The Man Who Sold The World album cover

Bowie takes a left turn toward electric sci-fi with future Spiders Mick Ronson and Mick Woodmansey.

Kronomyth 3.0: Some say the view is crazy, but you lot may prefer another point of view.

Lurid, technicolor electric stone that explodes in the listener'southward mind, The Human Who Sold The World is a great jump from the human being-in-the-moon precocity of "Space Oddity" and its weakly whelped psychedelic litter. David Bowie had flirted with science fiction on his concluding album, but he consummates the human relationship here past bedding such strange animals as supermen, madmen, gunmen, mountainmen and, of course, the man who sold the globe. Condom inside his hallucinatory asylum, the artist throws out the rock & roll rule book and follows a map of his own making into uncharted territory. In other words, information technology's here that the world bid welcome to the real Mr. Jones.

Though Bowie's show from offset to end, a great debt is owed to the backing band, which now included hereafter Spiders Mick Ronson and Mick Woodmansey. It's they who help catapult Bowie into the rarefied air of over-the-top stars by delivering the correct shades of subtlety and harshness, the brilliant set designers behind this amazing one-human being musical. Otherwise the singer might have been peddling the same wares; "After All," "All The Madmen," "Saviour Machine" and "The Supermen" are conspicuously cut from the same cloth as his previous costume. Only hither are songs rendered not by mere men just musical warlocks whose brutality crushes the cadre of Bowie'due south message and releases the hallucinogenic subtext hiding within his words. Few knew what "The Width of a Circle" amounted to, but many went forth for the ride with no regrets afterward. Likewise the title track must have winked when we blinked, but we're compelled to sadness out of a shared musical sympathy.

It's the directness of the music that notwithstanding amazes: "She Shook Me Cold" evokes the shakes of withdrawal amend than John Lennon's "Cold Turkey" ever could, "Running Gun Blues" runs through the listen of a renegade soldier with childlike glee, "Black Country Rock" hits upon a sublime strangeness that even Marc Bolan had difficulty reaching. If you haven't discovered this album nevertheless, buy it by whatsoever means necessary. Me, I was lucky to have a wonderful Dad who thought enough of his foreign son's musical sense of taste to add this to my collection while on a business trip in California. At the time, he recalled getting a strange await from the sales clerk at the record store, and that was with the tame B&Westward cover. Honestly, the retentiveness of him doing that for me (and non the music itself) is why I'll never sell that record.

Original elpee version

A1. The Width of a Circle (8:07)
A2. All The Madmen (5:38)
A3. Blackness State Rock (three:33)
A4. After All (3:52)
B1. Running Gun Blues (3:12)
B2. Saviour Automobile (iv:27)
B3. She Shook Me Cold (4:xiii)
B4. The Man Who Sold The Earth (3:58)
B5. The Supermen (3:39)

CD reissue bonus tracks
10. Lightning Frightening (3:38)
xi. Holy Holy (2:20)
12. Moonage Daydream (iii:52)
xiii. Hang Onto Yourself (2:51)

All songs written by David Bowie.

Original 8-track version
A1. The Width of a Circle
A2. Saviour Automobile (part 1)
B1. Saviour Machine (conclusion)
B2. Black State Rock
B3. She Shook Me Cold
C1. After All
C2. The Supermen
C3. All The Madmen (part 1)
D1. All The Madmen (conclusion)
D2. Running Gun Dejection
D3. The Man Who Sold The Earth

The Players

David Bowie (guitar, vocals), Ralph Mace (moog synthesizer), Mick Ronson (guitar), Tony Visconti (electrical bass, piano, guitar), Mick Woodmansey (drums). Produced past Tony Visconti; remixed by Tony Visconti; engineered by Ken Scott; executive producer: Robin McBride.

The Pictures

Album designed and photographed past Keef.

The Plastic

Released on elpee, cassette and viii-rail in November 1970 in the Usa (Mercury, SR/MC8-61325) and Japan (Mercury, SFX-7345) and in April 1971 in the UK (RCA, INTS 5237/PK 2103).

  1. Re-issued on elpee and viii-rails in November 1972 in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and Italy (RCA Victor, LSP-4816/PK/P8S-2103) and Hellenic republic (RCA International, MFL-RCLP 20245) with lyrics innersleeve and unique cover; reached #26 on the U.k. charts and #25 on the US charts.
  2. Re-issued on elpee in 1973 in Nippon (RCA, RCA-6078).
  3. Re-packaged with Space Oddity on 2-for-1 2LP in 1983 in French republic (RCA, NL 37727).
  4. Re-issued on elpee in 1983 in Japan (RCA, RPL-2123) and in the netherlands and Espana (RCA, NL-14654); reached #64 on the UK charts.
  5. Re-issued on elpee, cassette and compact disc in Germany (RCA, NL/NK/PD 84654).
  6. Re-released on expanded remastered meaty disc, 24k gilded compact disc, cassette, elpee, double-elpee and articulate vinyl double-elpee on June 30, 1990 in the US (Rykodisc, RCD 10132/RCD 80132/RALP/RACS 0132-two), the Uk (EMI, CDEMC/TCEMC 3573), Brazil (EMI, 791837-one/4) and Japan (EMI, TOCP-6203) with 4 bonus tracks; reached #66 on the Uk charts.
  7. Re-issued on expanded remastered compact disc on April 24, 1996 in Nippon (EMI, TOCP-8862) with 4 bonus tracks.
  8. Re-issued on 24-bit remastered compact disc in September 1999 in Europe (EMI, 521901 0).
  9. Re-released on limited edition 180g vinyl elpee in 2001 in the U.k. (Simply Vinyl, SVLP 264).
  10. Re-issued on compact disc on July 6, 2005 in Japan (EMI, TOCP-53529).
  11. Re-issued on meaty disc on Jan 10, 2007 in Japan (EMI, TOCP-70142).
  12. Re-issued on compact disc on Oct 28, 2009 in Japan (EMI, TOCP-95042).
  13. Re-issued on 180g vinyl elpee on Feb 26, 2016 in Europe (Parlophone, DBXL1) and on picture disc elpee in 2016 in the UK (Parlophone, DBRSDP 2016).
The Man Who Sold the World 1972 reissue
RCA LSP-4816 anthology cover