Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 28, 2013 23:00:51 GMT -8
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:
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 29, 2020 22:57:29 GMT -8
I still miss you, Mick.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 20, 2022 23:00:36 GMT -8
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:
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 28, 2022 23:00:18 GMT -8
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.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 23, 2023 23:00:37 GMT -8
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:
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.
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