The Man Who Sold The World
Best song: The Width of a Circle
Worst song: She Shook Me Cold
Overall grade: 4
Following the success of the single ‘Space Oddity’, David
Bowie started trying to put together a more stable group of musicians to work
with. This group would then go on to become one of the most famous backing
bands of any musician, ever (save for Bob Dylan). Yes, this album does indeed
feature a very rough blueprint for what was to become the Spiders from Mars.
Micks Ronson and Woodmansey make their first appearance on this album, and
Trevor Bolder was the only missing link… but that’s later. For now, we’re just
talking about this album, which, although clearly a vital step in Bowie’s
evolution, is overlooked and even criticised by fans as often as it is praised.
So, where do I stand on this album that divides the opinions
of those who actually remember it exists? Well, I like it. Truth be told I liked
it quite a bit more before I found out that Bowie himself wasn’t massively
involved in the songwriting process. Maybe that factor shouldn’t be such an
influence on my opinion, but it is. David Bowie is one of the most creative and
imaginative men in music, and for him – or any musician, for that matter – to put
his name on a project, I’d hope that he’d want to have written a set of songs
he was really happy with, and that he thought were the best he could write,
rather than make a start and then hand the job over to somebody else. Maybe I’m
just idealistic.
I’m not going to surprise anyone with my pick for best song
here. Opener ‘The Width of a Circle’ is as good as it gets – so good, that one
particularly devoted fan in Russia pressed so many copies of it onto 7” that
lots of people think it was released as an actual, official single. Don’t be
fooled by the 1970 release date. This song has the open, anything-goes kind of
quality that makes one think of the 60s, and the second part has a space rock
quality that almost reminds me of Hawkwind. Hearing Bowie, generally regarded
as a camped-up glam rock singer, try his voice at the heavy metal influenced
song might seem like a bit of a stretch, but his voice fits in surprisingly
well. There’s some spacey atmospherics in the wobbly guitar solo passage
between the first two verses, and the lyrics… ‘And the rumour spread that I was aging fast/Then I ran
across a monster who was sleeping by a
tree/And I looked and frowned and
the monster was me’. Or, I could just quote the entire song. Yes,
sleeping with the devil in Hell might sound like dubious subject matter and it’s
certainly not the kind of thing I’d expect to enjoy a song about, but there are
so many excellent lyrical turns of phrase here that I’m forced to have a lot of
respect for the way it’s written.
OK,
let’s talk about some of the other songs. This album doesn’t have a concept
like ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and doesn’t even flow like ‘Hunky Dory’ but most of the
songs are worth checking out, and they do continue to prove Bowie’s often
underrated lyrical talents. Seriously, sometimes I think this album could hold
up well if you just read the lyrics booklet, and the only other people who can
do that are Bob Dylan and Jarvis Cocker. ‘All the Madmen’ carries things on in
an equally progressive style with creepy vocals and a guitar opening full of
anticipation. Its more stripped back arrangement means it acts as a
counterpoint to the first song, but it also builds as it goes on, giving it
status on its own. I’m a big fan of the spoken word section in the middle that
comes out of nowhere, where the band forget to play for a bit, surprising the listener
and making the song memorable and unique. It’s the Syd Barrett song that
Barrett never wrote.
‘Black
Country Rock’ is not one of my favourites; its blues-rock influence is a bit
too overpowering for my tastes, and the hook I hear while I listen to it is
lying about being a hook, because it isn’t any kind of memorable. The quietly
intense ‘After All’ is more my kind of thing, setting Bowie’s whispered,
world-weary vocals against the more innocent and choral sound in the
background.
I’ll
be dull and predictable again in saying that my least favourite track is ‘She
Shook Me Cold’, because it just ad no structure… seriously, most jam sessions
are better organised than this song, which is nowhere near album-worthy. It
feels like it’s trying to be great art but coming off as a bit of a mess. ‘Saviour
Machine’ is nothing particularly special either, and ‘Running Gun Blues’ is
notable for being the heaviest song, a bit psychotic in places, interesting enough
but more controversial than it is good.
The title track is probably most famous for
being covered by Nirvana in the early 90s, but I can think of much better
versions. Namely, this one. More than anything else on the record, this is a
pop song, and Ronson provides us with a wonderful guitar hook just to prove
that point. Closer ‘The Supermen’ is probably the most obvious nod to Bowie’s
sci-fi leanings, sounding alternately cold, futuristic and otherworldly, and it’s
another bullseye in my book. Its fantastical qualities elevate an otherwise averagely
good song to epic status. Another powerful vocal over the grandiose
instrumentation bring the album to a crashing, explosive finish that’s well
worth the disappointing moments.
So
yeah. They say the only constant in life is change, and that’s definitely true
of Bowie’s life. It doesn’t matter how much you like or dislike any one album
of his, you always know that the next one’s going to be completely different.
Ouch, I haven’t reviewed anything ridiculously positive for
quite a while. Tomorrow or Thursday I’ll give something a 7.
I also haven’t been particularly controversial about
anything in a while… that’s coming. Oh, it’s coming.
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