With the recent release of the David Bowie Limited Edition Box Set CD, it seems like a good time to take stock of what I refer to, perhaps a bit presumptuously, as ‘late-period’ David Bowie. The 5 albums contained in the box - Outside, Earthling, Hours…, Heathen, and Reality, were released between 1995 and 2003, falling into periods that Wikipedia term Bowie’s “Electronica” and “Neo-Classical” phases. Considering that it has been 5 years since has last release, and that Bowie recently turned 61 and has been taking the last few years easy after a minor heart attack, it feels safe to call these releases bookends to his creative output, at least in the rock realm. I also sincerely hope that we never have to endure watching him sing “Changes” on some greatest-hits farewell tour at the age of 70, which brings me to the main point of all this which is that Bowie never really played that game.

I will never forget my first Bowie concert, during the Outside tour, which was a co-headlining tour with Nine Inch Nails. The show was at Meadowlands in New Jersey, and took place about a week before Outside was actually released. NIN and Bowie were trading the headlining spot night after night and I was fortunate enough to see a night where Bowie played second. It was pretty obvious that there was a strong NIN contingent there, because easily a third to half of the crowd left after NIN’s set. Too bad for them. Those who were there for Bowie and expecting a run-through of his greatest hits were in for a disappointing surprise, because he proceeded to play the as-of-yet unreleased 70 minute long Outside album from front to back, pulling out “Under Pressure” and a couple of other hits only at the encore. While nearly all aging rockers of Bowie’s generation were either retired, or, with the exception of Neil Young and maybe a couple of other artists, out rehashing their glory years summer after summer, here Bowie was 28-odd years into his career, pushing the envelope yet again on record and onstage.

Outside is a dense, challenging work, and I posit that it is easily among his best, alongside Ziggy Stardust or Aladdin Sane. Of his entire catalog, Aladdin Sane is probably the most akin to Outside, with Mike Garson’s atonal piano wanderings splattered across the sonic palettes of both albums like a drunk Art Tatum reading a Bartok score backwards. Outside is also far darker, and in that respect closer to the trilogy of albums he did in the late 70s with Brian Eno, or Scary Monsters, which followed. Is there filler material on Outside? Sure, not least of all the segues that link the songs that are part of the storyline, itself a thread on which the songs hang loosely as far as I can tell. But, what Bowie album doesn’t have a few misses?

Earthling, perhaps named to somehow subliminally cause association with the only other album in his entire catalog that rocks as hard - The Man Who Sold The World, while not as dark or complex as Outside, still showed Bowie exploring and pushing boundaries. The electronic element is pushed even further on this record, and quite a few of the songs have jungle-style drum tracks, further evidence that Bowie has always kept up with the latest fashions, both in clothes and in music. While he could have been out playing “Changes” for the 4,317th time, he was crafting songs like “I’m Afraid of Americans”, which in retrospect sounds like it could have been penned post-9/11, but instead was recorded a good 5 years previous:

“Johnny wants a brain
Johnny wants to suck on a Coke
Johnny wants a woman
Johnny wants to think of a joke…Johnny’s an American…

I’m afraid of Americans
I’m afraid of the world
I’m afraid I can’t help it..

God is an American
God is an American” - David Bowie

Am I saying that these lyrics are high art? No. It’s certainly a far cry from a Dylan, or a Cohen, but not bad at all for an aging glam rocker who has more to lose than gain by such sentiments. And check out how hard it rocks:



If you need further proof of how Bowie not only never lost his “cool”, but even upped the ante in his later years, compare this slightly cringe-worthy video and recorded version of a song about religion, “Loving The Alien”, with a recent live version:





I’ve thought about this long and hard, and with the exception of Neil Young, as I mentioned earlier, I’m hard-pressed to think of too many other “mainstream” music artists still exploring and trying new things into their golden years. I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, so I’d love to hear input on this. While I don’t own Hours…, Heathen and Reality are albums that fall, somewhat antithetical to this post, into Bowie’s neo-classical period, which saw a return to focusing on strong pop songs, and some wonderful, choice covers by artists like The Pixies, George Harrison, and Modern Lovers. They seemed to be a bit of a step back, another reassessment, and if nothing else a chance to go out and reinvent some older songs and show people that aging artists aren’t required to simply re-hash their hits year after year on the road.

If you are curious at all about what Bowie has been up to since the last time you realistically most likely heard from him, in the 80s, do yourself a favor and AT LEAST pick up Outside.