The guitarists who influenced Mick Ronson
English musician Mick Ronson is best known for his associations with David Bowie, working with him on several albums, including The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Aladdin Sane. However, Ronson’s influence over the whole glam rock era was hugely significant, and it’s hard to imagine what would’ve become of the genre without Ronson.
Born in 1946, Ronson took an interest in music at an early age, receiving classical training in several instruments, such as the piano, violin and recorder. Yet, in his teenage years, as rock and roll irrevocably changed for the better with the dawn of the swinging sixties, Ronson began playing guitar. Soon enough, Ronson became well-known in Hull for his musical skills, featuring in several bands such as The Mariners and The Rats.
Yet, due to his exceptional talents, rooted in his classical training, Bowie soon snapped him up. According to The Rats’ lead singer Benny Marshall, “Mick was the best guitarist in Hull, so when he left to head down south and join Bowie, I was pretty upset. John Cambridge, our drummer, had played with Bowie on Space Oddity. He was the bloke who went back to Hull in January 1970 with the brief to find Ronson and bring him to London. He found Mick marking out the lines on the municipal football pitch.”
From then on, Ronson became an essential figure in the glam-rock world, shaping Bowie’s sound and soon contributing to other landmark albums, such as Lou Reed’s Transformer. While Bowie, Reed and other glam rock icons such as Marc Bolan and Bryan Ferry get most of the attention, Ronson’s contributions were equally important, significantly developing the genre that would come to influence countless others, like punk, goth, grunge and hard rock.
But who influenced Ronson? In 1992, the musician specifically discussed the guitarists that inspired his style. He stated: “I started off in bands where we’d play Everly Brothers songs and Beatles songs. And later on, that progressed to more like a blues band”.
He added: “Guitar-wise, I used to like listening to Eddie Cochran, George Harrison [and] Hank Marvin.”
Discussing his love for Marvin and The Shadows, Ronson explained: “One of the earliest ones [influences] you know. I was always a big melody lover. I used to play classical music… classical piano, and I used to play violin. The Shadows were great at that, I thought they were a great instrumental band.”
Expanding on his love for Harrison, Ronson declared himself an initial lover of The Rolling Stones rather than The Beatles. However, he eventually came around to them, citing the guitarist as “quite a big influence.” Finally, he also highlighted Jeff Beck as a significant inspiration, with Marshall once explaining Ronson’s love for the guitarist.
He said: “He knew all the licks, except ‘Beck’s Boogie’, which he dissected but couldn’t master. It infuriated him. In 1968, The Rats had supported Beck at the Cat Ballou in Grantham, and afterwards Ronno asked him to show him the fast run at the beginning. So Beck plays it, and Mick says, ‘No, play it slower.’ Beck said: ‘If I play it any slower I’ll stop!’ But he was patient, and Mick learnt that riff.”
Watch Ronson discuss his guitar influences below.