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Mick Ronson: The Spider with the Platinum Hair
This book provides a deeply intimate insight into the life and times of an extraordinarily talented guitarist. A man who was tender and caring off the stage, yet fierce and electrifying on it. Jeff Beck, David Bowie, Ian Hunter, and Annette Peacock are just a few of the names that were to become associated with the Mick Ronson legend. He toured with Bob Dylan, played with Mott The Hoople, worked with Lou Reed, and produced an impressive number of albums with arresting originality. This minutely detailed biography includes unpublished photographs and unseen rarities including a hand-written six-page autobiography by the man himself, love letters to his first girlfriend, family album photographs and an exhaustive discography. After losing his battle with cancer, Mick passed away in the spring of 1993 at the young age of 46. This book is a salute to his remarkable music and legacy.
- GenresMusic
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 31, 2024
Not Just Beside Bowie
I was finally prompted to read this bio of Mick Ronson, after recently watching the documentary, "Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story" (which has a voice-over from David Bowie), on TV.
The authors are the writers and publishers of a 1980's David Bowie fanzine called "Sons of the Silent Age", but despite that pedigree, they make a valiant attempt to prove that Mick was more than just the guitarist "beside Bowie" in the Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars period (April, 1971 to July 3, 1973 [the date of the Hammersmith Odeon concert at which Bowie disbanded the Spiders]).
The standard story is that Mick took David Bowie the folk musician and "rocked" him up.
Mick might have done this, but he was also a competent pianist and violin player, as well as an arranger. You can sample some of his arrangements on "Life on Mars", "Lady Grinning Soul" and Lou Reed's "Perfect Day".
Dancing About Architecture
One thing I was hoping to find in the bio was an adequate verbal description of the essence of Mick Ronson's guitar playing. What made him so different, if not necessarily unique? However, I realise now that this was like expecting the authors to dance about architecture.
We are told constantly how beautiful, shy, generous and kind Mick was (which might well be true). We learn how he admired Jeff Beck's guitar playing. Chuck Berry is also mentioned in relation to his early days playing in Hull bands (like the Rats). In the doco, Mick name-checks Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker with respect to "The Jean Genie", which he wrote in the back of the tour bus on the 1972 American tour.
His playing is described variously as "muscular", "energetic", "forceful", "electrifying", "blistering" and "melodic". Pianist Mike Garson says, "I've played with a lot of great guitar players but his melodic concept and the way he saw tones and motion from the guitar, plus the love that he had for it...he's still the guy that moved me the most."
Ronson's Influence
While discussing the time when other, younger musicians were first turned on by the Spiders' music, the attention switches between "Starman" and "Moonage Daydream". Soon the focus returns to the personal relationship between Bowie and Ronson. Def Leppard's Joe Elliott describes them in terms of "what you get between Jagger and Richards, and maybe Tyler and Perry [from Aerosmith]". Bowie himself almost demeans Ronson (and himself) when he asserts, "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."
Photographer Mick Rock is quoted from his own book on Bowie as saying, "Ronno was the metal, macho counterpart to Ziggy's multi-sexual pose. He was the electric power as well as the musical arranger...He was never simply a sideman; he was Ziggy's pal and anchor. He understood Ziggy and could structure the interpretation of his music. Without Ronno, Ziggy would never have braved the heat of the attention he inspired. Without Ronno he could never have achieved the transmutation."
Molten Gypsy Soul
Eventually, some answer to my question comes on the third last page, in the form of a comment by Billy Corgan:
This is as good a description as any (there is something molten in his fluid riffs, just as there is finesse in his muscularity), without simply listening to the music.
SOUNDTRACK:
I was finally prompted to read this bio of Mick Ronson, after recently watching the documentary, "Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story" (which has a voice-over from David Bowie), on TV.
The authors are the writers and publishers of a 1980's David Bowie fanzine called "Sons of the Silent Age", but despite that pedigree, they make a valiant attempt to prove that Mick was more than just the guitarist "beside Bowie" in the Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars period (April, 1971 to July 3, 1973 [the date of the Hammersmith Odeon concert at which Bowie disbanded the Spiders]).
The standard story is that Mick took David Bowie the folk musician and "rocked" him up.
Mick might have done this, but he was also a competent pianist and violin player, as well as an arranger. You can sample some of his arrangements on "Life on Mars", "Lady Grinning Soul" and Lou Reed's "Perfect Day".
Dancing About Architecture
One thing I was hoping to find in the bio was an adequate verbal description of the essence of Mick Ronson's guitar playing. What made him so different, if not necessarily unique? However, I realise now that this was like expecting the authors to dance about architecture.
We are told constantly how beautiful, shy, generous and kind Mick was (which might well be true). We learn how he admired Jeff Beck's guitar playing. Chuck Berry is also mentioned in relation to his early days playing in Hull bands (like the Rats). In the doco, Mick name-checks Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker with respect to "The Jean Genie", which he wrote in the back of the tour bus on the 1972 American tour.
His playing is described variously as "muscular", "energetic", "forceful", "electrifying", "blistering" and "melodic". Pianist Mike Garson says, "I've played with a lot of great guitar players but his melodic concept and the way he saw tones and motion from the guitar, plus the love that he had for it...he's still the guy that moved me the most."
Ronson's Influence
While discussing the time when other, younger musicians were first turned on by the Spiders' music, the attention switches between "Starman" and "Moonage Daydream". Soon the focus returns to the personal relationship between Bowie and Ronson. Def Leppard's Joe Elliott describes them in terms of "what you get between Jagger and Richards, and maybe Tyler and Perry [from Aerosmith]". Bowie himself almost demeans Ronson (and himself) when he asserts, "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."
Photographer Mick Rock is quoted from his own book on Bowie as saying, "Ronno was the metal, macho counterpart to Ziggy's multi-sexual pose. He was the electric power as well as the musical arranger...He was never simply a sideman; he was Ziggy's pal and anchor. He understood Ziggy and could structure the interpretation of his music. Without Ronno, Ziggy would never have braved the heat of the attention he inspired. Without Ronno he could never have achieved the transmutation."
Molten Gypsy Soul
Eventually, some answer to my question comes on the third last page, in the form of a comment by Billy Corgan:
"Mick's playing had molten gypsy soul. He played like a lead singer, giving a sensuality and taste to guitar that was unheard of before him."
This is as good a description as any (there is something molten in his fluid riffs, just as there is finesse in his muscularity), without simply listening to the music.
SOUNDTRACK:
February 26, 2018
A comprehensive look at the life of Mick Ronson of The Spiders From Mars. Probably a little too comprehensive for some of us to be honest. Too much of the final third of this book was 'he produced this...it didn't get released...he produced that...nobody bought it' which could have been massively condensed whilst still retaining the pertinent insights. The early days and the Spiders period are worth reading, but unfortunately, out of the three artists one would link Ronno with most - Bowie, Morrissey (Ronson obviously produced his classic Your Arsenal album) and Ian Hunter - only the latter contributed to the book. Nonetheless, worth reading if you are fan of Ronson (or of Bowie or Mott) and to be fair, he probably deserves this respectful (make that reverential!) book.
May 31, 2023
The problem with having a biography written by fans is threefold:
For one, the writing quality is very amateurish. This book needs a better editor because it’s filled with typos / errors, doesn’t properly date half of what it chronicles and wanders off topic repeatedly.
Secondly, the entire perspective is purely subjective and filled with hyperbole. It reminds me of the ‘Everything is Awesome’ song from the LEGO Movie; everyone is magnificent and wonderful and kind and friendly and amazing and brilliant and humble and high quality and etc etc etc. There is absolutely zero objectivity here.
Which leads to the third problem, a result of the first two - the story doesn’t hold together. Its structure is poor, resulting in the entire middle of the book being essentially a list of random, obscure bands Ronson worked with that went nowhere and had their projects shelved. Do we really need to have dozens of pages dedicated to this? Pick out the worthy acts like Lou Reed, John Mellencamp, Lisa Dalbello and Morrissey, and out the others in list format as an appendix (which they did anyway…??). And then once he died we have to slog through 50+ pages of information nobody but a rabid fan would care about - sure, mention the memorial concerts in a paragraph but we don’t need 20 pages on them, include entire letters from family members replicated. And we certainly don’t need the last few chapters being essentially one giant advertisement for merchandise that has been released since his death.
And the first part of the appendices had me scratching my head - ~15 pages of Ronson quotes! These should have been incorporated into the main text!
Which is why you need a strong editor to cut out all of the mega fan stuff that most readers have no use for and tighten up the text so that it remains a proper biography.
An interesting person and an interesting life and certainly one of the greatest guitar players of all time but this book is just fan service. I wouldn’t even rate it a 3 if it weren’t for the actual useful information, mostly in the first third of the book.
For one, the writing quality is very amateurish. This book needs a better editor because it’s filled with typos / errors, doesn’t properly date half of what it chronicles and wanders off topic repeatedly.
Secondly, the entire perspective is purely subjective and filled with hyperbole. It reminds me of the ‘Everything is Awesome’ song from the LEGO Movie; everyone is magnificent and wonderful and kind and friendly and amazing and brilliant and humble and high quality and etc etc etc. There is absolutely zero objectivity here.
Which leads to the third problem, a result of the first two - the story doesn’t hold together. Its structure is poor, resulting in the entire middle of the book being essentially a list of random, obscure bands Ronson worked with that went nowhere and had their projects shelved. Do we really need to have dozens of pages dedicated to this? Pick out the worthy acts like Lou Reed, John Mellencamp, Lisa Dalbello and Morrissey, and out the others in list format as an appendix (which they did anyway…??). And then once he died we have to slog through 50+ pages of information nobody but a rabid fan would care about - sure, mention the memorial concerts in a paragraph but we don’t need 20 pages on them, include entire letters from family members replicated. And we certainly don’t need the last few chapters being essentially one giant advertisement for merchandise that has been released since his death.
And the first part of the appendices had me scratching my head - ~15 pages of Ronson quotes! These should have been incorporated into the main text!
Which is why you need a strong editor to cut out all of the mega fan stuff that most readers have no use for and tighten up the text so that it remains a proper biography.
An interesting person and an interesting life and certainly one of the greatest guitar players of all time but this book is just fan service. I wouldn’t even rate it a 3 if it weren’t for the actual useful information, mostly in the first third of the book.
October 6, 2021
Mick Ronson rose to prominence alongside Bowie during the Man Who Sold The World-Hunky Dory-Ziggy Stardust-Aladdin Sane period. Fertile muchly. Although I have his 1st 2 solo albums I didn't know a whole lot about his subsequent career but was aware that he kept working, including touring with Bob Dylan, & died way too young. This biog fills in the gaps in a somewhat fan-boy way but is illuminating & entertaining. His influence was obviously felt by many up & coming musos, in the 70s & 80s particularly. Loved the contributions he made to those Bowie albums (& Pin Ups).
January 20, 2019
Okay if a bit tedious in places. Some great little stories about Mick though, especially after he'd dyed his hair platinum blonde and went swimming in a chlorine-filled pool after sunbathing. Apparently his body was red and his hair turned green! His character shone through; kind, shy, and generous to all who knew him.
June 30, 2020
Great details and insights into being Mick Ronson, the guy who helped break Bowie to stardom and then got tossed aside. It's all here, from his early bands in Hull, to Bowie, to touring with Dylan, to producing, and then struggling to finish an album with terminal cancer at age 46. A short, but rich, life. R.I.P. Mick.
June 9, 2022
I'm just glad someone wrote a book about the lovely Mick. And this was very clearly written with love.
November 18, 2025
awesum
December 27, 2020
It’s a good chronology of the life and times of a guitar great. Relies heavily on quoted material to convey the story line. In doing so it is stuck with some of the stodgy and plain of trite language of the quoted person. That aside well put together just lacks the fire and spark you would expect from a spider from mars.
February 3, 2016
Really for the true fans. Early years very interesting but tails off to become a list of all the people he collaborated with. Little insight into the man but that could be because not much information available
June 27, 2015
So boring and full of drivel I practically fell asleep. Really not what I'd hoped for.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews