Mick Ronson

Mick Ronson 1979

Michael Ronson (born May 26, 1946 in Hull ; † April 29, 1993 ibid) was a British guitarist , composer , multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer .

The beginnings

As a child, Mick Ronson played the piano, violin and harmonium. He initially wanted to be a cello player, but quickly switched to the guitar, where he was inspired by the whirlwind of Duane Eddy or the Shadows at the time . At the age of 17 he played for the first time in a local band ( The Mariners ). These had their first appearance as a support act in a small town almost 60 km from Hull and received 10 shillings for it.

Ronson also played in another local band, The Crestas . Ronson gave them a certain level of awareness and a permanent commitment to local clubs and other venues: Mondays at the Halfway House in Hull, Thursdays in the Ferryboat Hotel , Fridays in the Regal Ballroom in Beverley and Sundays in the Duke of Cumberland in North Ferriby.

In 1965 Ronson left the Crestas to try his luck in London . He took a part-time job as a mechanic and played in a small band called The Voice , where he replaced Miller Anderson . Soon after, the drummer left the band and was replaced by the Crestas' former drummer, Dave Bradfield. When Ronson and Bradfield returned to London one day from a weekend trip to Hull, they found a mess in their apartment and a note that "the rest of the group had moved to the Bahamas". Ronson stayed in London and played briefly in a soul band called The Wanted before finally returning to Hull for the whole.

In 1966 Ronson moved to another local band ( The Rats ), who performed regularly in the circus and also played some relatively unsuccessful concerts in London and Paris.

In 1968 - The Rats were now psychedelic - the band changed their name to Treacle and recorded two demos before reverting to their original name in 1969. 1970 Ronson played as a studio musician on the LP Fully Qualified Survivor by folk guitarist Michael Chapman . Almost at the same time, the councils dissolved.

Guitarist for David Bowie

In the spring of 1970, John Cambridge , who had already played with Ronson in the Rats, came to Hull to sign Mick Ronson for a new David Bowie backing band called The Hype . He found Ronson gardening in front of the municipal nursery marking rugby fields. Eventually, after much persuasion, Ronson was reluctant to accompany Cambridge to a meeting with Bowie.

Two days later, on February 5th, Bowie and Ronson appeared together for the first time on John Peel's Sunday show . The Hype played in the cast of David Bowie, Mick Ronson, John Cambridge and Tony Visconti and appeared in the costumes of "superheroes". Shortly thereafter, Cambridge left the band and was replaced by Woody Woodmansey . In April 1970, the recording of Bowie's album The Man Who Sold the World began , on which the guitar sound of Mick Ronson, largely influenced by Jeff Beck , came into its own for the first time.

During the recording time, the band signed a record deal with Vertigo Records . Benny Marshall came from the previous Rats as a singer, and the band wanted to release their own album called The Hype (without David Bowie). However, only one single was released, The Fourth Hour of My Sleep , a song written by Tony Visconti's friend, Tucker Zimmermann (and not by Bob Dylan , as other sources reported). The B-side of the single was an original composition by Mick Ronson and Benny Marshall entitled Power of Darkness . The long-playing record was never finished.

When the next Bowie album, Hunky Dory , was recorded, Tony Visconti, who now completely focused on producing, was replaced by Trevor Bolder , and keyboardist Rick Wakeman was added. Mick Ronson and David Bowie took care of the arrangements together, and this resulted in that, in contrast to the hard rock sounds of the previous album, Ronson's orchestral arrangements now took the "lead role" and Bowie's compositions were much more melodic.

The same band, but now without Rick Wakeman, then played the next Bowie album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars as The Spiders From Mars . Mick Ronson once again had a key role in the recording of the album, which he put his stamp on with his arrangements, his original instrumentation and his sensitive guitar playing. This album reverted to the harsher sounds of the earlier Bowie recordings, and David Bowie expressed his appreciation for Mick Ronson when he suggested kissing Mick Ronson's guitar on each promotional tour for the record.

During this time, Mick Ronson also co-produced Lou Reed's album Transformer and played the piano on the recording of Reed's song Perfect Day . He co-wrote The Man Who Sold The World for Lulu with David Bowie , and Dana Gillespie made several recordings of their album Weren't Born a Man .

Ronson's guitar was also unmistakable on the next two albums by David Bowie, Aladdin Sane and Pinups , so that many assumed that Ronson's contribution had become indispensable for Bowie. So it was all the more surprising that he was no longer featured on the next Diamond Dogs album .

Solo career

After a "farewell concert" by Bowie's backing band in 1973, Mick Ronson tried to start a solo career and released two albums under his own name. The first album Slaughter on 10th Avenue reached number 9 in the British charts in 1974 and contained a small hit with the single Only After Dark , while the second album Play Don't Worry did not go beyond number 29 the following year.

In 1973 and 1974 Mick Ronson was voted the second best guitarist of the year in the readers' charts of the music magazine Creem behind Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin .

Because of his reputation, Mick Ronson was recruited by Bob Dylan in 1975 as a member of his live band Rolling Thunder Revue , with whom he toured the northeast of the USA and Canada until May 1976 to complete four-hour concerts and to make the film Renaldo & Clara .

Guitarist for the Ian Hunter Band

In 1974/75 Mick Ronson joined the glam rock band Mott the Hoople for a few months . After the band broke up, he continued working with their singer Ian Hunter , on whose 1975 solo hit Once Bitten, Twice Shy he was involved as arranger, co-producer and co-lyricist. Although there was then an interruption due to contractual difficulties, but in 1979 Ronson again had a significant share in Hunter's successful solo album You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic .

The work with the Ian Hunter Band subsequently proved to be extremely fruitful and culminated in the live album Welcome to the Club , which was released in 1980 and was highly praised by critics and fans. In a brilliant retrospective, the old song material from Mott the Hoople as well as from solo days was refreshed and raised to a new level through the perfect intermeshing of Hunter's charismatic singing and Ronson's sensitive guitar playing. The record also contained some new studio recordings.

After a highly acclaimed Rockpalast performance together with ZZ Top on April 19, 1980 , Hunter and Ronson undertook further joint efforts in the 1980s, but could no longer build on their earlier successes. In 1990, the last joint album Yui Orta was released, which contains the instrumental Sweet Dreamer Ronson's legacy as a solo guitarist.

Work as a producer

In addition to David Bowie and Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson has worked as an accompanist, songwriter and record producer for artists as diverse as Morrissey , The Wildhearts , Rich Kids (including Glen Matlock and Midge Ure ), Elton John , John Cougar Mellencamp , Ellen Foley , Lisa Dalbello , Van Morrison , Leather Nun , Genya Ravan et al. a. m. In 1979 he produced Ellen Foley's debut with Ian Hunter, and in 1984 he recorded the album whomanfoursays with Lisa Dalbello .

In his collaborations, however, he was not limited to established artists, he was constantly promoting new, sometimes obscure projects such as The Payolas , Phil Rambow or Los Illegals . Throughout his life he had a passion to give unknown artists a chance and in this way supported many local bands from Hull on their way.

The last few years

His last major live project was at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on April 20, 1992, where he played All the Young Dudes with David Bowie and Ian Hunter, and Heroes and The Lords Prayer with David Bowie.

In 1993 he played again for David Bowie the track I Feel Free (originally by Cream ) for the album Black Tie White Noise . Ronson and Bowie had always played this version at live concerts during the time of Ziggy Stardust .

In the 1993's album Earth Vs The Wildhearts the band The Wildhearts Mick Ronson played his last published guitar solo in the song My Baby Is a Headfuck .

The third and final solo album by Mick Ronson Heaven And Hull was released in 1994 and was partially completed and published only after his death.

Mick Ronson died of liver cancer on April 29, 1993 at the age of only 46 . He is particularly unforgettable in his hometown of Hull, where a stage, the "Mick Ronson Memorial Stage", was erected in his honor.

In 2011, Rolling Stone listed Ronson as 41st of the 100 best guitarists of all time . In a list from 2003 he was ranked 64th.

Discography

Solo albums

• Slaughter on 10th Avenue (1974)
• Play Don't Worry (1975)
• Heaven and Hull (1994)

swell

1. ↑ Creem Magazine, Reader Poll Results 1974
2. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 18, 2015, accessed August 8, 2017 . 
3. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time - David Fricke's Picks. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 8, 2017 . 

Web links

Commons : Mick Ronson  - collection of images, videos and audio files