His rhythms tough and swinging, his leads elegant and hot, the late Mick Ronson defined glitter guitar on David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Then, playing and producing for Bowie, Morrissey and Ian Hunter, Ronson epitomized glam, manipulating that most stylish of forms with consummate panache. A dream collaborator, his solo work never caught consistent...

Having been extensively impressed by this geezer when he was with—and in all ways an exemplary foil for — Dave Bowie, one is shocked and greatly saddened to discover that Play Don't Worry is nearly indisputably the work of a distinctly nonmajor talent-in-his-own-right. Ronson's obvious long suit is his guitar work, which frequently betrays a macabre sense of outrage vastly (and, one...