Maps of Music

The Man Who Sold the World (1970)

Where the lyrics of The Man Who Sold the World take you, and where it was really made.

The label changed the title at the last minute without Bowie's consent, and the US cover was a cartoon cowboy drawn by his friend.

Key places

Where the sessions began (1970)

Recording site Advision Studios — Recording for the album began here on 17 April 1970, starting with the track All the Madmen. The sessions later moved to Trident Studios and returned here in May. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Mid-session studio (1970)

Recording site Trident Studios — Recording moved here on 21 April 1970 and continued until mid-May. The band recorded Running Gun Blues and Saviour Machine during the Trident sessions. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Living room cover shoot (1970)

Album cover Haddon Hall — The UK cover photo was shot in a domestic setting in the living room of Haddon Hall, where the band members lived in 1970. The exact room location within the building is not specified. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Man Who Sold the World: third studio album by David Bowie
• Released 4 November 1970 in the US through Mercury Records, and 8 April 1971 in the UK
• Produced by Tony Visconti; recorded in London, April to May 1970
• Marks a shift from acoustic folk rock toward hard rock with blues rock elements
• Lyrics are darker than his previous releases, covering insanity, religion, technology and war
• Originally titled Metrobolist, changed by Mercury without Bowie's consultation
• No songs were released as singles at the time

Background

• Follows David Bowie (1969), which was largely acoustic and folk rock
• The breakthrough single 'Space Oddity' (July 1969) brought Bowie commercial success
• The album of that name fared worse, partly due to Philips Records failing to promote it efficiently
• By 1970 the follow-up single 'The Prettiest Star' failed to chart
• Bowie formed the band Hype with Tony Visconti, John Cambridge and Mick Ronson
• Cambridge was replaced by Mick Woodmansey at the end of March 1970
• By April 1970 the four Hype members were living in Haddon Hall, Beckenham

Recording

• Recording began on 17 April 1970 at Advision Studios in London
• Moved to Trident Studios on 21 April and continued there until mid-May
• Recording and mixing returned to Advision on 12 May and were completed ten days later
• Bowie was preoccupied with his new wife and managerial issues, so Ronson and Visconti largely arranged the music
• Bowie recorded his vocal for the title track on the final day

Cover

• US cover: cartoon-like drawing by Michael J. Weller showing a cowboy in front of an asylum
• UK cover: photograph by Keith MacMillan of Bowie in a blue dress designed by Michael Fish
• 1972 RCA reissue used a black-and-white photo of Ziggy Stardust
• Reissues since 1990 have revived the original UK artwork

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London.
• Studied art, music and design; took up saxophone in 1961.
• Adopted the stage name David Bowie in 1966 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

Career

• Breakthrough with "Space Oddity" in 1969, reaching the UK top five.
• Glam rock success in 1972 with the Ziggy Stardust persona and album.
• Berlin Trilogy (Low, "Heroes", Lodger) with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti in the late 1970s.
• Greatest commercial success with Let's Dance in 1983.
• Fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine from 1988 to 1992 before resuming a solo career.
• Final studio album Blackstar was released two days before his death in 2016.

Legacy

• Sold over 100 million records worldwide.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Melody Maker found the album 'surprisingly excellent' and NME called it 'rather hysterical'
• Rolling Stone's John Mendelsohn called the album 'uniformly excellent' in February 1971
• Phonograph Record's Colman Andrews called it a mixed bag but said it deserves some attention
• The Village Voice's Robert Christgau considered it and its predecessor 'overwrought excursions'
• Upon release the album was generally better received by critics in the US than in the UK

Reappraisal

• Critics later praised the band's performance and the unsettling nature of its music and lyrics
• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it one of Bowie's best albums
• Pitchfork's Douglas Wolk called it the 'dark horse' of Bowie's catalogue
• Uncut ranked it number 379 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2024

Records

• Initially a commercial failure in both the US and the UK
• Sold only 1,395 copies in the US by the end of June 1971
• The 1972 RCA reissue peaked at number 24 on the UK Albums Chart and spent 30 weeks there
• The 1972 reissue peaked at number 105 on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, with 23 weeks on the chart
• The 1990 reissue charted again in the UK, peaking at number 66

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Mercury changed the title to The Man Who Sold the World, replacing Bowie's preferred Metrobolist, a play on Fritz Lang's Metropolis
• Bowie wore the Michael Fish dress on his February 1971 US promotional tour, though Americans had not seen the then-unreleased UK cover
• Mercury rejected Keith MacMillan's photo for the US release, which used Weller's cartoon cover instead
• The title track became an unlikely hit for Scottish pop singer Lulu, produced by Bowie and Ronson
• Nirvana covered the title track for their MTV Unplugged in New York live album in 1993
• Visconti remixed the album for its 50th anniversary reissue under the title Metrobolist in 2020

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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