Nirvana

"The Man Who Sold the World"

...is the third studio album by David Bowie. It was originally released on Mercury Records in November 1970 in the United States and in April 1971 in the UK. The album was Bowie's first with the nucleus of what would become the "Spiders from Mars", the backing band made famous by The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in 1972. Though author David Buckley has described the singer's previous record David Bowie (Space Oddity) as "the first Bowie album proper",^[7] NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have said of The Man Who Sold the World, "this is where the story really starts".^[8] It has been claimed that this album's release marks the birth of glam rock.^[9]

The album was written and rehearsed at 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 ambience "like Dracula's living room".^[10] 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.^[2] Despite his exasperation with the singer's preoccupation with married life, Visconti would later rate The Man Who Sold the World his best work with Bowie until 1980's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).^[11]

Much of the album 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.^[8] The record also provided some unusual musical detours, such as the title track's use of Latin rhythms to hold the melody.^[11] 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").^[8] The song "She Shook Me Cold" was an explanation of a heterosexual encounter. The album has also been seen as reflecting the influence of such figures as Aleister Crowley, Franz Kafka and Friedrich Nietzsche.^[11]

None of the songs were released to the public as singles at the time, though a promo version of "All the Madmen" was issued in the U.S. in 1971 (see note below). 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 U.S. single release of "Space Oddity" in 1972 and the U.K. release of "Life on Mars?" in 1973; it 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 the cover in their famous Unplugged in New York.

(Note:) Although stock copies have apparently never turned up, according to Michel Ruppli & Ed Novitsky's "The Mercury Labels" Greenwood Press, 1993, "Janine" from the previous album was intended as the B side of the edited "All The Madmen" single (Mercury 73173).

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