Dave Amitri on The Man Who Sold The World
For those who aren’t aware I am a pop loving 55 year old music civilian who before this project had never listened to a David Bowie album despite knowing all the radio playlist Bowie tunes by heart. I’ve decided to listen to a Bowie album a month during 2021 from “The Man Who Sold The World” to “Scary Monsters “ after being told they are the best run of 12 albums ever. My angle is to try and find where I have heard his influence in the music of my heroes and report it as so many of them have cited Bowie as an inspiration. Maybe some will become favourites of mine…
Starting my Bowie odyssey with “The Man Who Sold The World” an album made 50 years ago I wasn’t sure what to expect. Bowie the great originator at the beginning of a run of 12 great albums. My expectations were high. So I pressed play. “The Width of a Circle” began and straight away I heard that guitar swoosh intro straight from “Foxy Lady”…. Now this is no bad thing I love The Jimi Hendrix Experience but it set the tone for me from the outset. The first few listens became an exercise in spotting Hendrix influence. At times it could have been Mitchell and Redding providing the backing to Bowies interesting vocals. This is still no bad thing. Why wouldn’t an a 23 year old who was an aspiring musician during the extraordinary Hendrix peak years take influence from him? It got my interest and was the hook I needed to really listen..
That said I also need to get this out in the open. I heard something else in there, something I hadn’t heard for years. I racked my brains and eventually it came to me “Jesus Christ Superstar”. A quick Google showed that the rock opera was made at around the same time as “The Man Who Sold The World” so it sort of made sense but was equally astonishing to think that Lloyd Weber and Bowie were the sounds I was comparing.
Anyway, early observations out of the way, Back to “The Width of a Circle” an 8 minute epic that felt like it could have been used as background music for one of those scenes in “The History Man” that you didn’t want to watch with your mum in the room. Then it becomes a regular pub rock chug along while Bowie wails the lyric and wooahs to a close. Dramatic, sensual with rock overtones. A really good start….
Now, “All The Madmen” starts and I pick up something in Bowies vocal that made me chuckle. He sounds a bit like The Monkees Davy Jones, which is all kinds of weird. The song to be honest never really gets going. It just feels a bit flat. Then at the end I got some Bowie familiarity in the hand clap, repetition fade out. Next!
I really like “Black Country Rock” its another Hendrix Experience vibe. Bowies vocal is great and the guitar riffs and the fantastic rhythm section keep the whole thing going. I got a whiff of The Cult and there’s a vocal part that Marc Bolan clearly enjoyed and ran with. A highlight for me.
Sorry if I’m committing some kind of sacrilege with “After All” but it’s just so dull. I really don’t have much else to say about it and I’ve tried….
I’m bit nonplussed by “Running Gun Blues”. It sounds like the sort Bowie sound that I recognise but it doesn’t seem to go anywhere. My enthusiasm for this project is being tested. I’m beginning to suspect that it’s very much of it’s time and you probably had to be there but I’m not a quitter.
“Saviour Machine” has a guitar sound that would have been at home on Ocean Colour Scene’s “Moseley Shoals”. I suspect Steve Craddock had “Saviour Machine” firmly in mind when he wrote “The Riverboat Song”. “Saviour Machine” has an edge and a rhythm missing elsewhere. I can imagine hearing this is 1971 and really sitting up and taking notice. It’s a great song.
“She Shook Me Cold” is another Hendrix influenced song that you can imagine having a freak out to in a muddy field somewhere stoned, naked and sweaty. I think it’s my favourite vocal performance. It’s gritty, sexual and probably not for the “Me Too” generation but times have changed…
Now the title track, the only song I’d heard before listening to the album but possibly only the Lulu version (I know…) It sounds like a Bowie song but again for me it plods a bit and doesn’t really grab me. It’s more “The Man Who Bored The World”…
Maybe we’ll finish on a high. “Superman” has Bowie doing his best attempt at a narrative as opposed to singing. It’s this song that really brings to mind “Jesus Christ Superstar” the way the words are almost spoken over a backing track in a “stagey” way. I don’t know, maybe this was the way of things in the early 70’s. A flat uninspiring finish despite hints of “A Whole Lotta Love” guitar.
In conclusion this may not have been the best Bowie album for a pop loving hook monster like me to start with. Basically a rock album with no hits and few hooks. It’s not immediately accessible and I’ve listened well into double figures now in the hope the penny drops. I can appreciate the invention but sometimes it felt this was in the place of a tune. (Now I sound like my Dad) It felt to me like Bowie was trying to find a style and sound and perhaps didn’t believe this was it.. Knowing the hits like I do it feels a long way from the sound many Radio listening “oh yes, I love Bowie” types recognise. I’ve done limited reading on the album as I didn’t want to pre-empt my view but what I have read points me to believe he was being influenced, by Visconti and the past rather than influencing the future. Bowie experts will no doubt tell me otherwise. Apparently they were trying to make an album Cream may have made. I don’t know enough about Cream to comment but maybe that’s why I didn’t find much in there that I recognised in the 80’s sound I love by artists inspired by Bowie. I may well return to “ The Man Who Sold The World” but not often. This hasn’t dulled my enthusiasm as a couple of songs hit the right spot and I’m sure as Bowie finds his way there’ll be more for me to enjoy. On to “Hunky Dory” next…
Wonderful! I am looking forward to your year of Bowie reviews.
I’m not a fan of this album really. It won’t surprise you to know he has done a lot better. It’s really interesting to hear it from the perspective of someone who is new to this and hasn’t heard where he goes next. Like most people who were too young to hear this at the time, I went BACK to this one after being inducted to Bowie by the later albums. And from that perspective, my perspective, what you hear as earnest Hendrix/hard rock influences, I hear as a bit more ironic and theatrical – Bowie “playing” with hard rock and then discarding that mask to go on to other things. But as I say, that’s from hindsight, so maybe you are correct and he genuinely wanted to be a rock god at this time.
And YES the Jesus Christ Superstar connection is very apt. I don’t think enough of a deal is made of this kind of influence when people talk about Bowie. Wait until you get to Diamond Dogs, where at times you really could be listening to an Andrew Lloyd Webber rock musical, and also bits of Ziggy Stardust, and the song Station to Station. I suppose this might tie into Bowie’s theatricality, and his methodical approach to songwriting. There’s definitely a very thin wedge between early seventies Bowie and stuff like Evita, Hair and Godspell, etc.
“one of those scenes in “The History Man” that you didn’t want to watch with your mum in the room”, the killer line in a wonderful piece that has me wanting to dig it out and listen, to absorb the love for the influences you are liking less.
Bowie was desperate to be a star by this point in his career. He’d been around for a good few years, and he must have thought his time was nearly up. So for me this is Bowie doing whatever he could to break big, and he leaned heavily into the Cream/Hendrix style. As such he’s following rather than innovating, and fair enough, do what you think will sell. A very patchy record and one I rarely listen to.
Agreed. To be honest he was always a bit of a magpie. I never bought the great innovator thing but he was a genius at repackaging stuff in Bowie style.
Dave, you are not a civilian.
Same army, different division.
PS. I think After All invented the slow bits of Suede, early on anyway.
Yeah it is nothing special, according to Visconti (take everything he says with a pinch of salt), this David Jones was not really involved in the arrangements, and the songs are lacking in tunes. Next one is one of the greatest albums ever made though!
Seconded. I only ever listen to the title track, and usually via the Lulu and Nirvana versions (on the MTV Unplugged album, in case you don’t know it).
….written by David Booowie!
I disagree about the title track.
If the intention was to have a hit album (I’m losing interest even as I type – too many snags), putting The Man Who Sold The World out as a single would have helped the process no end.
Even Lulu, who couldn’t get arrested in 1974 (a flop Bond theme… you what!!!!!), had a hit with it.
DB did get a lot of press coverage at this time, and seemed to be on Top Gear every other week. The idea that he sank into obscurity after SO is a bit of a stretch, but is the standard narrative of this period. The only album he made that really properly died on its arse was the first one.
Ronno is awesome on TMWSTW/TM. Suspecting that this might be his one shot at stardom, he throws everything he has at it – which usually brings out the best in an artist.
In February 1970, the Melody Maker schedules had Bowie down for a gig at the White Bear pub in Hounslow. That’s pretty obscure and things got worse. By the time of his appearance at Glastonbury in 1971, he had given up playing live.
There is audio of him thanking the hippies at Glasto: “I just want to say that you’ve given me more pleasure than I’ve had in a good few months of working. I don’t do gigs any more because I got so pissed off with working, and dying a death every time I worked, and it’s really nice to have somebody appreciate me for a change.”
Dave’s right – MWSTW is probably not the best place to start. I came to it after Ziggy and Hunky Dory. He might gain a fresh perspective on it once he’s sampled those two.
It was never a big favourite of mine until the Woody/Visconti-led Holy Holy began their live resurrection of the whole album some years ago. I reviewed a gig of theirs on here back in 2015, concluding that it was one of the best shows I’ve ever experienced. It gave me a renewed and lasting appreciation of the album. It shouldn’t matter about knowing the background context, but as obsessive fans (of whoever) we always do, and it certainly helps to appreciate the depths of songs such as All The Madmen. The Bolanesque warbling on Black Country Rock was an affectionate piss-take rather than an inspiration.
FWIIW, I loved it when I first heard it when I was 18, & I still love it nearly 47 years later.
Great album.
Ditto: always been one of my favourites…
Great review, Dave. It’s wonderful to read the view of someone new to an old favourite.
TMWSTW is not keeping with the rest of Bowie’s catalogue, but you could say that about any number of his albums. He was pre-occupied by new wife and a spat with his manager, leaving a lot of the recording to TV and, crucially, new recruit, Mick Ronson. Mick is the one who loved the power trio, notably Cream, The Who and The Experience. His guitar is definitely up for the task and the bass is pretty good too, but the drums aren’t quite in the same league as Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell or Ginger Baker. When he could be dragged to the studio, Bowie’s lyrics are totally outlandish.
I love the title track. It’s one of Bowie’s simplest and beautiful. Its mystery resonates throughout his career. Who was the man he passed on the stairs? His future self? An angel of death? Whoever it is reappears in different guises in later albums from Lodger right on to Blackstar.
(If you would like my more detailed opinion, type ‘Metrobolist’ into search – in fact, why not give that remix a try, see if you like it any better.)
I’m looking forward to your thoughts on Hunky Dory. Some great tunes, of course, but it has its strange, bleak moments too.
Have fun, keep posting and thank you.
Fancy seeing you here 😉
(Yeah yeah, and me)
The Bolan stuff is actually Bowie doing a pastiche, they were friends and Bolan plays lead guitar on the single version of Prettiest Star released in 1970 and much better in my opinion than the later remake.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prettiest_Star
Be prepared to peak early with your next listen!
Crikey – some odd ideas there, but that’s perfectly okay, as the whole idea is to hear somebody’s opinions from an entirely new perspective. However, the big mistake with this whole project was to begin with TMWSTW instead of the 1969 album, David Bowie (Space Oddity). Not only did this contain some quite remarkable tracks, it is also necessary to listen to it first to put its follow-up into context.
Going on to The Man Who Sold The World, first of all, the Hendrix comparison totally baffles me. I truly can’t see even the vaguest similarities. Instead, what you really have is one of the heaviest albums ever made, making it quite remarkable for the time it was released and also incredibly brave. Any catchy tunes on there seemed to appear almost by accident, when the real intent seemed to be to create a brutal aural assault, with no consideration at all for any commercial niceties. I’m sure anybody who remembers going hi-fi shopping down the Tottenham Court Road in the early 1970s will remember how nearly every retailer used this album in-store to show of the bass response of their more expensive speaker cabinets.
Ronson’s guitar playing sounds de-tuned, ugly and nasty – I admit I thought it was horrible at the time (still not convinced), but it certainly put the album into a category of its own. With a more disciplined arrangement She Shook Me Cold could have become an all-time heavy rock classic, but was largely ruined by what is surely one of the worst guitar solos ever committed to vinyl. I’m sure Bowie justified it as a Dada art statement.
All The Madmen was one of my favourite tracks, and I was amused how it had taken the reviewer so long to pick up on Bowie’s exaggerated Anthony Newly vocal delivery, which he still used right up to the end of his live performances. I remember thinking it was a bit cheeky of Bowie to impersonate Marc Bolan on Black Country Rock, until I found out the the background bleating was actually that of Bolan himself.
By including the ‘Space Oddity’ album it would have been necessary to end with Lodger, but there is a far better case for missing out Pin-Ups instead, which was a lightweight album recorded mainly to compensate the former members of his backing band. Scary Monsters has a production which sounds a little odd these days, but should still have been the one to end on.
Hi @hugh-janus I’m a bit of an oddity on this site. A pop loving 80’s lad on a site more Frank Zappa than Frankie Goes to Hollywood. As I said up there the 12 chosen were recommended to me and that was the only thought process behind them. It’s just a bit of lockdown fun, for me anyway.
You’re clearly a real fan there’s some great writing on here by others deep diving into all aspects of Bowie. The search function is your friend. Mine are a bit of fluff in comparison.
I’m genuinely surprised you don’t get the Hendrix thing but that’s my only real reference point pre 1971 apart from The Monkees and real mainstream pop. I heard it immediately.
I’ve done “Hunky Dory” which you can find on the site and will be posting “Ziggy Stardust ” today or tomorrow. I’d love to hear what you think. Nice name by they way 🙏
I count myself as a huge fan, yet I’ll probably fall out with the majority by saying that I really can’t stand Diamond Dogs. I think it’s partly the dated instrumentation and production, but I don’t think the songs are that great either. To my mind, Bowie peaked in about 2002 with the Reality Tour. Buy the DVD of it it and that’s all the Bowie you really need. I only wish they’d omitted the tedious Bring Me The Disco King and included Fall Dog Bombs The Moon – one of my favourite Bowie tracks and part of the set, but criminally omitted. Look it up on YouTube. I bet people are already sharpening their digital pencils as I type. 😀
I’m afraid my parents, Mr and Mrs Janus, had a cruel sense of humour.