Rock On! Wednesday, 9 July 2025 – David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Lou Reed, Roxy Music, Todd Rundgren & Brian Eno

Psychedelic, heavy, prog and more innovating sounds spanning the late 60s and the early 70s – Dan’s pick of the week: David Bowie (The Man Who Sold the World), Mott the Hoople (All the Young Dudes), Lou Reed (Transformer), Roxy Music (Roxy Music), Todd Rundgren (Todd) & Brian Eno (Taking Tiger Mountain).

David Bowie was een Brits zanger, songwriter, muziekproducent en acteur. Hij wordt beschouwd als een van de invloedrijkste rockmuzikanten vanaf de jaren zestig tot heden. The Man Who Sold the World is het derde studioalbum van David Bowie, uit 1970. De eerste single en titelnummer The Man Who Sold the World heeft ook bekendheid gekregen door de cover van Lulu en later van Nirvana.

Sputnik Music review: “The Man Who Sold The World was Bowie’s first album with the nucleus of what would become the “Spiders From Mars”, the band who would be famous due to his future fifth studio album “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars”, released in 1972. “The Man Who Sold The World” has been claimed that this was the album that marked the beginning of the glam rock. Hard rocking and heavy metal hybrid, “The Man Who Sold The World” was Bowie’s third studio album, although considered the second work of his classic period. On “The Man Who Sold The World”, Bowie’s music offers an experience that is as intriguing as it’s chilling, but only to the listener sufficiently together to withstand its schizophrenia. On this album, Bowie deals with oblique and fragmented images that are almost impenetrable separately but which convey with effectiveness an ironic and bitter sense of the world when considered together. His unhappy relationship with the world is traced to his inability to perceive it sanely. In reality, “The Man Who Sold The World” came before he was known for anything other than “Space Oddity”. Unfortunately, this album wouldn’t be his breakout album upon its release. It wasn’t especially a commercial or critical successful work. (…)

Conclusion: “The Man Who Sold The World” wasn’t my first contact with Bowie’s music. The first ones were “Space Oddity” and “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars”, in the middle of the 70’s. Still, it was love at the first sight. “The Man Who Sold The World” is a fantastic album, a great step forward from their previous album “Space Oddity” and a giant step from their eponymous debut. This is one of the best Bowie’s studio albums and one of my favourite albums from him, together with “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars”, “Station To Station”, “Low” and “Heroes”. “The Man Who Sold The World” is the hardest rock album from Bowie that became the precursor of “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars”. “The Man Who Sold The World” is one of the most interesting and cohesive hard rock albums I’ve ever heard and represents his first great work. However and unfortunately, I always think that it was probably the most underrated and overlooked album of Bowie.”

Wednesday, 25 June 2025 12:00 noon CET Brussels – 11 a.m. GMT London. Repeated: 16:00 & 20:00 hrs CET Brussels, 3 p.m. & 7 p.m. GMT London