Happy Anniversary: David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World
44 years ago today, the man occasionally identified as the Thin White Duke released the album which first took his music in the direction that made him a superstar and graced it with a title track so wonderful that a cover of the song became one of grunge’s greatest hits.
It’s inarguable that David Bowie was already a success in the UK by the time he released The Man Who Sold the World in 1970, having left the ‘60s behind with a top-10 hit (“The Laughing Gnome”) and a bona fide chart-topper (“Space Oddity”) tucked snugly into his back pocket. The vaguely folky sounds of those songs, however, had been left behind in favor of a harder, more confident set of tunes, their performance aided immeasurably by guitarist Mick Ronson as well as bassist Tony Visconti, who also served as producer.
Perhaps the difference in the music serves to explain why the album initially proved to be a commercial flop, failing to chart in either the UK or the US, but it didn’t keep the critics from standing up and taking notice: Melody Maker offered the slightly-backhanded compliment that it was “surprisingly excellent,” while Rolling Stone provided more steadfast praise, calling it “uniformly excellent.” If you’re wondering, yes, the album did eventually chart: after it was reissued in the wake of the well-received arrival of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars , it hit #26 in the UK and #105 in the US.
One can’t help but wonder if The Man Who Sold the World would’ve been more successful when it was initially released if the label had bothered to release a single, but they never did. No, not even one for the title track, although there was apparently a promotional release of “All the Madmen” in the States, for all the good it did. Then again, even a successful single might not have been enough for the album to overcome its original US artwork, which was…interesting. Not bad, mind you – we’d never actively disparage the cover, especially not since it was drawn by Bowie’s buddy, Michael J. Weller – but…well, let’s just say that we can’t imagine it ever would’ve become quite as iconic as the shot of Bowie lounging on the sofa.
But why are we bothering to grouse about the outside of the album what’s inside is so damned good? Instead, let’s revisit the record and remember how great the material is, from “The Width of a Circle” all the way through to “The Supermen.” The fact that you know where Bowie was headed with his music after this album may make it an extra exciting listen for some, but the tunes are still pretty outstanding all by their lonesome.
Oh, and let’s not forget that great moment in grunge history: when Nirvana took to the MTV stage and performed a gorgeous version of “The Man Who Sold the World.”
In their book Nirvana: The Chosen Rejects, Kurt St. Thomas and Troy Smith included a quote from Bowie himself, who said, “I was simply blown away when I found that Kurt Cobain liked my work, and have always wanted to talk to him about his reasons for covering ‘The Man Who Sold the World,’” describing the band’s cover as “a good straight forward rendition and sounded somehow very honest” and saying of Cobain that “it would have been nice to have worked with him, but just talking with him would have been real cool.”
