David Bowie Will Release 50th-Anniversary Edition Of 1970 “The Man Who Sold The World”

A 50th-anniversary edition of David Bowie’s 1970 classic, The Man Who Sold the World, will be released under its original title, Metrobolist, on November 6th.

The Man Who Sold The World was Bowie’s third record – and his first with Mick Ronson – was first issued in the US in November 1970, which was six months early of its worldwide release.

It was originally titled Metrobolist but was changed to the current title at the last minute, while the original US release used some of the original design elements for the packaging. The original stereo master tapes were also labeled with Metrobolist but with the title crossed out.

This 2020 reissue with the original title is remixed by its original producer, Tony Visconti – except for the track, “After All”, which was part of the 2015 remaster.

The artwork for the Metrobolist release was done by Mike Weller, who was also responsible for the originally intended album art which wasn’t allowed for release by Mercury. The gatefold sleeve also sports some images from the infamous Keith MacMillan Mr Fish shoot at Haddon Hall, which caused much controversy upon inclusion on the cover of The Man Who Sold the World in 1971.

“There is a story concealed in the carpet-scattered playing cards,” Weller shared. “David has thrown a plain 52 card deck in the air as though ‘casting the runes’ but in a significant break from 60s Tarot divinations such as I Ching, etc, he casts runes using a four-suit pack and switches man-dress, along with the Court Card of the Future from right hand to left, signifying a new decade and new cultural era.”

“Mick Weller devised this kind of very subversive looking cartoon and put in some quite personalized things. The building in the background on the cartoon in fact was the hospital where my half-brother had committed himself to. So for me, it had lots of personal resonance about it,” Bowie said in 2000.