The Man Who Sold the World

No artist offered a more compelling portrayal of the landscape of the 1970s than David Bowie. From his first hit, "Space Oddity," in 1969 to the release of the LP Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) in 1980, Bowie cultivated an innovative and shocking brand of performance, a mesmerizing blend of high-concept science fiction and old-fashioned rock 'n' roll, delivered in skintight spandex and operatic alien makeup. Through songs at once prescient and esoteric, beautiful and haunting, Bowie cut hard against the grain of '60s and '70s pop music, replacing it with something far more intriguing: a dark, fantastical vision that heralded the dawn of a new decade.

In The Man Who Sold the World, acclaimed journalist Peter Doggett explores the rich heritage of Bowie's most productive and inspired decade. Viewing the artist through the lens of his music and his many guises, Doggett offers a detailed analysis--musical, lyrical, conceptual, social--of every song Bowie wrote and recorded during that period, as well as a brilliant exploration of the development of a performer who profoundly affected popular music and the idea of stardom itself.