David Bowie “The Man Who Sold the World” released on yesterday’s date, November 4th, 1970 in the US and in April of ‘71 in the UK (this copy the ‘72 reissue). The Man Who Sold the World was Bowie’s third studio LP and launched Bowie into the harder rock glam style he would explore for the next several years. It’s arguably the birth of the glam rock movement (competing with T. Rex) and would become hugely influential to many alt/gothy/glammy musicians in subsequent years like The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Nirvana (who famously performed the title track on MTV Unplugged). The album went to #24 in the UK and to #105 in the US and reentered both charts after Bowie’s death in 2016, at #21 and #38 respectively.

Our kid, Vault Boy, has finally gotten into music and on the top of his favorite list is David Bowie (parenting done right!!!) and the title track “The Man Who Sold the World” is on his epic playlist so we have heard it often in recent weeks. I love that song, its weird instrumentation and Latin rhythm. I also love the harder rocking tracks, with the most excellent Mick Ronson front and center on guitar: the fuzzed out “The Width of a Circle,” the hard psychedelic glam of “Black Country Rock,” the messy blues rock on “Running Gun Blues” and the Sabbath-level heavy tracks “She Shook Me Cold” and “The Supermen.”

Allmusic says about The Man Who Sold the World “Even though it contained no hits, The Man Who Sold the World, for most intents and purposes, was the beginning of David Bowie’s classic period. Working with guitarist Mick Ronson and producer Tony Visconti for the second time Bowie developed a tight, twisted heavy guitar rock that appears simple on the surface but sounds more gnarled upon each listen. The mix is off-center, with the fuzz-bass dominating the compressed, razor-thin guitars and Bowie’s strangled, affected voice. The sound of The Man Who Sold the World is odd, but the music itself is bizarre, with Bowie’s weird, paranoid futuristic tales melded to Ronson’s riffing and the band’s relentless attack. Musically, there isn’t much innovation on The Man Who Sold the World – it is almost all hard blues-rock or psychedelic folk-rock – but there’s an unsettling edge to the band’s performance, which makes the record one of Bowie’s best albums.”