Vintage Gold: The Man Who Sold The World

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The Man Who Sold The World is one of those overlooked records in that stretch for Bowie where Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust, Diamond Dogs, Space Oddity and Hunky Dory sucked up all the oxygen in the room even though the title track was an AOR killer. However it was the deep cut “Black Country Rock” that grabbed my young ears.

It was of its time, inheriting more of a hard rock stance than glam as Mick Ronson tried to capture his best Tony Iommi and Martin Barre in the track’s main riff while Bowie himself was finally shaking off the “Lou Reed” effect and sounding a lot like Captain Beyond. For all his originality, Bowie knew how to “borrow” from the best of them. Of course a year later he was off and running his own race down his own unique path. But this testament to early 70’s hard rock was quite inspiring and reared its head again on the the title track to Ziggy Stardust when the Spiders were in full flight.

Justin Press
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