ronnie williamsronnie williams
Info from Steve Baptiste and Dwight Bement:
Ronnie Williams is front bottom with guitar & Dwight
Bement is on sax on the right.
Info from Patrick Neve:
Ronnie Williams is acknowledged as the one who in 1960 introduced FZ to Paul
Buff, which started a most productive period at pal studio. Ronnie
played guitar for The Masters, who recorded the Zappa/Collins song
"Breaktime" in '62. He, along with his brother
Kenny Williams,
and Jim Sherwood,
engaged in some unusual pastimes which were eventually immortalized in the song
"Let's make the water turn black", in 1968. It
would not be until 1996 that the source recordings of these hobbies were released in
It's also explained in explicit detail by Zappa in his autobiography. In the song "Let's make the water turn black" the lyrics
mention Ronnie joining the army. That was '68.
I've
since received an email from his cousin's son telling me that he did time in an arizona prison doing time for murder. I'm
told he
According to the liner notes in The Lost Episodes, there was no contact
with
Bo Salisbury was an eyewitness:
"I remember it as plain as day. Frank looked down after the request was shouted out, laughed and said something like,
"It's Ronnie Williams!" As I recall, he was in the center, about 6-8 rows back, and Frank invited him up on stage...
Denny Walley was playing bottleneck most of the night on a Telecaster, took it off and handed it over to Ronnie.
They played the song, the audience cheered, Ronnie gave the Telecaster back to Denny and the show moved forward. It was great."
June 2011, Steve Ingram added:
Ronnie Williams currently lives in Arizona.
from the "Paul Buff presents the PAL and Original Sound studio archives,
vol.3" liner notes by Greg Russo:
"Paul Buff and Ronnie Williams recorded “Toothpick Boogie” in the early fall
of 1960, with Buff providing additional instrumentation to the basic track in
2007. That revised version, “Tropical Toothpick,” is on this volume. The
original “Toothpick Boogie” will appear later in this series as well as on
The Masters’ album."
discography
| the masters:
t-bone / sunday blues (1962, 7", usa, emmy 1006) |
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| the
masters: 16 tons / breaktime
(1962, 7", usa, emmy 1008) the b-side was written by ronnie williams, paul buff & frank zappa |
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| the masters:
under the earth / rolling blues (1962, 7", usa, emmy 1009) both tracks written by ronnie williams |
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| 3 | the
mothers of invention: we're only
in it for the money
(1967, lp, usa, verve) |
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| 4 | frank
zappa: lumpy gravy
(1967, lp, usa, verve) |
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| the
grandmothers: lookin' up granny's dress (3) (1982, lp, us, rhino records rnlp 804) - feat. various ex-moi; incl.zappa compositions |
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var.art.: 10c rare meat (1983, 12", usa, rhino) |
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64 |
frank zappa: the lost episodes
(1996, cd, usa, ryko) |
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frank zappa: the lost episodes
(64) (1996, cd, usa, ryko) |
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various artists: paul buff presents the pal and
original sound studio archives, vol.1 |
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various artists: paul buff presents the pal and
original sound studio archives, vol.2 |
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various artists: paul buff presents the pal and
original sound studio archives, vol.3 |
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various artists: paul buff presents the pal and
original sound studio archives, vol.4 |
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various artists: paul buff presents the pal and
original sound studio archives, vol.5 (2010, download, -, crossfire publications) - feat.contributions by frank zappa |
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| the masters:
singles & rarities (2010, download, -, crossfire publications) - feat.contributions by frank zappa |
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various artists: paul buff presents the pal and
original sound studio archives: the collection (2011, flash-drive, usa, crossfire publications) = the complete 35 album series, with bonus liner notes on pdf and 56 extra tracks |
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Info from Patrick Neve:
I found some discographies which credit Ronnie Williams as an actor, a
producer and arranger of soul music. I
don't know if this is the same Ronny Williams.
info from tom welch:
The guitarist & brother of the late Kenny made no movies & did
not produce
Full name Ronald Lloyd Williams-son's name is Steve.
R.L.W. born~1940.
Info from Charles Ulrich:
Gray (Mother! The Frank Zappa Story, p. 157) suggests that this happened
at
info from Ron Cote, 2009/12:
I knew Ronnie
and Kenny in 74' & 75'.
Ronnie
and Joyce and all the kids lived in the green farm house between the railroad
tracks in the grape fields of Cucamonga.
Joyce worked for the telephone company in Pomona.
I used to give her rides to work.
It was a strange time, everyone was into things they should not have been.
Kenny got out of jail and stayed with me for a while in Ontario.
Ronnie was a great guitar player and I was just learning. He would show me things and explain them.
I had no clue what he was talking about for another 5 years.
It
was the spring of 75' that Ronnie went on stage with Frank in Pomona. He did not
sing he played guitar. He told me
he shouldn't have been up there, he was so out of practice, but Frank didn't
care. There was a review in the local paper that talked about it, the critic did
not like what was going on.
Ronnie's
guitar and equipment got stolen around this time. His telecaster had a design carved on the back. It was the
nickname Frank gave him, Snail saw, Frank said it was because Ronnie was slow as
a snail but he could buzz like a saw.
I never really knew him or Kenny to be singers.
Ronnie played guitar and Kenny was a piano player.
In 75' Kenny got violated on his probation and went back to jail.
I left California in the fall of 75 and came back on July 4, 1976.
I tried to locate them but they were gone from Cucamonga.
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