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What would you like to know? As far as being
intense, that's an understatement...lol. Drugs in the
extreme? I remember once standing directly next to him in
the booth for about 4 minutes while I thought I was
giving him time to do something on the boards. Come to
find out, he didn't even know I was standing there.
Doing $500+ worth of heroin in one night is more than
extreme. In terms of his playlist, it was very, very broad. Much like the Andre Hatchett of the old days, he played music from all genres. I mean you might hear him play "Walk The Dog" by Laurie Anderson (some real odd isht), Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing" and so much JBs & steppin' music that I thought he was folks (a Chicago/Detroit thing). He played more angry new-wave and electronic-oriented cuts like (sp?) Rinder & Lewis' "Anger" and "The Jezebel Spirit" by Brian Eno. He was also big on playing what was good and new at the time: Sade's "Maureen" and "Never As Good As The First Time", "Saturday Love" by Cherelle & Alex O'Neal, The Temptations' "Take A Stroll Through Your Mind", "Lyte As A Rock" remix (MC Lyte), "Paid In Full" Remix (Eric B & Rakim) and the list goes on and on... The brotha was very, very eclectic in musical tastes. As a matter of fact, when I was record shopping with Ron, he urged me to buy a LP by John Tropea who at that time I hadn't heard of. It's funny cuz I remember the first time Ron heard "It's House"...lol. Avery (another Muzik Box employee) and I were hanging decorations on the dancefloor for a marathon we were having and Ron was in the booth checking out some tunes that he just got. He put it on and not 15 seconds later, "It's House" comes flying past our heads! "What the f*ck is that bullshit?", he said while we laughed our asses off. I had already heard it at Chip E's house not too long before and I warned him that it was stupid as hell...lol. Later on, he thought about it some more and next thing I know he reworked the song by playing it backwards, something he is FAMOUS for, truly a Hardy trademark. It's funny to me when I hear all these cats talk about they're strictly disco and how Ron influenced them and all that BS, but if they really knew Ron's music, they'd know he was very eclectic in taste and did not limit himself in terms of what he played. Those are the same cats that only play isht with a 200-piece orchestra and believe that if it's made in the 70's, it's gotta be a cut. I use to request certain records for Ron to play and sometimes he'd just say, "Yeah, that is a cut, but the kids aren't ready." Now I know what he meant. I know for a fact that if Ron were alive today, he'd be bumpin' a lot of acid jazz and underground hip-hop. Peace, prosperity & paper, VERBz in rotation: my head...tryin' to get my web site up and running! |
"The difference between Frankie and Ronnie was that people weren't making records when Frankie was playing, though all the guys who would become the next DJs were there checking him out. It was The Music Box that really inspired people." [...] --Phil Cheeseman
1986: While Frankie Knuckles had laid the groundwork for house at the Warehouse, it was to be another DJ from the gay scene that was really to create the environment for the house explosion - Ron Hardy. Where Knuckles' sound was still very much based in disco, Hardy was the DJ that went for the rawest, wildest rhythm tracks he could find and he made The Music Box the inspirational temple for pretty much every DJ and producer that was to come out of the Chicago scene. He was also the DJ to whom the producers took their very latest tracks so they could test the reaction on the dance floor.
"People would bring their tracks on tape and the DJ would play spin them in. It was part of the ritual, you'd take the tape and see the crowd reaction. I never got the chance to take my own stuff because Robert Owens would always get there first."
"The Music Box was underground " remembers Adonis. "You could go there in the middle of the winter and it'd be as hot as hell, people would be walking around with their shirts off. Ron Hardy had so much power people would be praising his name while he was playing, and I've got the tapes to prove it!
House pioneer Ron Hardy began DJing at the Chicago club Den One in 1974, playing records and splicing reel-to-reel tape together. He and fellow revolutionary Frankie Knuckles later began DJing at the Warehouse, mixing in disco tracks to effect a continuous music mix, later called the birth of house. Just as the movement gained momentum, Hardy moved to Los Angeles, only returning after Knuckles had become the name associated with house. His residency at a new club, Muzic Box, was marred by a drug habit; five years after leaving the club [1986/1987?], Hardy died in 1991. -- John Bush, All-Music Guide
Adonis on Ron Hardy: "When Ron played, he played to take you some place. he didn't play just because he had a record that everybody liked, and he didn't play just to make some money. For him it was a way of life, it was an art form, ..."
Hardy is credited by some as the ultimate creative DJ, an innovator in the way he read the dancefloor, made it his own and defined a style of music into the bargain. He was certainly dedicated - a true party animal, he was known to live his life from his DJ booth, sleeping there and spending the days practising his craft.
As the friendly rivalry between Knuckles and Hardy developed, other DJs began to push the sound, like Wayne Williams, Steve Hurley and Farley Keith Williams. Then there was Jesse Saunders, who spun at Chicago's other major house club, The Playground. Jesse, who had musical training, was constantly searching for gimmicks with which to further his name as a DJ and had taken to creating his own drum machine tracks to play from tape. He went into the studio with the idea of recreating an obscure disco bootleg, the name of which he says escapes him. But which also turned out to be the first House record...[...]