The Man Who Sold the World (album)

Writing and recording

The album was written and rehearsed at David Bowie's home in Haddon Hall, Beckenham, an Edwardian mansion converted to a block of flats that was described by one visitor as having an ambiance "like Dracula's living room". As Bowie was preoccupied with his new wife Angie at the time, the music was largely arranged by guitarist Mick Ronson and bassist/producer Tony Visconti. Although Bowie is officially credited as the composer of all music on the album, biographer Peter Doggett quoted Visconti saying "the songs were written by all four of us. We'd jam in a basement, and Bowie would just say whether he liked them or not." In Doggett's narrative, "The band (sometimes with Bowie contributing guitar, sometimes not) would record an instrumental track, which might or might not be based upon an original Bowie idea. Then, at the last possible moment, Bowie would reluctantly uncurl himself from the sofa on which he was lounging with his wife, and dash off a set of lyrics." Despite his annoyance with Bowie's fixation on married life during the recording of The Man Who Sold the World, Visconti still rated it as his best work with Bowie until 1980's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps).

Bowie himself was quoted in a 1998 interview as saying "I really did object to the impression that I did not write the songs on The Man Who Sold the World. You only have to check out the chord changes. No-one writes chord changes like that". "The Width of a Circle" and "The Supermen", for example, were already in existence before the sessions began. Ralph Mace played a Moog modular synthesizer borrowed from George Harrison; Mace was a 40-year-old concert pianist who was also head of the classical music department at Mercury Records.

Music and lyrics

Much of The Man Who Sold the World had a distinct heavy metal edge that distinguishes it from Bowie's other releases, and has been compared to contemporary acts such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Music critic Greg Kot said the album marked Bowie's change of direction into hard rock. The record also provided some unusual musical detours, such as the title track's use of Latin rhythms to hold the melody. The sonic heaviness of the album was matched by the subject matter, which included insanity ("All the Madmen"), gun-toting assassins and Vietnam War commentary ("Running Gun Blues"), an omniscient computer ("Saviour Machine"), and Lovecraftian Elder Gods ("The Supermen"). The song "She Shook Me Cold" was an explanation of a sexual encounter. The album has also been seen as reflecting the influence of such figures as Aleister Crowley, Franz Kafka and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Cover artwork

The original 1970 US release of The Man Who Sold the World employed a cartoon-like cover drawing by Bowie's friend Michael J. Weller, featuring a cowboy in front of the Cane Hill mental asylum. Weller, whose friend was a patient there, suggested the idea after Bowie had asked him to create a design that would capture the music's foreboding tone. Drawing on pop art styles, he depicted a dreary main entrance block to the hospital with a damaged clock tower. For the design's foreground, he used a photograph of John Wayne to draw a cowboy figure wearing a ten-gallon hat and a rifle, which was meant as an allusion to the song "Running Gun Blues". Bowie suggested Weller incorporate the "exploding head" signature on the cowboy's hat, a feature he had previously used on his posters while a part of the Arts Lab. He also added an empty speech balloon for the cowboy figure, which was intended to have the line "roll up your sleeves and show us your arms"—a pun on record players, guns, and drug use—but Mercury found the idea too risqué and the balloon was left blank. According to Bowie biographer Nicholas Pegg, "at this point, David's intention was to call the album Metrobolist, a play on Fritz Lang's Metropolis: the title would remain on the tape boxes even after Mercury had released the LP in America as The Man Who Sold the World."

Bowie was enthusiastic about the finished design but soon reconsidered the idea and had the art department at Philips Records, a subsidiary of Mercury, enlist photographer Keith MacMillan to shoot an alternate cover. The shoot took place in a "domestic environment" of the Haddon Hall living room, where Bowie reclined on a chaise longue in a cream and blue satin "man's dress", an early indication of his interest in exploiting his androgynous appearance. The dress was designed by British fashion designer Michael Fish. It has been said that his "bleached blond locks, falling below shoulder level" in the photo, were inspired by a Pre-Raphaelite painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In the United States, Mercury rejected MacMillan's photo and released the album with Weller's design as its cover, much to the displeasure of Bowie, although he successfully lobbied the label to use the photo for the record's release in the United Kingdom. In 1972, he said Weller's design was "horrible" but reappraised it in 1999, saying he "actually thought the cartoon cover was really cool".

While promoting The Man Who Sold the World in the US, Bowie wore the Mr Fish dress in February 1971 on his first promotional tour and during interviews, despite the fact that the Americans had no knowledge of the as yet unreleased UK cover. The 1971 German release presented a winged hybrid creature with Bowie's head and a hand for a body, preparing to flick the Earth away. The 1972 worldwide reissue by RCA Records used a black-and-white picture of Ziggy Stardust on the sleeve. This image remained the cover art on reissues until 1990, when the Rykodisc release reinstated the UK "dress" cover. The "dress" cover has appeared on subsequent reissues of the album.

Singles

It was once thought that none of the songs were released to the public as a single at the time, though a promo version of "All the Madmen" was issued in the US in 1970. Mercury Records released "All the Madmen" with "Janine" (from the previous album) as the B-side as a single (Mercury 73173) but withdrew it. The same song appeared in Eastern Europe in 1973, as did "The Width of a Circle". "Black Country Rock" was released as the B-side of "Holy Holy" in the UK in January 1971, shortly before the album. The title track appeared as the B-side of both the US single release of "Space Oddity" in 1972 and the UK release of "Life on Mars?" in 1973. The title track also provided an unlikely hit for Scottish pop singer Lulu (produced by Bowie and Ronson) and would be covered by many artists over the years, including Richard Barone in 1987, and Nirvana in 1993, who performed a cover of "The Man Who Sold the World" for MTV Unplugged in New York.

Reception and legacy

The Man Who Sold the World was generally more successful commercially and critically in the US than in the UK when it was first released. Music publications Melody Maker and NME found it "surprisingly excellent" and "rather hysterical", respectively. John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone called the album "uniformly excellent" and commented that producer Tony Visconti's "use of echo, phasing, and other techniques on Bowie's voice ... serves to reinforce the jaggedness of Bowie's words and music", which he interpreted as "oblique and fragmented images that are almost impenetrable separately but which convey with effectiveness an ironic and bitter sense of the world when considered together". Sales were not high enough to dent the charts in either country at the time, however it made No. 26 in the UK and No. 105 in the US following its re-release on 25 November 1972, in the wake of Bowie's commercial breakthrough The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

The Man Who Sold the World has since been cited as inspiring the goth rock, dark wave and science fiction elements of work by artists such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Gary Numan, John Foxx and Nine Inch Nails. In his journal, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana listed it at No. 45 in his top 50 favourite albums. In 1993, Nirvana covered its title-track for their televised special MTV Unplugged in New York. It has been claimed that glam rock began with the release of this album, though this is also attributed to Marc Bolan's appearance on the UK TV programme Top of the Pops in December 1970 wearing glitter, to perform what would be his first UK hit single under the name T. Rex, "Ride a White Swan", which peaked at No. 2 in the UK chart.

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine cited The Man Who Sold the World as "the beginning of David Bowie's classic period" and complimented its "tight, twisted heavy guitar rock that appears simple on the surface but sounds more gnarled upon each listen". Erlewine viewed its music and Bowie's "paranoid futuristic tales" as "bizarre", adding that "Musically, there isn't much innovation ... it is almost all hard blues-rock or psychedelic folk-rock – but there's an unsettling edge to the band's performance, which makes the record one of Bowie's best albums". In a review upon the album's reissue, Q called it "a robust, sexually charged affair", while Mojo wrote, "A robust set that spins with dizzying disorientation ... Bowie's armoury was being hastily assembled, though it was never deployed with such thrilling abandon again".

Track listing

All tracks written by David Bowie.

CD releases

The Man Who Sold the World was first released on CD by RCA in 1984. The German (RCA PD84654, for the European Market) and Japanese (RCA PCD1-4816, for the US market) masters were sourced from different tapes and are not identical for each region.

The album was reissued by Rykodisc (RCD 10132)/EMI (CDP 79 1837 2) on 30 January 1990 with an extended track listing, including a late 1971 re-recording of Bowie's single "Holy Holy". Rykodisc later released this album in the AU20 series (RCD 80132) with 24-bit digitally remastered sound.

Bonus tracks (1990 Rykodisc/EMI)

1. "Lightning Frightening" (1971 outtake from the Arnold Corns sessions [1]) – 3:38
2. "Holy Holy" (1971 re-recording of A-side from non-LP single) – 2:20
3. "Moonage Daydream" (1971 Arnold Corns version) – 3:52
4. "Hang On to Yourself" (1971 Arnold Corns version) – 2:51

"Holy Holy" was incorrectly described in the liner notes as the original single version, recorded in November 1970 and released in January 1971. Bowie vetoed inclusion of the earlier recording, and the single remained the only official release of the 1970 recording until 2015, when it was included on Re:Call 1, part of the Five Years (1969–1973) compilation. Similarly, the liner notes incorrectly list the personnel for "Lightning Frightning" as those who played with Bowie during the Space Oddity period, when in fact the personnel were members of the Arnold Corns sessions proto-group.

1999 remaster

In 1999, the album was reissued again by Virgin/EMI (7243 521901 0 2), without the bonus tracks but with 24-bit digitally remastered sound. The Japanese mini LP (EMI TOCP-70142) replicates the cover and texture of the original Mercury LP.

2015 remaster

In 2015, the album was remastered for the Five Years (1969–1973) box set. It was released in CD, vinyl, and digital formats, both as part of this compilation and separately.

Personnel

Adapted from the The Man Who Sold the World liner notes.