MICK RONSON
''SLAUGHTER ON 10TH AVENUE''
NOVEMBER 18 1997
51:27
1/Love Me Tender/Vera Matson, Elvis Presley/4:50
2/Growing up and I'm Fine/David Bowie, Mick Ronson/3:10
3/Only After Dark/Richardson, Ronson/3:30
4/Music Is Lethal/Battisti, Bowie/5:10
5/I'm the One/Annette Peacock/5:03
6/Pleasure Man/Hey Ma Get Papa/Bowie, Richardson, Ronson/8:55
7/Slaughter on Tenth Avenue/Richard Rodgers/4:41
8/Solo On 10Th Avenue [Live]/Richard Rodgers/(Previously Unreleased)/2:02
9/Leave My Heart Alone/Craig Fuller/[Live] (Original B Side)/4:31
10/Love Me Tender/Vera Matson, Elvis Presley/[Live] (Bonus Track)/4:33
11/Slaughter On 10Th Avenue/Richard Rodgers/[Live] (Bonus Track)/4:34
Mick Ronson - guitar, piano, vocals, arrangement, conductor
Trevor Bolder - bass, trumpet, trombone
Aynsley Dunbar - drums, percussion
Mike Garson - piano, electric piano, organ
David Hentschel - ARP on "Hey Ma Get Papa"
Margaret Ronson - backing vocals
Dennis MacKay - backing vocals
Sidney Sax - strings
REVIEW
by Dave Thompson
Reflecting, a decade after the fact, on his launch as a solo rock & roll superstar, Mick Ronson shrugged indifferently, as though he'd really had no say in the matter. David Bowie had just "retired" and, in the absence of the singing sensation with whom Ronson had already risen to unexpected heights, manager Tony DeFries was anxious to keep at least one of his many pots boiling. "Tony said to me, 'okay, we can make you a big star, get you a deal with RCA, all that.' So I said 'wonderful,' and went off to make my own record."
Was there ever a launch like the one which awaited Mick Ronson? For a few weeks through the early spring of 1974, you couldn't turn around without his blonde tresses and sad doe eyes staring out from the video still selected to represent his solo career: "Slaughter on 10th Avenue," a histrionic guitar rendition of the Richard Rodgers movie classic, was an inspired choice, and the accompanying video — Ronson watching helplessly as his girl is gunned down on the street — remains one of the unseen classics of the genre. No mere miming potboiler for this Kid — Ronson got the full Hollywood treatment. The same can be said for the accompanying album. Slaughter on 10th Avenue remains a startling achievement, however it is viewed. Guitar gods, after all, were ten-a-penny through the 1970s. But could Ritchie Blackmore sing? Jimmy Page? Robin Trower? Ronno's voice wasn't strong, but with sensitive material and lyrics he could get behind, he was unbeatable. A deliciously Pelvis-less "Love Me Tender" opens the album with warm depth and sparkling cadences; "Only After Dark," co-written with one-time SRC main man Scott Richardson, proved he hadn't left the hard riffing behind. The watchword throughout was variety — from the proto-Springsteen-esque "Growing Up and I'm Fine" (the first and only Bowie/Ronson composition to be publicly acknowledged) to the chest-beating Euro-angst of "Music Is Lethal" — all were a showcase for Ronson the performer, rather than the man who garroted Gibsons for fun, and initial reviews of the album made that point. Of course, the guitar didn't get off scot-free. The scorching ARP/guitar duel which concludes "Hey Ma, Get Papa" and, of course, the title track itself were evidence of Ronson's love for his day job, but today, it is the absence of screeching, squealing, neck-twisting frenzy which has ensured that Slaughter on 10th Avenue remain so much more than just another guitar picker's solo record; that the album does, in fact, stand alongside any of Bowie's own, immediately post-Ronson albums as a snapshot of a special time, when the triple disciplines of glam, rock and "Precious Art" slammed into one another without a care in the world.
BIOGRAPHY
by Denise Sullivan
Guitarist, arranger, songwriter, producer and perennial sideman, Mick Ronson made his mark during glam-rock's early '70s heyday but worked consistently with frequent collaborators David Bowie and Ian Hunter till his death in 1993. From 1967-68 he played with a hometown garage rock group, The Rats, in Hull. In 1969, he was discovered by fledgling folksinger and producer, Mike Chapman, who asked him to join his recording band. From there he was on to a collaboration with Bowie beginning with "Space Oddity" in 1969 and lasting through 1973's Pin-Ups. He arranged "Changes" among others on Hunky Dory (1972) and was Bowie's flamboyant guitarist in the Spiders from Mars during the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (1972) album and tours. It has remained a mystery as to how much of Bowie's material Ronson wrote in exchange for "arrangement" credits, but his stamp is on some important records of the era: He co-produced Lou Reed's Transformer (RCA, 1972) with Bowie and briefly joined Mott the Hoople after working as an arranger on All the Young Dudes (1972). As glam rock faded, Ronson continued to work with Hunter in the Hunter/Ronson band and as a songwriter, guitarist and producer on Hunter's solo work. He recorded two solo albums for MainMan, Slaughter on 10th Avenue (1974) and Play Don't Worry (1975). His identifiable wah-wah sound straddled genres outside his beloved glam and hard rock: From Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue to Morrissey's Your Arsenal(1992). Ronson consistently worked with divergent artists from Roger McGuinn and David Johansen to John Mellencamp ("Jack and Diane"). He and Hunter recorded YUI Orta in 1989 for Mercury and in 1990, Ronson was diagnosed with cancer. He was reunited with Bowie for Black Tie White Noise(1993) and that same year appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert with Hunter and Bowie. He made one final record with some help from his friends Hunter, Bowie, Chrissie Hynde and Mellencamp, Heaven 'n Hull, (Epic) which was released posthumously in 1994. Just Like This, a two-disc collection of unreleased material, followed in 1999, and Showtime, a collection of live material, arrived the next year.
DoWnLoAd
''SLAUGHTER ON 10TH AVENUE''
NOVEMBER 18 1997
51:27
1/Love Me Tender/Vera Matson, Elvis Presley/4:50
2/Growing up and I'm Fine/David Bowie, Mick Ronson/3:10
3/Only After Dark/Richardson, Ronson/3:30
4/Music Is Lethal/Battisti, Bowie/5:10
5/I'm the One/Annette Peacock/5:03
6/Pleasure Man/Hey Ma Get Papa/Bowie, Richardson, Ronson/8:55
7/Slaughter on Tenth Avenue/Richard Rodgers/4:41
8/Solo On 10Th Avenue [Live]/Richard Rodgers/(Previously Unreleased)/2:02
9/Leave My Heart Alone/Craig Fuller/[Live] (Original B Side)/4:31
10/Love Me Tender/Vera Matson, Elvis Presley/[Live] (Bonus Track)/4:33
11/Slaughter On 10Th Avenue/Richard Rodgers/[Live] (Bonus Track)/4:34
Mick Ronson - guitar, piano, vocals, arrangement, conductor
Trevor Bolder - bass, trumpet, trombone
Aynsley Dunbar - drums, percussion
Mike Garson - piano, electric piano, organ
David Hentschel - ARP on "Hey Ma Get Papa"
Margaret Ronson - backing vocals
Dennis MacKay - backing vocals
Sidney Sax - strings
REVIEW
by Dave Thompson
Reflecting, a decade after the fact, on his launch as a solo rock & roll superstar, Mick Ronson shrugged indifferently, as though he'd really had no say in the matter. David Bowie had just "retired" and, in the absence of the singing sensation with whom Ronson had already risen to unexpected heights, manager Tony DeFries was anxious to keep at least one of his many pots boiling. "Tony said to me, 'okay, we can make you a big star, get you a deal with RCA, all that.' So I said 'wonderful,' and went off to make my own record."
Was there ever a launch like the one which awaited Mick Ronson? For a few weeks through the early spring of 1974, you couldn't turn around without his blonde tresses and sad doe eyes staring out from the video still selected to represent his solo career: "Slaughter on 10th Avenue," a histrionic guitar rendition of the Richard Rodgers movie classic, was an inspired choice, and the accompanying video — Ronson watching helplessly as his girl is gunned down on the street — remains one of the unseen classics of the genre. No mere miming potboiler for this Kid — Ronson got the full Hollywood treatment. The same can be said for the accompanying album. Slaughter on 10th Avenue remains a startling achievement, however it is viewed. Guitar gods, after all, were ten-a-penny through the 1970s. But could Ritchie Blackmore sing? Jimmy Page? Robin Trower? Ronno's voice wasn't strong, but with sensitive material and lyrics he could get behind, he was unbeatable. A deliciously Pelvis-less "Love Me Tender" opens the album with warm depth and sparkling cadences; "Only After Dark," co-written with one-time SRC main man Scott Richardson, proved he hadn't left the hard riffing behind. The watchword throughout was variety — from the proto-Springsteen-esque "Growing Up and I'm Fine" (the first and only Bowie/Ronson composition to be publicly acknowledged) to the chest-beating Euro-angst of "Music Is Lethal" — all were a showcase for Ronson the performer, rather than the man who garroted Gibsons for fun, and initial reviews of the album made that point. Of course, the guitar didn't get off scot-free. The scorching ARP/guitar duel which concludes "Hey Ma, Get Papa" and, of course, the title track itself were evidence of Ronson's love for his day job, but today, it is the absence of screeching, squealing, neck-twisting frenzy which has ensured that Slaughter on 10th Avenue remain so much more than just another guitar picker's solo record; that the album does, in fact, stand alongside any of Bowie's own, immediately post-Ronson albums as a snapshot of a special time, when the triple disciplines of glam, rock and "Precious Art" slammed into one another without a care in the world.
BIOGRAPHY
by Denise Sullivan
Guitarist, arranger, songwriter, producer and perennial sideman, Mick Ronson made his mark during glam-rock's early '70s heyday but worked consistently with frequent collaborators David Bowie and Ian Hunter till his death in 1993. From 1967-68 he played with a hometown garage rock group, The Rats, in Hull. In 1969, he was discovered by fledgling folksinger and producer, Mike Chapman, who asked him to join his recording band. From there he was on to a collaboration with Bowie beginning with "Space Oddity" in 1969 and lasting through 1973's Pin-Ups. He arranged "Changes" among others on Hunky Dory (1972) and was Bowie's flamboyant guitarist in the Spiders from Mars during the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (1972) album and tours. It has remained a mystery as to how much of Bowie's material Ronson wrote in exchange for "arrangement" credits, but his stamp is on some important records of the era: He co-produced Lou Reed's Transformer (RCA, 1972) with Bowie and briefly joined Mott the Hoople after working as an arranger on All the Young Dudes (1972). As glam rock faded, Ronson continued to work with Hunter in the Hunter/Ronson band and as a songwriter, guitarist and producer on Hunter's solo work. He recorded two solo albums for MainMan, Slaughter on 10th Avenue (1974) and Play Don't Worry (1975). His identifiable wah-wah sound straddled genres outside his beloved glam and hard rock: From Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue to Morrissey's Your Arsenal(1992). Ronson consistently worked with divergent artists from Roger McGuinn and David Johansen to John Mellencamp ("Jack and Diane"). He and Hunter recorded YUI Orta in 1989 for Mercury and in 1990, Ronson was diagnosed with cancer. He was reunited with Bowie for Black Tie White Noise(1993) and that same year appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert with Hunter and Bowie. He made one final record with some help from his friends Hunter, Bowie, Chrissie Hynde and Mellencamp, Heaven 'n Hull, (Epic) which was released posthumously in 1994. Just Like This, a two-disc collection of unreleased material, followed in 1999, and Showtime, a collection of live material, arrived the next year.
DoWnLoAd
