GoogaMooga wrote:
I know Ronson contributed heavily to Ziggy Stardust, but the actual concept band Spiders From Mars was dissolved before Aladinsane AFAIK. I didn't know that Ronson contributed so much to the Aladinsane album. When Bowie first met Ronson, he said, "I've found my Jeff Beck!"
That's not correct. The tour AFTER Alladin's release was when DB made the famous "this is the last show we'll ever do" announcement. Ronson was also fully involved in the album after A.S., Pinups. Other then replacing drummer Woody Woodmansy with Aynsley Dunbar, Pinups was also a Spiders album. He didn't dissolved the band until after cutting a few demos for Diamond Dogs.
Keyboard player Mike Garson still works with DB to this day. It's a shame the way DB treated Ronson. Ironically the whole Glam thing was originally DB's idea, & Ronson was said to be resistant to it. As history shows, Ronson never left glam, though obviously DB did. Ronson is incredibly under appreciated, & he just kept getting better up until his death. I saw the Yiu Orta tour with Ian Hunter & the sloppiness that MR was known for (live only, Ronson was NEVER sloppy in the studio) was gone. Note Ronson was also largely responsible for Ian Hunter's early post Mott sound. Ronson & Hunter worked together off & on for the remainder of Ronson's all too short life.
If you haven't watched the DB Pennebaker DVD of the Hammersmith show, put it on & see if your eyes follow Ronson or Bowie. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Bowie fan (at least from "David Bowie" aka "Space Oddity" through "Scary Monsters" & then again with Tin Machine) but the Spiders were not ONLY DB. Tony Visconti also played a large role in the studio albums.
Sorry for the rant, but if I was to name my #1 influence as an electric guitar player it would be Ronson (followed by Andy Powell & Ted Turner of Wishbone Ash).