"The Muzic Box was underground " remembers Adonis. "You could go there in the middle of the winter and it’d be as hot as hell, people were walking around with their shirts off. Ron Hardy had so much power. The crowd was praising his name while he was spinning, and I’ve got the tapes to prove it!"
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In DJ Magazine, Marshall Jefferson remembers his first visit to the Muzic Box: "I went down right about the time it first opened and aw man, the volume! I’d never heard dance music played like that. It was so loud that the kick drum would feel like it was going through your chest. It was like boom, boom - like someone physically had their fist beating on my chest. It was like that. And it was amazing.
Ron was more adventurous than Frankie Knuckles. Frankie would play straight disco but Ron would play all kinds of stuff. He’d play Eurythmics, he play Man Parrish, he’d play Shannon, right along with the disco. And man, he just stole all of Frankie Knuckle’s crowd."
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"It was mind-altering" remembers Derrick May, who travelled from Detroit as a teenager to visit the Music Box. "Frankie was more refined and more focused on taking you to a certain destination with the music. But, Ronnie, he was a spontaneous ball of fire that could explode and go in any direction. Frankie used to spin the occasional house track but he mostly played disco - Ron played everything. I’ll never forget, I’d just made ’Nude Photo’ and he played it three times in a row. The vibe was just beautiful."
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"Jamie Campbell was just 13 when he used a fake ID to get past the door at the Music Box and soon became a regular. Even now, he’s still amazed by the intensity of the ron hardy experience. "I’d never seen anything like it. It was very hot, very sweaty and very wild. You cant put into words the energy that he’d put into you. He’d work the hell out of the EQ, he’d create tape decks loops that’d just repeat crazily. He’d take a one minute break and extend it to 8 minutes on the tape deck. He just created stuff that was incredible. The important thing was the element of surprise - with Ron there was just no telling what you were going to hear."
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JIMI POLO REMEMBERED... IT WAS THE YEAR SUMMER 1986 I THINK .
ME & TONY BOWIE HAD FINISH THIS TRACK
CALLED SHAKE YOUR BODY. WHICH FEATURED
JENNETTE THOMAS. MITCHABEL WAS THE THE OWNER
OF LABEL CHICAGO CONNECTION.
TONY & I USE 2 GO 2 THE MUSIC BOX THURSDAY NIGHTS.THE MUSIC USE BLOW ME AWAY !!!!!!
THE CROWD !!!! PEOPLE SHOUTING RONS NAME .
AWAY ,WE HAD JUST FINISH THE MIX 2 GIVE 2 RON
WE GOT THERE JUST BEFORE IT OPENED.
2 C IF RON LIKED IT. HE DID !!! .WE WERE HAPPY.
NOW THIS WAS HOW GOOD RON AT MIXING OLD & NEW.
HE MIX OUR TRACK WITH JAMES BROWNS BODY HEAT.
I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!!!!!!! IT WAS 2 GOOD 2 BE TRUE
PEOPLE WENT CRAZY !!!!!!!!!
HE MADE THAT TRACK A PART OF CHICAGO HOUSE HISTORY.& IN MANY WAYS CHANGED MY LIFE 4 THE
BETTER.A TRUE MASTER OF HIS CRAFT .THANKS RONI KNOW U R IN A HIGHER PLACE
THE ANGELS SHOUT YOUR NAME
U MAKE THEM DANCE .& GOD IS RIGHT
THERE WORKING THE LIGHTS & DOOR .
NEW PEOPLE ENTER EVERY DAY & U FREE THERE SOULS .
IT NEVER CLOSES ! ON & ON .NO BREAK AT DAWN.
ON & ON . HERE ON EARTH / REALITY NOT THE
SAME .I CANT WAIT 2 C U AGAIN.
AT YOUR NEW MUSIC BOX IN THE SKY !!!!!PS . WILL BIG HONCHO AT THE DOOR 2 ???
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Ron Was A True Pioneer And A Friend. I will never forget cutting a four-track and running it down to Ronnie. He was so open minded and supportive. If the track was hot, he would bump it. No politics, no ego- only the music mattered. He truly represents what I believe the true spirit of House Music was about. Ron is a role model for the Chicago Scene. We could only hope for more DJs to understand.
Warmly,
Mark Imperial
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i first met ron thru an case worker i had while in dcfs. she knew i liked music and mixing so she said i’ll take u on winona and give u a surprise. i thought i could re-edit but was amazed when she took me over ron’s house. man the records were lined up like a musical library and the re-edits he let me hear was amazing. i didn’t get a chance to mix in public with him because i couldnt get out to the box on thursdays but i mixed with terrence harrison. he truly was an inspiration for me to refine the way i play music and to study the quality of the music. he played all kinds but made it seem like the same genre. the blends and re-edits were effort less. i remember being at his house and listening to him playing reggae w/ slow music that was the first time i heard anyone mixing that. i soon emulated that in my style because it was sweet.
thanks ron for all the memories
djramar
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IF YOU WERE THERE... THEN YOU KNOW WHO REALLY LAID DOWN THE BLUE PRINT.IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD YOUR STORY TO THIS LIST DROP US AN EMAIL.••••••••••••••••••
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