All songs written by David Bowie.
The Width Of A Circle (8:05)
All The Madmen (5:38)
Black Country Rock (3:32)
After All (3:51)
Running Gun Blues (3:11)
Saviour Machine (4:25)
She Shook Me Cold (4:13)
The Man Who Sold The World (3:55)
The Supermen (3:38)
Bonus tracks on RykoDisc release:
Lightning Frightening (3:38) Previous unreleased track from 1970
Holy Holy (2:20) Single A-side from 1970 (note: see trivia)
Moonage Daydream (3:52)
Hang Onto Yourself (2:51)
Release details
Original release by Mercury April 1971
Rerelease on CD by RykoDisc 1990 with bonus tracks
Producer
Tony Visconti
Musicians
David Bowie: vocals, guitar
Mick Ronson: guitar
Tony Visconti: bass
Mick Woodmansey: drums
Ralph mace: synthesizer
Bonus track details
Moonage Daydream and Hang Onto Yourself were released as a single under the name Arnold Corns in 1971.
All four bonus tracks were written by David Bowie.
Lightening Frightening
Producer
Tony Visconti
Musicians
David Bowie: vocals, guitar
Tim Renwick: guitar
Tony Visconti: bass
John Cambridge: drums
Holy Holy
Producer
Herbie Flowers
Musicians
David Bowie: vocals, guitar
Herbie Flowers: bass
Mick Ronson: guitar
Mick Woodmansey: drums
Moonage Daydream
Hang Onto Yourself
Producer
David Bowie
Musicians
David Bowie: vocals, guitar
Freddi Buretti: vocals
Mick Ronson: guitar
Mark Carr Prichard: guitar
Trevor Bolder: bass
Woody Woodmansey: drums
Hunters and Collectors
The RCA LSP-4816 release of the album includes a poster of the "high kick" shot. (Info from Micke).
Trivia
There are multiple cover photos to The Man Who Sold The World. These include the infamous drag photo, the cartoon, and the high kick.
The bonus tracks Moonage Daydream and Hang Onto Yourself were released as a single under the name Arnold Corns in 1971. While the name was inspired by David's favourite Pink Floyd song Arnold Layne, the group itself never really existed. In publicity photos Bowie appeared alongside dress designer Freddi Buretti, who was supposedly the group's lead singer and a discovery of David's. Both of these songs were later reworked for the Ziggy Stardust album.
In spite of what the Rykodisc release notes say, the version of Holy Holy included here is in fact the 1973 Spiders remake featured on the B side of the single Diamond Dogs. The original version can only be picked up on the bootleg album Changesthreeandahalf. (Information courtesy of Punk Floyd).
Even though it contained no hits, The Man Who Sold the World, for most intents and purposes, is the beginning of David Bowie's classic period. Working with guitarist Mick Ronson and producer Tony Visconti for the first 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 is bizarre itself, with Bowie's bizarre, 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. [Rykodisc's 1990 CD reissue includes four bonus tracks, including the previously unreleased "Lightning Frightening," and the single "Holy Holy," and both sides of the 1971 "Arnold Corns" single, "Moonage Daydream" and "Hang On to Yourself," which are early and inferior versions of songs that would later appear on Ziggy Stardust.]