David Bowie’s third studio album, The Man Who Sold the World, is set to be reissued under its original title and with new album artwork.

The 1970 album was intended to be called Metrobolist, a reference to Fritz Lang’s 1927 film of the same name. Mercury Records ultimately changed the name of the record at the last minute without consulting Bowie.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the record, it’s getting reissued with its intended name and artwork from Mike Weller — the man responsible for the album’s original artwork. The reissued album will be pressed on 180-gram black vinyl as well as a limited edition, numbered gold and white vinyl.

The cover’s sleeve will feature never-before-seen images from Keith MacMillan’s “dress” shoot at Haddon Hall that was featured in the UK release of the album and a series of reissues.

All of the music on the album has has been retouched by original producer Tony Visconti — with the exception of ‘After All’, which Visconti believes to be untouchable.

“David wrote some of his best songs on the album,” Visconti previously shared of the record. “Not a single among them, except maybe ‘The Man Who Sold the World,’ which Lulu had a single with, but we didn’t care. It wasn’t that important to get a single. Albums were just coming into their own as great art statements. This is, the album was far better than the single, far superior than the single. It had integrity; it was artistic; it was uncompromising.”

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METROBOLIST (AKA TMWSTW) 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION “Oh no, not me, I never lost control…” DAVID BOWIE – ‘METROBOLIST’ 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION RELEASED ‪6th NOVEMBER‬ ON LIMITED VINYL AND CD FORMATS, ALSO FOR STREAMING AND DOWNLOAD AT STANDARD AND HIGH RESOLUTION DOWNLOAD (96kHz/24bit) This November sees the 50th Anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World in North America. The rest of the world would have to wait until April 1971 to witness Bowie’s landmark entry into the 1970s. Originally titled Metrobolist, the album’s name was changed at the last minute to The Man Who Sold The World. The 2020 re-release of the album has been remixed by original producer Tony Visconti, with the exception of the track ‘After All’ which Tony considered perfect as is, and is featured in its 2015 remaster incarnation. The Metrobolist 50th anniversary artwork has been created by Mike Weller who was behind the originally intended album artwork which Mercury refused to release. The gatefold sleeve also features images from the Keith MacMillan Mr Fish ‘dress’ shoot at Haddon Hall which would cause so much controversy when one of the shots was used on the cover of the The Man Who Sold The World album in the rest of the world later. As with the Space Oddity 50th anniversary vinyl, as well as a 180g black vinyl edition, it will come in 2020 limited edition handwritten numbered copies on gold vinyl (# 1971 – 2020) and on white vinyl (# 1 – 1970) all randomly distributed. David personally delivered the Metrobolist concept and his gatefold plan to the record company for production and now with this release, it can finally be seen much closer to its original concept. Bowie speaking in 2000 said of the sleeve imagery “Mick Weller devised this kind of very subversive looking cartoon and put in some quite personalised 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.” Read the full press release here: https://smarturl.it/BNetMetrobolistPR #Bowie1970 #BowieMetrobolist #BowieTMWSTW

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