The Outsiders
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The fourth album by the Outsiders is a true oddity -- programmed at the last minute to replace a proposed studio album, it was, in fact, the live album that wasn't. Officially a concert album, it was a pure studio creation, the audience a product of a crowd machine that is almost painfully obvious from the get-go. And, yet...this is also a surprisingly rewarding record, despite its being a pure fabrication -- the band may not have been playing live, but the producers were smart enough to go back to the multi-tracks and strip the overdubbed instruments from the vintage songs that were used, so we do get to hear how they approached songs such as "Time Won't Let Me" and "Respectable" without the luxury of horns or other overdubbed instruments. The result is a good account of how they probably did sound on-stage on a good night, only better; given the technical limitations of concert recordings in most venues in 1967, what we're hearing is probably better than we could have gotten out of any actual concert tape by the band at that time -- not that we wouldn't willingly trade some fidelity for a real performance, but as a substitute this record is better than it has a right to be, and well worth hearing (and reissuing). And at least five of the cuts here were new to the group's repertory, and probably salvaged from the unfinished studio recording -- who is actually playing will always be a matter of debate, though lead singer Sonny Geraci was doing the fake introductions and between-song raps, and it's difficult to imagine that co-founder Tom King wasn't involved somewhere. And the album even has a bit of unintended humor in the design of the cover -- the production was so rushed on this record, that the art department apparently didn't have time to get the whole group together for the photo shoot for the front cover, and in their haste to put something together, a substitute dressed in a matching suit was evidently pressed into service. The thing was, no one noticed, in the course of outfitting the ringer, that there was already someone in the shot with a four-stringed instrument. So they ended up with two bass-players on the cover...which adds yet another, uniquely amplified permutation to the phrase "double-bass." Bruce Eder, All Music Guide Tracks:
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