David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World

JUVENILIA IN EXCELSIS

Thin white duke-ing it out with god while lathered in the period-defined gestalt of Gibran mingled with contemporaneous man/superman/machine doodling that apes either Nietzsche and/or the plot outline of "The Forbin Project", we must be satisfied mostly in knowing that meetings are already set for the next bardo (a 7 to 49 day visit depending on your behavior while on this plane o' being). Which makes "The Man Who Sold the World" a charming but merely transitional record for Bowie. Here he strives to set aside his memories of a free festival by being fitted for mock madness and women's clothing -- just one look at the restored cover art should give pause to the "heavy metal" theorists here among us and hear it instead as it is: The trial balloon for Bowie's more successful marketing of a seemingly dangerous/thrilling androgyny that finds its better expression not within "The Width of a Circle", but rather when all at last became "Hunky Dory". Bowie proves it's no fluke by then going on to realize the full mutation of Ziggy and Aladdin, each a more mature and more deliberate record than this. Hey, you gotta re-restart somewhere... April 11, 2008

Boy could he play guitar

Mick Ronson's guitar, The most under-rated guitarist ever. Bowie's best work was, in my and many peoples opinion, were the years he had Ronson as his guitarist. This cd along with honky dory, Ziggy, Pin-ups and Aladdin Sane were his best. After that, no more Ronson and nothing was ever as good. Bowie still had a lot of great stuff but something was always missing. March 21, 2008

a Bowie favorite

The Man Who Sold the World is supposed to be David Bowie's "heavy metal" album. Well, I wouldn't go THAT far, but it's certainly one of Bowie's more rocking efforts.

The quality of the songwriting is *just* as strong as it was on Space Oddity. This time, we have Bowie heading in a different direction with lots of energetic guitar playing, and this is the album where most people consider Bowie's career to have really begun (something I don't quite agree with, but whatever).

"The Width of a Circle" is a multi-part guitar-dominated track, with some of Bowie's best vocal melodies ever laid down on tape. Call me crazy but the guitar playing that opens the song (and occasionally repeats throughout) sounds a lot like "This land is your land, this land is my land". After some frantic guitar playing, the second half of the song kicks in, with some chilly and spooky Bowie screaming (a VERY distinct sound of his) and a second equally-fascinating vocal melody. This is probably the best song on the album.

Many people know the title song, despite not ever being played on the radio. It's quite melodic and fantastic, and "All the Madmen" and "Saviour Machine" are quite similar to the title track in terms of melodic songwriting, so if you like the title song, you'll like these songs as well.

"Saviour Machine" has an intro that sounds very similar to the Sugarloaf song "Things Gonna Change Some", and I believe Elton John copied that middle section for the introduction to his famous hit "Funeral for a Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding" (after the spooky wind blowing sound effects and bells, I mean).

"Black Country Rock" is a great little hard rock song, and the rest of the album is honestly quite exciting and some of Bowie's best written music. The dirty production elevates the music even further, which is always a positive thing in my book. There's too many clean-sounding albums out there, and honestly, I miss the dirt! This album is truly a classic. February 20, 2008

Where David Bowie becomes David Bowie

Yeah, this is the one where Bowie's wearing a dress on the cover. It's also the point where Bowie really found his style, but people tend to forget about that. It is a bit uneven, though - there are a couple bombs, like the ill-advised Syd Barrett tribute "All the Madmen", the "21st Century Schizoid Man" soundalike "Saviour Machine", and the bizarre sea chanty "After All". But there are also a lot of solid, slightly glammy rockers: the long, heavy "Width of a Circle", with its bizarre lyrics about having sex with Satan in hell; the Zep-like "Black Country Rock"; the acoustic-based Vietnam protest "Running Gun Blues"; "She Shook Me Cold", the best heavy blues rocker Cream never wrote; and especially that title track, which mixes Latin and Eastern influences. Of course, you may probably know it best for the brilliant cover by Nirvana, but the original is certainly worth listening to as well, if only for the mantra-like coda that Nirvana decided to leave out. Plus there is one very good weird track - "The Supermen", which mixes a heavy, grimy guitar riff and a driving rock beat with Nietzsche-influenced lyrics and operatic backup vocals. The mix on this album is very weird - Bowie's voice is generally mixed way above the guitars, so if you don't like it you're out of luck - but in pretty much all other terms this is a highlight for Bowie. And even the weaker tracks have all kinds of personality. This is the album that established Bowie as one of the most creative, distinctive, and memorable '70s rockers, and while it's flawed it's also quite worthwhile. February 1, 2008

Pre Ziggy Brilliance

This is a great Bowie classic. The Controversial cover aside, this CD (or LP) was a Classic then and the remixed sound really makes it stellar to the old album. The sound was really muddy, but the remix makes it much more listen-able.

I personally think that this CD, Made in 1970, was Bowie's most energetic release for that early 70's period. This album was an introduction of sorts to a 'band' style of Bowie. Where the albums 'Space Oddity' and 'Hunky Dory' could be seen more as Bowie solo albums, this one sounds like a band effort. Almost like they all jammed together and melded ideas. The heaviness of Ronson's guitar and Bowie's vocal style made for a great pairing, but even the drums and bass are jamming here. its loose and fun, like a real 70's jam band, but also has that Bowie mystique. A sign of things to come with Ziggy Stardust, this album is raw but the band is tight.

My personal favorites are the title track, the psychedelic 'Black Country Rock', the incredible 'Width of a Circle'(very heavy for its time) , 'Savior Machine' and the grim 'After All'.

Its a creepy but heavy CD. Very cool and should have been called the 'David Bowie Band' CD. The remix is essential and i like the fact that they used the old 'banned' artwork again. Bowie was really on a roll between 1969 - 1977 artistically. This should be viewed in the same class of Zeppelin and Cream in terms of quality classic Rock for its time. January 8, 2008

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