いよいよ9月25日が近づいて来ましたねー

As J. Krishnamurti once asked an interviewer point-blank (not Leon Blank, but point...er...):

"So, what is an artist, Sir?"

And my answer to his enquiry is this:

David Bowie's 1. Outside LP

Or, rather, this is just one variation on/to an "answer" to this larger-than-life and impossible-to-answer question of literally an infinite number of "answers" (or responses).

But what is emblematic to me about this LP is as follows.

In 1994 David Bowie, Brian Eno as producer, and a group of musicians that included Erdal Kızılçay on bass, Mike Garson (jazz musician) on piano/keys, Sterling Campbell on drums, and Reeves Gabrels (who now plays for The Cure) on guitar, trekked over to Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland (the same place, by the bye, where the bulk of the "Lodger" LP had been recorded in 1979, though it is often misquoted as having been recorded in Berlin as part of the so-called "Berlin Triptych" of the late '70s) and, for several days, they created this incredible, mostly improvised, IndustrialMusicMeetsAlternativeMusicMeetsNoirFilmMeets (etc.) extremely non-commercial, no-holds-barred sequence of "suites" that, unsurprisingly, and even after being whittled down from five to three suites (i.e. in order to fit it onto a single CD rather than forcing the label to make it a double -- this was the '90s, OK?), was SUMMARILY REJECTED by the label.

The bad news was and is that "The Leon Suites" was never released to the public officially.

But there is some good news too.

The first thing is that the first three, or the "main three," at least, suites, the ones that had been rejected for the "single CD" version were eventually shared IN FULL via YouTube (by whom? possibly, some argue, by someone in the Bowie camp who may have been given the green light by the man himself, perhaps because he would have realized that his label was never going to release it at all by that point...), after circulating as MP3 downloads and bootleg CDs for several years in fragmentary/incomplete pieces (kind of the way that Baby Grace's body was strung up "on the mind filters," one may suppose)...

The second really, really great news was that, in 1995, David and the boys (I don't think Gail Ann was yet a part of his entourage, so I can say "the boys," right?) went BACK into the studio in New York to record additional "more commercial" material (except still rather uncommercial by the usual standards of "popular music(s)" [and aftershocks...]). This material was released on the OFFICIAL LP, which was called "1. Outside" (click on the link above to stream the album in its entirety, with a bonus track tagged on, too, the same one I'd heard when I bought it in Osaka in '95, since I had the 日本版 CD).

And "1. Outside" was released on, right: September 25, 1995.

That's 30 years ago come this Thursday.

Bowie had to shorten his "segues" for the LP from what had been much longer, more fleshed out spoken word bits he'd done for the "Leon" sessions (the suites can also be streamed at YouTube -- just type "Bowie Leon Suites," or try this version on for size: 2. Incide: Leon Suites Reordered), and he also cut some rather great stuff that might just as well have been included as separate five minute or so "songs," particularly "The Enemy Is Fragile," which did not appear on the LP, unfortunately.

Much in the same way, after submitting my tribute LP "There Is No Hell" to my distributor earlier this year, I was told that I would have to re-(en)title or pull my own "segue" in tribute to Bowie's version, because the title was not exactly the same, yet similar enough to be considered a "derivative," which meant, in legal terms, I would have to get written permission from the Bowie camp first before they would allow it to be published at Apple Music, et. al. Like Bowie did on "Outside," then, in a sense, I, too, had to make a (slight) compromise if I wanted to have my version published. And so, because I'd already put the original version(s) of the LP on both BandCamp and YouTube, I decided, in order to also have it published on Sept. 25th this year, since the 30th anniversary will only happen once EVER, right (?!), to pull my "Baby (Grace) Blue" segue, as well as a reworking I did of my own version of "Hallo Spaceboy" for the LP, as well as to reorder the tracks for a better flow (after yanking two tracks from it, the original running order no longer worked).

So, "What is an artist?"

An artist is someone who makes art.

And if and when "art" becomes a "crime," then we are all, societally, fucked.

That is the world of Big Brother, Brave New World, The Matrix, too.

Make art. Art is love.

Maybe we could even say, then, "make love," since love, too (and making love, too), is an art.

I want to make more art.

I want to make more love.

"Do you wanna be free?

Don't you wanna be free?"

xo

We miss you, Spaceboy. Come back.