Bowie and his band *and* NIN doing "Hello Spaceboy," then "Hurt," then NIN bowing out. Pretty crazy great.

I saw this show, it was awesome. saw bowie on the reality tour again a few years later, also awesome. I don't remember any reviews of the outside tour being horrid. the glass spider tour, yes,

And so the Outside era begins.

:-D

Now that I no longer like things that make sense, I'll have to go listen to it again.

daria g OTM.

He correctly pointed out that "Strangers When We Meet" is the classic of his autumnal years.

Decided to put this on tonight... First words on the album are "2015...16".

think i'm at the point where this is my favorite bowie album but idk

just listening to this properly and it's even more 'early/mid 90s trip-hop' than i'd have guessed. some of it sounds like Madonna's Human Nature. The Motel for one.

*Erotica i mean

Baby Grace is the victim
she was fourteen years of age

this record is definitely divisive, I know people who just think it's the worst thing ever.

Fantastic. Thank you Ned.

Yer welcome!

One album I've heard maybe twice and will never listen to again, another album I wouldn't listen to on a dare... and yet the piece itself is fascinating. Really good stuff.

I’ll take that compliment, thanks indeed!

Looking forward to reading that, Ned!

Reading through that epic Wikipedia entry makes me think that this record would make a terrific subject for a deluxe box – collecting a properly mixed Leon Tapes, all the remixes, outtakes, and live material obv. But also an Eno mix (perhaps decluttering things), and some great essays by Eno about the recording itself and their plans for a series, maybe others from Gabrels and someone like Chris O’Leary explaining it all and providing the historical context for this record within Bowie’s work.

Would it happen? Dunno. Eno has never shown much interest in revisiting this (or much of his past work TBH), plus I’m not sure it really fits into the series that they’ve been doing to date (Who Can I Be Now?, etc.). But it would rule.

It definitely doesn’t fit the career spanning box sets that they are more or less done with, minus Tin Machine. Those didn’t really have much in the way of outtakes.

But they are now putting out sets that tie in with the different albums that are loaded with unreleased stuff. Aladdin Sane/Pinups should be next, so eventually there may be an Outside set. Who knows if the series will continue that long though.

I don't think society will last long enough for an outside box if they go at the rate they're going

I have the Leon Sessions bootleg somewhere on CD (it was an apropos gift from a friend) and it's interesting!