He has to have some...

I heard about Toy!!!

Anymore info...

I heard there was supposed to be a part two and three to the "Outside" project.

I'd also like to know when the next official release is?

Diamonds Dogs evolved from a stage version of 1984 that he was planning (scrapped by the Orwell family). There are more songs.


Also, there was a Pin-Ups 2 planned for the mid-70's.

where are Gangsta and Anx?

MikeMatronik said:

toy is more or less scrapped, though there are recurring buzzes about him getting back on this project again. it was going to be an album of rerecordings of his old decca '60s stuff, pre-"space oddity". a few tracks are out there - see the "slow burn" cd single for some toy outtake stuff.

i'd pretty much write it off as a scrapped idea, though.

amyhr said:

bowie actually said in an interview a couple of years ago that he's interested in finally doing part two of the "outside" project. apparently, there's WAY more than enough material that was recorded to complete the whole trilogy - it just got lost by the wayside. the rumor is, the second part will be called "2. contamination". dunno if that's true, but the fans seem to like it.

next official release? good question. he's been taking it easy, other than the occasional collaboration. he did a couple of performances with the arcade fire last year, and a band called kashmir just released a single with him singing on it with them.

Anx said:

The Slow Burn Ep was the first Bowie thing I bought! Wood Jackson is breathtaking!

endorphin74 said:

david who?

Anx said:

MikeMatronik said:

I believe most, if not all, of Toy has been released on Heathen (Slip Away, for example), and the Heathen B-sides.

NorthernLad said:

Not yet. Only about half of it is out. I'll suss the info I've got on it.

After performing 'Can't Help Thinking About Me', 'I Dig Everything' and 'The London Boys' on the short tours of 1999/2000, Bowie became enthusiastic about the idea of re-recording some lesser known songs from the early days of his career. These re-recordings, together with a couple of new songs written in the same spirit, were to appear on an album that was scheduled for mid-2001, tentatively titled Toy. According to David's journal on BowieNet, the production and artwork of the album were finished already in early 2001. However, time passed and rumours filtered through that Virgin appeared to be reluctant to release an album full of songs they didn't have the rights to. At the end of 2001, Bowie left Virgin to set up his own record label ISO, but so far Toy remains unreleased.

A couple of songs recorded for Toy now have appeared on Heathen and as B-sides of its first single 'Slow Burn'. In this temporary section (Bowie after all says he still intends to release Toy one day!), I'll summarise where to find the songs that have been released. According to a reliable source, Toy was supposed to have featured the following tracks:

Uncle Floyd/Afraid/Baby Loves That Way/I Dig Everything/Conversation Piece/Let Me Sleep Beside You/Toy/Hole In The Ground/Shadow Man/In The Heat of the Morning/You've Got a Habit Of Leaving/Karma Man.

Surely more tracks were recorded for possible B-sides. An excerpt from one of these, 'The London Boys', has recently been made available. In alphabetical order, these are the songs recorded for Toy:


Afraid: has appeared on Heathen.

Baby Loves That Way: released on the Japanese 'Slow Burn' (Sony SICP-162) and UK and EC 'Everyone Says 'Hi' CD single (ISO/Columbia 673134 5 and ISO/Columbia COL 673076 2).

Conversation Piece: appeared on the bonus disc of the 2CD edition of Heathen.

Hole In The Ground: remains unreleased.

I Dig Everything: remains unreleased.

In The Heat of the Morning: remains unreleased.

Karma Man: remains unreleased.

Let Me Sleep Beside You: remains unreleased.

London Boys, The: in July 2002, a 1'26" excerpt was issued as a "secret B-side" on a section of BowieNet dedicated to Heathen, followed in August by another 1'30" excerpt. As the latter is faded out, both pieces still do not cover the entire song.

Shadow Man: included on both EC editions of the 'Slow Burn' CD-single (ISO/Columbia COL 672744 1 and COL 672744 2) and on the UK 'Everyone Says 'Hi'' single (ISO/Columbia 673134 3).

Toy: this track was later offered as a free download (re-titled 'Your Turn To Drive') to customers who ordered their copy of Reality online from HMV.

Uncle Floyd: this song was re-recorded for Heathen as 'Slip Away'; the Toy version remains unreleased.

You've Got a Habit Of Leaving: featured on the EC 'Slow Burn' (ISO/Columbia COL 672744 2) and UK 'Everyone Says 'Hi' singles (ISO/Columbia 673134 5).

GangstaFam said:

Beatifulll

Anx said:

at the time he gave that interview, he said there would be no part 3.

and if you've heard the leaked material, it's hard to imagine part 2 being any great shakes. none of them are actual songs. and Eno has said as much as well.

MikeMatronik said:

IIRC, Wood Jackson is actually one of the new songs (Heathen outtake), rather than a Toy song.

GangstaFam said:

this version is probably top 5 Bowie songs for me

TheAstonishing said:

from what i understood, he didn't mention part three at all...if i remember correctly, he just kinda tossed out the idea of doing a follow-up to 'outside' as an idea of something he might be doing next.

and yeah, i've heard the leaked outtakes from 'outside', but there is supposed to be HOURS of unreleased/unfinished material that hasn't been leaked.

Anx said:

well, originally (in 1995), there were supposed to be 3 of them. when he gave the interview a couple of years ago mentioning a desire to tackle part 2, he didn't mention anything about part 3. but i think he confirmed, on a seperate occasion under semi-intense grilling from fans (in a webchat, perhaps?) that part 3 would never happen. and that actually we'd be asking too much for a part 2, even though he wanted to work on it. that's how i remember it.

See all this discussion of unreleased material brings up something I've been thinking about lately. And it applies to Prince as well.

Bowie said he started his ISO label because he was fed up with recording something and then having to wait a year for it to be released; that by the time it hit the stores, he'd already be on to the next thing. He mentioned back when "Heathen" came out that he'd like to put out an album every year like he did in the 70's. And he seemed to have quite a bit of momentum built up with Visconti and on this tours in 2002-2004. I know he's hit a wall recently with his physical health, so he should take this time of relative inactivity to just put out some already completed, or nearly completed material. It would keep his name out there, give him something easy to work on and tide his fans over until he's feeling well enough and inspired enough to work again. I'm kind of expecting him not to tour like he did for "Reality" ever again. And I'm fine with that. I'm glad he's actually taking care of himself, which is totally atypical of him - to put himself before his work. But I know he must be totally stir crazy and frustrated too with any physical limitations.

And with Prince. When he first left WB, his releases were coming at us left and right. And he kept that up pretty much through the NPGMC, TRC and ONA. But now that he's all popular and shit, he seems more concerned with hitting hard with each release. That's cool. He's definitely made a big splash. But instead of this every other year business, why not just round up a collection of outtakes every year and make a theme album out of it. Or better yet, keep working with WB on those remasters.

TheAstonishing said:

well, he said he was going to work on a ziggy stardust broadway musical at one point, too.

GangstaFam said:

i think it's less about artistic freedom than it is about control in both cases. i think they want to have control over their work, and they throw out the promise of more product to get the fans riled and in their corner.

or not. that's just how i see it.

GangstaFam said:

I agree; Prince bitched and moaned about how WB limited his output, but he released more under WB than he does these days. Whatzup with dat?

I'd love to see a return to the old days... a new album every year, each with at least 3 or 4 singles with exclusive b-sides... remixes.... Ahhh that would be great

lots of unfinished biz with Brian Eno. Story is, He has wanted a few times to finish, when the time comes he has new music to record.

NorthernLad said:

Or even like the first year of NPGMC where there was something new all the time. Or 1996 or 1998 where several projects came out in the same year.