I've always been a massive Bowie fan, and so I fully embraced his decision to form Tin Machine with the Sales brothers and Reeve Gabrels in 1988, even though a lot of fans weren't so keen to see him become just a quarter of a band rather than the solo star he already was. I thought the eponymous debut album had a lot of great songs on it, and I think the playing was more focused than on some of his solo albums from just before the band formed, so for me it was a welcome change. They stayed together long enough to produce a second album, which inevitably was not quite a good as the first, and then, following the release of a live record, they broke up and Bowie went back to releasing solo albums. During the sessions for the second album the band did try out a few ideas for what could have been a third release, as well as jamming on some improvised blues songs, and there is actually enough reasonable quality material available to put together a possible third Tin Machine album. 'It's Tough But It's OK' seemed to be a serious contender as Bowie recorded numerous takes of it, and I've included two of the best on here. 'Hammerhead' is a great hard rocker, and there are also a couple of nice instrumentals scattered throughout the record, one of which was untitled, but which I've called 'Genesis' to complement the already titled 'Exodus'. Hunt and Tony Sales jammed with Gabrels while Bowie was absent, and produced a number of on-the-spot blues-based pieces, with Gabrels on vocals, and on the bootlegs which feature them they are usually entitled 'Blues Tunes' and run in one fourteen minute track, but I've split them out so that I could sequence them between the songs that feature Bowie. To close we have the Indonesian version of the 'Amalpura' single, ending a not unacceptable third Tin Machine album.
Track listing
01 It's Tough But It's OK02 Needles On The Beach03 Hammerhead04 Exodus05 It's A Hit06 You Better Stop07 It's Tough But It's OK II08 Blues Tune I09 Blues Tune II10 Genesis11 If You Want It - Parts I & II12 Amalpura (Indonesian version)
