On Mick Ronson
With Ronno, a lot of people
pitched Ronno ideas — he’d go in for a session and he’d help out to change one
or two musical things. On one or two occasions these songs became hits. And he
never got paid. But he knew he did it. The guy who didn’t credit him did reveal
it years later when he was financially out of the woods, he’s gotta live with
that.
The work is the main thing as
long as you’re living all right, which we managed to do for a long time. There
was a point in time when we did You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic,
and produced Ellen Foley, and Ronno was a notorious for going out and spending.
We actually had him by the
balls for three months, and my wife and his wife made him buy a house and made
him buy a car while it was going good and that’s how he got himself together.
On You’re Never Alone
With a Schizophrenic, a missed hit, and Springsteen
We had a situation with the E
Street Band with a song called “Just Another Night.” They wanted to do it like
Bruce. (Ian sings a slower Springsteenish version of it.) But the song wasn’t
like that; it was supposed to be a lot sloppier than that. [E Street Band
keyboardist] Roy Bittan thought we were turning our back on a hit. But I
couldn’t resolve to do it; it wasn’t the original, sloppier feel. So we did it
mine and Mick’s way.
Oh, of course it never was a
single, never even made the short list for a single. But it didn’t sound like
Bruce.
On making the famous Power
Station studios famous
This was all at the same time
there in the Power Station studio, wasn’t it? The reason Bruce went in there
was ’cause I’d had his E Street Band on Schizophrenic, and it sounded
great. That studio got off the ground with that album ’cause I was on
Chrysalis, and when Blondie heard the album, they said, “We’ve got to go into
Power Station too.” It was disco and, before you knew it, it was a rock
studio.”
Playing in Ringo’s
All-Stars
I had a lot of fun doing it;
he’s a great bloke. When someone rings you up from the Beatles on your
answering machine it’s kind of weird. I guess you have to do it.
On record production
I Think people buy passion
more than anything — that’s what they really buy in music. Look at some of
these new bands and they sound so perfect. I don’t mind ProTools, if you know
how to use it. It can sound perfect and it can sound perfectly sterile. It can
sound like a doctor’s waiting room.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2011.