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In my personal, mischievous ranking of "Guitarists I Like More Than Clapton, At Least More Important Than Him In My Life," a list that includes a few hundred names, there is also him, the blond from Hull, talented and eclectic, too consumed by music and too little opportunistic to have a career worthy of his versatile talent.
This album was released posthumously in 1994, a year after his death, two years after his last big stage appearance, the tribute to Freddie Mercury at Wembley Stadium. His widow Suzanne retrieved the tapes of a half-finished album and entrusted them to the best musician friends of her late husband, to create something complete out of it.
It wasn't easy, because Ronson had recorded mainly just guide vocal tracks, sometimes incomplete and naturally not very impactful. The solution taken was to leave Ronson's vocal track where possible, doubling it with a vigorous and convincing performance by someone else. Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, David Bowie, John Mellencamp, Ian Hunter ex Mott the Hoople, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders all took on this task, each taking turns.
The album is nevertheless not much; Ronson was already suffering from liver issues (as was evident in 1992 at Wembley... his solo in Robert Fripp style on "Heroes" was quite lacking), and his last songs are not very impactful. His guitar doesn't bite enough, I miss his unique tone so much, achieved by locking the wah-wah pedal in a halfway position to get a very midrange, penetrating, crisp sound. And those brilliant arrangements, even orchestral ones, are also missing—arrangements he generously provided for Bowie, Lou Reed, Dylan, Dalbello, Hunter, Morrisey...
There's the cover of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", sung by Bowie, a gem. There's especially the grand finale with the retrieval of the galactic "All the Young Dudes" performed live at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert: the author Bowie on stage together with Joe Elliott and his guitarist Phil Collen intoning the choruses, while Ian Hunter's incomparable "powerful Bob Dylan" timbre proclaims, rather than sings, the lyrics of the anthem, getting all revved up as it's the song that changed his life. Five of the most thrilling minutes of that historic event.
Beautiful are the words left inside the album by widow Suzy Ronson, Bowie's hairdresser during the golden period of Ziggy Stardust, whom Mick later married. Despite the havoc her proverbially available and kind husband had recently shown her (an affair and a child with a Swedish dancer), the woman only shows how much understanding and forgiveness there can be in mature and balanced people, and among other things writes: "On behalf of myself and Lisa (their daughter), my dear, we miss you so much, wonderful man and devilish sharp guitarist. We wish you were here. All my love."
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