10 Hard Rock Albums MUCH Better Than You Remember
2. The Man Who Sold the World - David Bowie
When talking about the greatest hard rock albums of all time, David Bowie doesn't feel like he belongs in the same sphere.
Sure, his work as Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane had a healthy amount of crunch to it, but there was no way you could see them being placed alongside something like Led Zeppelin any time soon. Then again, you should never really count out Bowie's chameleon like artistic skin.
Before he even donned the trademark glam makeup, Bowie's first step into rockier territory resulted in one of his heaviest efforts on The Man Who Sold the World. Though he had already won the hearts of some rock fans on tracks like Space Oddity, this is where the Starman settles into his role as a rock frontman, enlisting players like Tony Visconti and Mick Ronson for the first time.
That extra personnel is made apparent right from the first track The Width of a Circle, which stands as one of the most caustic rockers in Bowie's catalog.
Compared to the more pop friendly stuff we would be seeing just a few years down the road, these riffs are so heavy that can practically give Black Sabbath a run for their money. It's no secret that Bowie didn't stay in this artistic lane for too long, but it was a hell of a lot of fun while it lasted.