Mick Ronson (46) – guitar with David Bowie/ Bob Dylan – was born May 26, 1946 in Kingston upon Hull, England. He was the first son of George and Minnie Ronson and had two younger siblings, Maggi and David. As a child he practiced to play classically piano, recorder, violin, and (later) the harmonium. He initially wanted to be a cellist, but moved to guitar upon discovering the music of Duane Eddy, whose sound on the bass notes of his guitar sounded similar to that of the cello, according to Ronson.
The City of Hull was a musical hub in those early days and he joined his first band, The Mariners when he was 17. While Ronson was working with The Mariners, another local Hull group– The Crestas–recruited him on the advice of The Mariners’ bassist John Griffiths. With Ronson on board the Crestas gained a solid reputation, making regular appearances at local halls: Mondays at the Halfway House in Hull, Thursdays at the Ferryboat Hotel, Fridays at the Regal Ballroom in Beverley, and Sundays at the Duke of Cumberland in North Ferriby, the typical circuit of those days.
Winding his way through several local and regional bands such as The Voice, The Wanted, The Rats. The last group played the local circuit, and made a few unsuccessful trips to London and Paris.
In 1967 The Rats recorded the one-off psychedelic track “The Rise and Fall of Bernie Gripplestone”at Fairview Studios in Willerby and can be heard on the 2008 release, Front Room Masters – Fairview Studios 1966–1973. In 1968, the band changed their name briefly to Treacle and booked another recording session at Fairview Studios in 1969, before reverting to their original name. Around that time, Ronson was recommended by Rick Kemp (Steeleye Span) to play guitar on Michael Chapman‘s critically acclaimed Fully Qualified Survivor al
bum that came out in 1970.
In March 1970, during the recording sessions for Elton John‘s album Tumbleweed Connection, Ronson played guitar on the track “Madman Across the Water“. The song, however, was not included in the original release, but became the title for Elton John’s 4th studio album with Davey Johnstone doing the guitar parts. . The recording featuring Ronson was released on the 1992 compilation album, Rare Masters, as well as the 1995 reissue and 2008 deluxe edition of Tumbleweed Connection.
Early in 1970, Rats’ drummer John Cambridge went back to Hull in search of Ronson, intent upon recruiting him for a new David Bowie backing band called The Hype. He found Ronson marking out a rugby pitch, one of his duties as a Parks Department gardener for Hull City Council. Having failed in his earlier attempts in London, Ronson was reluctant, but eventually agreed to accompany Cambridge to a meeting with Bowie. Two days later, on 5 February, Ronson made his debut with Bowie on John Peel‘s national BBC Radio 1 show.
The Hype played their first gig at The Roundhouse on 22 February with a line-up that included Bowie, Ronson, Cambridge, and producer/bassist Tony Visconti. The group dressed up in superhero costumes, with Bowie as Rainbowman, Visconti as Hypeman, Ronson as Gangsterman, and Cambridge as Cowboyman.
Soon after Ronson started recording and touring with David Bowie as guitarist with the Spiders of Mars, Bowie’s backing ensemble. They now included Trevor Bolder, (later Uriah Heep) who had replaced Visconti on bass guitar, and keyboardist Rick Wakeman, were used in the recording of Hunky Dory. The departure of Visconti meant that Ronson, with Bowie, took over the arrangements, while Ken Scott co-produced with Bowie. Hunky Dory featured Ronson’s string arrangements on several tracks, including “Life On Mars?“.
That band, minus Wakeman, became known as the Spiders from Mars from the title of the next Bowie album. Again, Ronson was a key part of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, providing string arrangements and various instrumentation, as well as playing lead guitar. Ronson’s guitar and arranging during the Spiders from Mars era provided much of the underpinning for later punk rock musicians. Bowie and Ronson followed Ziggy Stardust with Aladdin Sane, David’s first #1 album and 1973 covers album Pin Ups.. Mick was increasingly highlighted on these records, and his stinging, razoring guitar on ‘Panic in Detroit’, ‘Cracked Actor’ and ‘The Prettiest Star’ was astonishing.
Producer Ken Scott:
“Is David Bowie talented? Absolutely. Is David Bowie worthy of the adulation often heaped upon him? Sometimes. Would everyone know his name if not for his pairing with Mick Ronson? Quite possibly not. Ronno was the major part of the team that brought David to the forefront of modern music. He made my job as an engineer and producer so much easier and enjoyable. I can only speak for myself, but I know the five records we did together would have been nowhere near as good without the personality and unbounded talents Mick Ronson brought to the studio everyday.”
In the early 70s Bowie and Ronson collaborated with a number of other artists. Together hey produced Lou Reed’s seminal Transformer album, and while David received most credit for this he later acknowledged that Mick made a massive contribution to the sessions playing guitar and piano. Reed later admitted that Mick’s arrangements and influence was stronger than David’s (“Ronson was an incredible guitar player”, said Reed. “A great producer and great arranger. A lovely man.”)
Bowie and Ronson also produced Lulu, scoring a hit with “The Man Who Sold The World”.
Lulu: “Mick Ronson was the first guitarist who ever accessed and combined a pop/rock and punk ethic in his guitar playing. His style was totally unique to the day. I loved working with Mick in the studio. He was not a diva, he was a kind and gentle soul.”
In 1972 Ronson provided a strings-and-brass arrangement for the song “Sea Diver” on the Bowie-produced All the Young Dudes album for Mott the Hoople. Ronson appeared on the 1972 country rock album Bustin’ Out by Pure Prairie League, where he undertook string ensemble arrangements.
Years later in 1994 a year after Ronson’s death Bowie said in an interview:
“Mick was the perfect foil for the Ziggy character. He was very much a salt-of-the-earth type, the blunt northerner with a defiantly masculine personality, so that what you got was the old-fashioned Yin and Yang thing. As a rock duo, I thought we were every bit as good as Mick and Keith or Axl and Slash. Ziggy and Mick were the personification of that rock n roll dualism.”
On July 3, 1973 however, David Bowie shocked his fans at a gig in Hammersmith, London, by saying it was the last show he would ever do. It was a fantastic bit of showbiz – really, it was only the end of his Ziggy Stardust character, not the last show for David Bowie – but it did mark the end of the road for the Spiders From Mars, the backing band that had transformed Bowie from a struggling Dylan-influenced one-hit wonder into the most exciting glam rock star of the 70s. Read the story here.
After leaving Bowie’s entourage, Ronson released three solo albums over the years. His solo debut, 1974’s Slaughter on 10th Avenue, featured a version of Elvis Presley‘s “Love Me Tender”, as well as Ronson’s most famous solo track, “Only After Dark“. Between this and the 1975 follow-up, Ronson had a short-lived stint with Mott the Hoople, after which Ronno took off for the States.
In late ’75 Ronson met Bob Dylan in New York’s Greenwich Village, and shortly afterwards Dylan invited Mick to join his touring band. Ronson thought Dylan “sang like Yogi Bear” but joined The Rolling Thunder Revue for eight months, playing with Joan Baez, T-Bone Burnett, Joni Mitchell, Roger McGuinn, with whom he developed a great friendship and Bob Neuwirth. He even performed a ‘solo’ number in Dylan’s set, Is There Life on Mars? But then, after he temporarily became part of Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour in 1976, Ronson became a long-time frequent collaborator with Mott’s former leader Ian Hunter, commencing with the album Ian Hunter (UK No. 21) and featuring the UK hit “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, including a spell touring as the Hunter Ronson Band.
In 1976 Ronson helped Kinky Friedman on his album Lasso From El Passo, and produced and played on Roger McGuinn’s solo record Cardiff Rose. Roger McGuinn:
“After Rolling Thunder was over, I went back to California and decided it was time to record my fourth solo album. I invited Ronson to produce me, using Guam as the studio band. That became the Cardiff Rose album – it was one of my favorites. Mick did a stunning job as a producer, perhaps best illustrated on the song Jolly Roger. Mick made the track into a great seafaring song. I don’t know how, but he went out and found wind sounds and creaking noises for the ship’s timbers and assembled the whole thing. He literally was an audio artist. Absolutely brilliant.”
Looking back on his two RCA albums, Ronson felt that his management had tried to turn him into a David Cassidy-type figure. Cassidy he was not, but he was happy to work with the pop idol, playing sparkling guitar on Cassidy’s hit single Gettin’ It In The Street.
David Cassidy:
“Mick Ronson was a far greater musician and a far greater person than anyone was allowed to know. I loved him and admired his uniqueness, and was privileged to have worked with him.”
e with Bob Seger.
