The man who sold the world

Released in 1970, The Man Who Sold the World is one of David Bowie’s most enigmatic songs. Built around an unsettling encounter between the narrator and a figure who seems, at once, both a stranger and a reflection of himself, the lyrics explore themes of identity, alienation, and the unsettling feeling of no longer recognising who we are. Rather than offering answers or a neatly resolved narrative, the song immerses the listener in an atmosphere of ambiguity, where the boundaries between past and present, self and other, begin to dissolve.

The song was introduced to a new generation in the 1990s through Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York, with Kurt Cobain once again embodying the themes of identity, alienation, and emotional dislocation that lie at its heart.