Mick Ronson (1946-1993)

[Brian]

This April 29 is Mick Ronson's 20th yahrzeit. No man more talented, influential and beautiful walked this earth in the late 20th Century. You're supposed to light the candle at sunset the night before the death anniversary. Tonight, I fired up my favorite recording, "Angel No. 9," from his second solo album in 1975 to once again feel the light and the heat from Mick's singing, arranging and guitar playing:

[Brian]

I still miss you, Mick.

[Brian]

A month hasn't gone by since Mick Ronson died on April 29, 1993 of cancer at the age of 46 that I haven't thought of him.  Of course, that was often true before he died. Tonight I was reminded of him by the airing of a 2021 BBC documentary, "Freddie Mercury:  The Final Act," on the CW network, Channel 5 locally.  It ended with reminiscences and footage of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness at Wembley Stadium on April 20, 1992.  So this was the 30th anniversary.  Since the documentary was about Freddie, I knew they'd have to omit Mick's last live appearance:



That's the entire 11 minute clip from the worldwide telecast, from David Bowie's long introductions of Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson to David kneeling for "The Lord's Prayer" at the end.  They're backed by Bowie on sax along with members of Queen and Def Leppard for "All the Young Dudes," then we get to hear Mick's interpretation of the lead guitar figure in "Heroes" originally played by Robert Fripp.  Which always brings me to tears.

Ian spoke about the concert in "Rock 'n' Roll Sweepstakes," Campbell Devine's 2021 authorized biography:

That gig was tremendous for Mick and he was thrilled to bits to be there.  Freddie's tribute was well organized, and it was huge -- a billion people watching on TV in seventy-six countries, 72,000 people in the stadium, twenty-one televisions in a room backstage and 3,000 crew and staff.  That's a gig!  To many, it topped Live Aid.  People were so nervous, but Mick and I were fine.  We were thinking, "Big stage?  We can show off up here, no problem."  There is, of course, a lot of camaraderie at a gig like that.  The rehearsals lasted a week and that was fabulous.  I saw all sorts of people I hadn't seen for years.  Roxy Music was there, Nick Faldo, footballers -- Britain, all in this film studio, in Bray.  "Dudes" got applauded at rehearsals when we played it, which was great. I remember on the big day, watching the first half at Wembley from the royal box.  It went by really quickly and, of course, it was bittersweet in several ways, but everything worked and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  The crowd was great and went on as far as the eye could see.

[Brian]

Today marks 29 years since Mick Ronson left us. He died in commercial obscurity: no solo albums released after 1975 and nothing ever available on CD. Soon after his death, we got "Heaven and Hull," the album he recorded until his final days with his best friends -- and some of the best musicians in the world. Before the new millennium, we got finally to hear "Just Like This," a compilation of songs that Mick recorded with a new band in late 1976 after he'd toured with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.  That's because management conflicts had prevented him from continuing to work with Ian Hunter. So some of my most cherished memories of Mick began after April 29, 1993:



It took 23 years to come out, but "Just Like This" might be Mick Ronson's finest effort. Back in 1993, Ian said that Mick didn't just play guitar solos, he played "songs within songs." For proof of his genius, check out that fan video of "I'd Give Anything to See You" -- written by Mick and produced by him at Albert Grossman's Bearsville Sound Studio -- embedded above.

As long as we can hear his music, Mick will never truly die.

[Brian]

April 29, 2023 will be the 30th anniversary of Mick Ronson's passing.

Leading up to this yahrzeit I've been revisiting Mick's greatest guitar solos.  His solo on "Moonage Daydream" on David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" album still sounds perfect half a century later, but his performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1973 was out of this world -- and preserved for posterity by D.A. Pennebaker at what turned out to be the final Ziggy concert.  Drummer Woody Woodmansey and bassist Trevor Bolder were shocked when Bowie announced his retirement during the show even if they didn't instantly realize that they had lost their jobs.  Yet Mick, who stayed with Bowie several more months, "knew that we were doing our last Ziggy," according to manager Tony Defries in the May issue of Mojo.  Whether or not Mick was inspired by the cameras or the knowledge that this was his final "Moonage Daydream" solo, he dominated the stage after Bowie left for another costume change mid-song and kept the girls enraptured.



On record, I nominate "The Truth, the Whole Truth, Nuthin' but the Truth" as one of Mick's finest achievements.  Ian Hunter wrote that song for his first solo album in 1975 intending it as a showcase for a Mick Ronson guitar solo.  As Ian tells it in Campbell Devine's biography:

The minute Mick heard it he was taken. That was Ronson's speed; he liked slow groove songs and the slower the better. It was very simple and I knew Mick would play the shit out of it. I remember just before the session in AIR, he got a review for his solo album, Play Don't Worry, which was vicious and personal. So Mick read this scathing review and went bright red and we were doing the track and went out to do the solo. We got it in five minutes flat. If he hadn't read that review it would have taken us about three days. Mick was extremely picky and a purist with his solos. He'd do a lot of them and he'd constantly chop and change.

Also this Saturday, April 29, HBO will premiere the wonderfully surreal David Bowie documentary "Moonage Daydream," so I can soon watch it to my heart's content.  I caught the movie in a theater last September and I burst into tears when Mick appeared -- it was first time I ever saw him on the big screen.