Review of Beside Bowie - The Mick Ronson Story (2017) by Rich B — 26 Jul 2018

Good documentary on one of rock music's most underrated artists.

Documentary on Mick Ronson, most famously known as being the guitarist in David Bowie's early-career backing band, The Spiders From Mars. He was also a producer and arranger of note, working with a wide variety of artists.

Good documentary on one of rock music's most underrated artists. Most people will only know him from his Bowie years, and then the focus is on Bowie, naturally. However, he was an incredibly talented and accomplished artist in his own right, contributing much to Bowie's songs, including writing and arranging some of the music. Musically and presence-wise he was the perfect complement to Bowie.

Moreover, he had an incredibly successful and prolific career after Bowie, playing in several bands and backing bands plus producing tracks and albums by artists as diverse as John Cougar Mellencamp, Lou Reid and Morrisey.

The documentary highlights these successes well and also shows how modest he was in achieving these successes. Good range of interviewees.

On the negative side, it does gloss over some of the detail, just giving an almost bullet-pointed, blow-by-blow history, rather than getting to the reasons for certain things happening.