The Real History on Chicago God Father of house Ron Hardy!

[boo williams]

Well you guys i thought i'd share a lil chicago house music history
back in the days...with the God Father of house and Disco music,

Mr. Ron Hardy!!

"In 1983, before the rest of the world had even imagined house
music, the good times were finally over for legendary chicago club The Warehouse. It's popularity had finally brought it to the attention of city officials who declared the building unsafe and ordered the clubs owners to find themselves a new venue. The clubs star attraction, Frankie Knuckles, decided it was time for him to move on too - this time to a struggling venuenot far from the projects of Cabrini Green. With a change of name, and Knuckles installed behind the decks, the Power Plant went on to become akey part of house music history.

But it wasn't the whole story...not by a long way. On a scouting expedition for a new home, the Warehouse's owners found a place that was more subway tunnel that club, hidden under a carpark at 1632 South Michigan. They added some rudimentary lights and cannibalised the Warehouse's system to provide the sound. What they needed desparetely though, was a DJ.

The answer came in the small, slightly-built shape of Ron Hardy, who was then plying his trade in a bar in the city's Gold Coast District. He'd done a stint playing records in California, returned to Chicago and picked up a job as the DJ in a bar called Den One. As far as the house crowd were concerned, he wasn't even on the radar. But he was eager to move from the bar circuit into the club scene and he was more than happy to sign up with the men who had made the Warehouse the hottest ticket in town.

No one was prepared for what happened next, least of all Ron Hardy himself. In the dark, Styglian depths of the Music Box, he blossomed. Marshall Jefferson remembers his first visit to the club: "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 that 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."

"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."

While across town the Power Plant catered for the older house head who had little time for the dark, stripped down sound shaping itself in Chicago's studios, Hardy was a big fan of the scenes emerging producers. Trax label boss Larry Sherman recruited him as an unofficial A&R man and the Music Box was where many of Chicago's most freaked classics - including "No Way Back" and "I've lost control" - were heard in public for the first time.

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.

"He wasn't super smooth, but in those days no one was - they didn't use monitors. Can you imagine what it must have been like spinning with all that sound? In that situation if you can keep that shit rolling without sounding like runaway horses, then you have serious skills. He could drive the place into a frenzy. I remember he used to play the Tom Moulton mix of 'Bad Luck' by Harold Melvin. He'd use the break where Teddy goes into his vamp - "I know none of you ain't satisfied.." - to hype the crowd and get them chanting the lyrics. He'd extend the break mercilessly and then drop bak into the song. At the end, he'd be cutting the record back in 16th's so Teddy would be singing "bad bba bbba bad luck" and he'd repeat it as much as 30 times. The crowd would be going nuts, people would be climbing up the cieling. Some nights, Ronnie would just bash your brains out."

But the party couldn't last. By the time London was converting itself to house music, Hardy's prodigious personal problems began to take their toll. At the moment he should have been celebrating his greatest triumph - a worldwide conversion to the music he'd been championing - he found himself in limbo.

He recaptured the glory, briefly, at COD's - a big space with a marquee out front that was more hollywood than house - and again in 1990 with a short residency at another Chicago club AKA. But in 92 the intensity with which he'd catalysed house music proved unable to vanquish the ill-effects of a life lived on the edge for so long."

just a lil info on how chicago use to do it back in the days!

[richardthomas]

Thanks for the read......

for all you not in the know.... hit up www.deephousepage.com and check the history section!

[downlow]

if time travel to the past was possible I think the music box would be one of the first places I would check out. Ron Hardy changed the life of so many people in chicago and detroit and his influence is far reaching even today when it comes to edit culture and djing. thanks for that Boo. I get nostalgic when i think about Chicago... it has a vibe all its own and its a good feeling to visit that place too...

[djoffbeat]

saw your similar myspace post. thanks, keep it coming!

let these folks KNOW!!

[boo williams]

Originally Posted by downlow

if time travel to the past was possible I think the music box would be one of the first places I would check out. Ron Hardy changed the life of so many people in chicago and detroit and his influence is far reaching even today when it comes to edit culture and djing. thanks for that Boo. I get nostalgic when i think about Chicago... it has a vibe all its own and its a good feeling to visit that place too...

thank you sir.
just had to spread this message...which is in are music!

respect

[boo williams]

Originally Posted by djoffbeat

saw your similar myspace post. thanks, keep it coming!

let these folks KNOW!!

djoffbeat? you're on beat with the talent you're bringing down.
i was gonna move from dallas this year...but i like it to much to
go..the people here have shown me nothing but respect...so it's
up to me as a dj producer, to keep this thing going...that we
love so much.

thank you again dallas for your love....my hat goes off
to a great city.

[Nightlife Privilege Revoker]

how many godfathers of house are there?

[jeffspock]

Originally Posted by travis

how many godfathers of house are there?

that's what i would like to know.

i hear that everyone from chicago is a godfather of house in their own mind.

[richardthomas]

Originally Posted by travis

how many godfathers of house are there?

My guess is that at some point there will be many godfather's of dnb also....

[Rufus Punk]

Originally Posted by travis

how many godfathers of house are there?

The same number of people who created drum n bass.

[Nightlife Privilege Revoker]

Originally Posted by rufuspunk

The same number of people who created drum n bass.

from here on out, every DnB headliner who comes over from the UK that has been involved for at least 10 years will be the Godfather of Drum and Bass.

[boo williams]

Originally Posted by travis

how many godfathers of house are there?

their is no real God father of house....we just call Ron...and frankie that, they
are the only 2 in kats in chicago that we call God Father of house music, becuase they were really
the only 2 guys that made chicago really what it is today.

[downlow]

I read somewhere that Frankie was honoured by the city and there will be a street in his namesake? just goes to show you how important dance culture is and I believe one day the house/techno/dance classics we revere and love so much will be discussed in colleges as a class like jazz history... digital isn't going to teach you history so buy vinyl people... my heart is analog so vinyl is always in my heart. save the vinyl and learn something you can pass on to the next generation.

[alvin]

Ron is UNIVERSALLY accepted as being a "godfather" for his taking the music to a level that STILL hasn't been matched to this day. Not to take anything away from all the other Chicago innovators who played a major part in the incarnation of music called House, Ron was the catlyst who brought everything together and had the entire city of Chicago(and all the neighboring towns...G.I. represent) rallying around House culture. The amount of new and classic music that Ron "broke" at the Music Box(on a weekly basis) is mind boggling(if Ronnie played it it was a HIT!!!) and influenced an entire generation of club kids to go on and continue his legacy who in turn brought the music to an INTERNATIONAL LEVEL. One could NEVER put into words and express FULLY the the feeling and emotions of the Music Box and the Chicago scene, the only thing is to do(as dj's/producers/promoters/dancers/etc) is honour the spirit of the man and the music and strive to keep the music as vibrant and fresh as it was over 20 years ago.

much respect,

alvin.

[richardthomas]

Ron Hardy

Ron Hardy is the only man who can test Frankie Knuckles' status as the godfather of Chicago house music. Though he never recorded under his own name and left little evidence of his life, Hardy was the major name for Chicago dance music from the late '70s to the mid-'80s.

By 1974, he had already effected a continuous music mix -- with reel-to-reel machines plus a dual-turntable setup -- at the club Den One. Several years later, Hardy played with Knuckles at a club called the Warehouse and though he spent several years in Los Angeles, he later returned to Chicago to open his own club, the Music Box. While Knuckles was translating disco and the emerging house music to a straight, southside audience at the Power Plant, Hardy's 72-hour mix sessions and flamboyant party lifestyle fit in well with the uptown, mostly gay audience at the Music Box

A roll-call of major Chicago producers -- including Marshall Jefferson, Larry Heard, Adonis, Phuture's DJ Pierre and Chip E -- all debuted their compositions by pressing up acetates or reel-to-reel copies for Hardy to play during the mid-'80s. Lingering problems with heroin addiction forced him to leave the Music Box around 1986 and though he continued to DJ around the area, Hardy wasn't around when Chicago became house music's mecca later in the decade. He died in 1991.

"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."

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.

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, ..."
"Ron Hardy, who was to become the backbone of the Chicago club scene by consistently breaking the new records, began playing at The Muzic Box around the same time [1983/84] as Frankie Knuckles left The Warehouse, and other DJs like Farley and the Hot Mix 5 who threw down the mix shows on the radio station WBMX were making names for themselves." (Before 1985)