The five best glam solos by Mick Ronson
Michael Ronson, also known as Mick Ronson or Ronno, was sadly only with us for 46 years. Still, in his tragically truncated adulthood, he brought inventive virtuosity to the glam rock era and supported some of the 20th century’s biggest names. Most notably, Ronson achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars.
In total, Ronson offered his guitar styling to five albums to help guide Bowie to prominence as a solo artist: The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Aladdin Sane, and the covers album of 1973, Pin Ups. During this five-year stint recording with Bowie, Ronson also worked as a session musician and joined Bowie to produce and co-create Lou Reed’s masterpiece solo album of 1972, Transformer.
Following his time as Bowie’s right-hand man, Ronson famously worked alongside Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter, Roger McGuinn, Morrissey, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan as part of his Rolling Thunder Revue backing band between 1975 and ’76.
Tragically, Ronson passed away on April 29th, 1993, aged just 46, following a battle with liver cancer. In his memory, the Mick Ronson Memorial Stage was constructed in Queen’s Gardens in his hometown of Hull.
In a 1994 interview, Bowie said of his late bandmate: “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,” he continued. “Ziggy and Mick were the personification of that rock n roll dualism. He provided this strong, earthy, simply-focussed idea of what a song was all about. And I would simply flutter all around him on the edges and decorate. I was sort of the interior decorator.”
Mick Ronson’s five best glam solos:
Lou Reed – ‘Vicious’
David Bowie had been among the paltry assemblage of zany Brits to acquire a first edition record of The Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut. The album is now seen as a holy grail and the progenitor of punk, but the world wasn’t quite ready for it at the time. Alas, the progressive Starman was on board from the off and was delighted to meet Lou Reed in the early 1970s while he visited London to record his eponymous solo debut album.
After becoming acquainted in 1971, Bowie and Ronson offered to produce and collaborate on Reed’s second solo album, Transformer. The record took a bold plunge into glam and reaped some of Reed’s finest work. Ronson offered his production, guitar and piano skills to bolster hits like ‘Perfect Day’ and ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, but it’s his perfectly glamorous guitar work on ‘Vicious’ that earned a mention on this list.
David Bowie – ‘Time’
In 1973, Bowie and his Spiders from Mars regrouped for a follow-up to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Aladdin Sane arrived with a heavier glam aesthetic, starkly reflecting America’s societal decadence. ‘Time’ appeared on the album as one of its slower and more theatrical tracks, fraught with perverse humour: “Time, he flexes like a whore / Falls wanking to the floor / His trick is you and me, boy / Time, in quaaludes and red wine / Demanding Billy Dolls / And other friends of mine / Take your time.”
The track was an undeniable highlight in the release, not least for Ronson’s instrumental offerings. In the song’s closing moments, Ronson textures Bowie’s refrain, “We should be on by now,” with a melodious and dramatic solo that glows virtuosic without eclipsing the vocal presence.
David Bowie – ‘Starman’
Ronson adorned The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars with a fine selection of rhythm and lead parts to dissect. Perhaps the most iconic track on the album, alongside the title track, of course, was ‘Starman’. With its glittering spaceward soaring qualities, it’s pretty much the most “glam” glam rock song you can find.
After the closing chorus lines, “Let the children lose it/Let the children use it/Let all the children boogie,” Ronson takes it away with a killer lead solo introducing the song’s melodic essence. The solo returns in the closing moments of the track as the band sing their “la, la, las”, an almost customary presence across discerning glam hits.
David Bowie – ‘Lady Grinning Soul’
An understated highlight of Bowie’s Aladdin Sane appeared at the very end of the album’s second side. ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ is a haunting baroque ballad that draws much of its strength from Mike Garson’s rumbling piano prowess, which was displayed elsewhere on the album, and Bowie’s towering vocal performance.
Ronson, too, proved vital to the track’s success with his rhythm and lead guitar parts that answer the question of Garson’s keys in great harmony. A brilliant acoustic solo punctuates the middle of the track before electric lead threads spiral with the ominous tone as Bowie sings the closing refrain: “She will be your living end.”
Elton John – ‘Madman Across The Water’
As one of the Trident Studio session men, Mick Ronson joined the future Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman in work outside of their famous contributions to Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory. In 1970 Ronson joined the soaring glam star Elton John in the studio.
The pianist and singer had been recording Tumbleweed Connection and recorded guitar tracks for ‘Madman Across the Water’. Sadly, the song didn’t make it onto the album and was subsequently re-recorded with Chris Spedding on the electric guitar for the 1971 album, Madman Across the Water. The version with Ronson was released on John’s 1992 compilation album, Rare Masters, and on later reissues of Tumbleweed Connection.
