From an interview with Mick Ronson inside the Hammersmith Odeon, October 20, 1992, six months before his death.
Okay, maybe, if you could just tell us about how you developed that very distinctive guitar sound that dominated those records?
The guitar sound... a lot of the guitar sound that's on the records, was, you see here I have a Telecaster and a lot of it was played, most of it was played with a Les Paul. In fact, all of it was played with a Les Paul. And uh, and then it has to get this sort of honking sound -this doesn't work right now otherwise I'll be able to show you how it works but I used a crybaby wah-wah pedal and I used to press the wah pedal on and just set it, set it on a- on a tone and just leave it, just leave it like that. I used to get this great- this kind of honking tone out of it, out of the amp but it was very middle, very middle sound, so that was how a lot of that came about. The guitar sound and the rest of it was basically just plugging in and you just plug the guitar in and turn it up and off we went. You know, like things like Jean Genie I think it starts- Jean Genie, I remember, we recorded Jean Genie in Nashville Tennessee. We only had these little tiny-we had these little Tiny amps, that's all we had with us, it was like little practice amps. You know, we kind of just went in and plugged in and turned it up and off we went. Then we recorded Jean Genie in two takes, you know? We kind of did it once, messed up, from then we just did it again. We never played the song before. Uh, and that was basically it. I mean, you plug it in and you turn it up and away you went. The classic Jean Genie riff comes from basically Muddy Waters and a man named John Lee Hooker.
(Plays the riff) It's very simple, very simply done. I can't help but get a decent sound when you turn it up full. But I never went through a lot of pedals and things, you know. you just kind of basically plugged into the amp and turn this thing up.
What about other songs, you know, say, like Ziggy, you know, I mean, just, could you take it through that, play a bit of that? Maybe just play a couple more chords actually as well?
I'll try and play through it. It's pretty cold in here. I'm sitting in there I'm a Smith or D in here hands It's the end of October and it's pretty cold, pretty cold outside, it's pretty cold in here, too. My hands are pretty cold. But, the Ziggy Stardust riff, it's the same thing, you know, there's just a- you're plugged in and turned the amp up...
(Plays the opening of Ziggy Stardust) It's very difficult to actually explain all that here, you know, we've got a got a little amplifier on the side here and I've got a lot of distortion on it and not really the kind of thing I used to use. But I think more important than the sound, I mean, I think a lot of it is in the way in one actually plays to it's a lot of its in the fingers rather than you saying it's that particular amp or that particularly guitar, you know. I think it's kind of like my, it's something that you would say is a recognizable style approach to play, you know, and the equipment helps a little bit and I think more often than not it's in, it's in your own personality. It's in your own makeup. It's in your own fingers, you know.
Well, what do you think you're expressing of yourself through that, you know, as you say, through your fingers and your playing?
I don't know. It depends what it is that- depends on what you feel at the time. And it depends when you're playing and it depends on- depends are you failing? You feel different things different times when you're playing, you know? I mean I think I used to get rid of a lot of anger and, maybe, frustration you know like a- by playing loud and heavy. Kind of relieved a lot of tension maybe, you know. And that goes again with saying like, you know, when you're on stage playing it's almost you become a different person, you know, you're allowed to do those things, you know, quite normally and you feel quite normal doing it, too. It's not something you would walk around, you know, it's two o'clock in the afternoon showing that kind of emotion or something, you know.
What, what did you enjoy playing, what gave you that relief?
Can I have a sip of my tea?
( Sips his tea then Launches into Hang on to Yourself and plays until the progression repeats itself) yes uh well that's like hang on to yourself and I'm- pretty much that was strap the guitar on and smash it to death basically, um, but that was good. I mean it, you know, a lot of, a lot of the songs had a good sort of melodic content. Even just chords, you know, just playing the chords out came some sort of melody to it. …One of the other favorite ones was moonage daydream that was also kind of a pretty good one to do. I can't sing it, but I can play and it started off like (Plays the first chord and speaks) I'm an alligator (then plays on) Oh I forget how it goes but I mean that's basically, that's somewhat how it went.
Thanks!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://lightningbowlt.com/the-sound-mick-ronson/