THE MAN WHO DREW THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD

The original Mercury sleeve for David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World US LP release remains the best visual reproduction with first rate lithographic printing. Flat, bold, solid, textured colours faithfully based on my full-colour 1970 painting. A design understood to be lost. 'Original' paintings for sale on internet auction and shopping sites are jokes.

The original design was visual poem "Metrobolist", a title I'd drawn as Letterist project with back-cover image of cartoon vocal trio. The original album intention was altered by record company executives, resulting with album concept replaced by selected track-title "The Man Who Sold The World" hand-lettered in crude bubble script. Front cover character's speech-balloon text ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR ARMS was edited out, leaving speech-balloon empty. The album's original sound recording also underwent record company interference and edits. 

 1990 CD reissues resulted in a legal dispute over company logo inclusion and conflicting copyright claims. Due to painstaking efforts of Kevin Cann; EMI's 1999 CD re-issue replaces something of the 1969-70 Beckenham Arts Lab context. There's additional, previously unseen images from Bowie's "dress" photographic session. The Mercury label "cowboy sleeve" bubble-lettered title is re-introduced, this time with newly-found graphic irony capturing retro distance. There are accurate credits and front and back (first time on CD) reproductions of the cover. But funnily enough actual print quality and image edits are not up to standard of some counterfeit pirates of US 1970 LP vinyl release. 

As an appendix to this account; aforementioned Kevin Cann, in his highly recommended Any Day Now David Bowie The London Years 1947-1974 (Adelita, 2010) gives a truthful picture of Bowie's early career documenting the story of how Metrobolist became The Man Who Sold The World. The only argument I have with Cann's description of the episode is that referred invisible balloon caption text '...TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR ARMS' mouthed from cowboy figuration as imperative is quoted as collective pronoun '...and show us your arms'. But Beckenham Arts Lab/MJ Weller/David Bowie Metrobolist never came to realization in 1970, nor did front cover cowboy cartoon utterance - so what does it really matter? 

Over forty years later, new books (one 2009 "thoroughly researched" biography repeats authorship errors first corrected 25 years before), internet forums and blogosphere postings continue discussion and argument about The Man Who Sold The World album. I like the Chris O'Leary authored and moderated Pushing Ahead of the Dame best. Not only does it provide an excellent analysis and evaluation of TMWSTW after Nirvana and Kurt Cobain rediscovered the song - this WordPress (in process of becoming book/books) blog is also crammed with measured insights. One comment thread by 'Roger' suggested me Life on Mars BBC television drama series; particularly demonic characterization "DCI Jim Keats" and 'afterlife' dénouement of sequel Ashes to Ashes, could have been inspired by Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World". If these two (post)modern tv cop series with Bowie-driven song titles can be described as working in both serious and playful ways, I think it fair to say this was also intention of original Metrobolist lettriste.     

41 years after release of TMWSTW, and 6 years since I began this explanatory for the Home'Baked Books site: retired Washington Post staff writer Richard Harrington has interviewed the artist extensively for proposed book about "...censored, banned or otherwise controversial album art..."

Could this forthcoming book include the definitive article on Metrobolist/The Man Who Sold The World?