For the final version of The Outsider Ronson contributes swooping instrumentation paired with beautiful piano and howling prairie wind sounds. The track has noticeable echoes on the drums and vocal tracks while the straightforward recording allowed Ian's strong voice to be added with clarity and charm.
The song that closes out Schizophrenic is a bit offbeat but still appropriate for Hunter who does write often of not fitting into society; the difference here is the setting and sounding like it's the Wild, Wild West. Of this one, Hunter thinks the song may have been misdirected to him; it is his Western cowboy star Roy Rogers song. However, he considers that this slow song is one of the three, with Ships and Standin' in My Light, that are among the best ballads he's ever written.
There is also an early version on The Secret Sessions and a shorter version omitting the studio chatter on Tilting The Mirror, while there is also a live version from 2005.
Ian Hunter On Track for Sonicbond Publishing, TheDoctorOfDigital@pm.me
The Outsider
(Ian Hunter)
Death be my mistress, guns be my wife
Breath is my witness and roads are my life
Just give my future's clean as a knife
Far on the way from L.A.
The sun heats the saddle, sand in my hair
Looking for water and there's sweat everywhere
Know that I'm nearer I smell damp air
I ain't tasted coffee for days
When the leaves are down I'll be southward bound
Hunters hunt the outsider.
When the wind grows cold, when the sun grows old,
Nothing holds the outsider
Just killed a man in a town called Nightfall
Damned if I can't remember it all
My hand it was shaking but his talk it was tall
I paid for the funeral crew
And it seems like I never reach Mexico
They're heading me off every place that I go
I'm sick of the fact that I've got to lay low
What else can an outsider do
I know they're near to me, I don't have to see
Just let me be the outsider
They ain't far behind, they're always on my mind
They won't find the outsider
The outsider
When the leaves are down I'll be southward bound
Hunter's haunt the outsider.
When the wind grows cold, when the sun grows old,
Nothing holds the outsider
The outsider. The outsider.| The Outsider | 6:02 | Originally released on You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic, and on the compilations From The Knees Of My Heart, The Journey and Once Bitten Twice Shy. |
| The Outsider (Laing/Hunter/Ronson/Pappalardi version) | 7:46 | This early version can be found on The Secret Sessions (not on the box set). |
| The Outsider (early version) | 6:51 | This early version can be found on the compilation From The Knees Of My Heart and on Tilting The Mirror - Rarities (box set only). The version on Tilting The Mirror is slightly shorter (at 6:46) due to some (barely audible) atudio chatter being omitted at the start. |
| The Outsider (live 29th April 2005) | 4:56 | This live version (recorded at the Nidaros Blues Festival, Trondheim Norway) was released on Bag Of Tricks (Vol 2) (box set only). |
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