Mick Ralphs wasn’t a guitar hero in the traditional sense. Not for him the flashy, highly technical widdly widdly, but my God, what a tone and what a powerful player. He died at 81, after having a stroke in 2016 he’d been confined to bed, poor lad. From all those years criss crossing continents, to being in one place for his last 9 years. Heartbreaking.
We all loved his work with Mott The Hoople didn’t we? Such iconic riffs and melodies. I loved Mad Shadows and his Thunderbuck Ram which opens it. To go from that great band to another, Bad Company was quite a move. In some ways, they were just a blues rock band but in the hands of great musicians, it was magical. That opening single ‘Can’t Get Enough’ was an iconic classic. Simple but perfectly judged. You didn’t listen to Bad Company for intellectual discussions about weighty matters, it was about melody and soul. Songs like Feel Like Makin’ Love were tight, passionate and insistent. It even got played at our school discos, though you could really only headbang to it, along with violent teenage groin thrusting and, in one instance burned into my brain, groin thrusting by one particular girl who seemed very grown up to us innocent flared jeans boys, though probably came from a suboptimal home, I now see.
There were moments of sublime musicality like Silver, Blue & Gold from Run With The Pack and Shooting Star was almost his biography, except for his demise. They had a real capacity to move you, I think because they were uncomplicated and very four-on-the-floor.
For years, DJ John Peel said seeing them live in 1974 was the best gig he’d ever been to. I saw them at Newcastle City Hall on the Desolation Angels tour, 1st March 1979. My memories of the gig are more visual than musical. They looked like rockstars. 5 years playing across America had made them into a multimillion selling band.
I think they opened up with Bad Company, Paul Rodgers playing keyboards and that crushing guitar chord came in, after the quiet start. Fantastic.
Musicians like Mick fly under the radar a bit, I think. They are part of the warp and weft of our rock lives and had a hand in making us what we became. I never had a sense of him chasing fame, even though he played in two bands that were, to different degrees, popular. And like Bad Company’s music, there was nothing flash or fancy about him.
Mick’s life passed him by like a warm summer day. If you listen to the wind, you can still hear him play.
The Magic of Mick Ralphs - RIP
