Came across this blog article.
Reminded me what a great player. Gotta say I never noticed him playing with the Airplane at Woodstock.
Hard to go past She’s A Rainbow as a favourite.
https://www.psaudio.com/blogs/copper/nicky-hopkins-an-unsung-musical-hero
Just watched this and he was announced by Grace at the start. Used to know that triple album backwards…but apparently not.
Don’t think JA were on the album ( an OST) as they didn’t feature in the film
Volunteers was on it. I remember the morning maniac music, new dawn etc. Just not the “and Nicky Hopkins”
I stand corrected
Amazing musician.if She’s A Rainbow is his most beautiful work, deserving of a writing credit in my view, the loud guitar Revolution is his wildest.
As I said about Ian McLagan, Rock pianists of the late sixties and seventies never got enough credit. Hopkins was way better than Keith Emerson but nowhere near as appreciated, except by people like us. 😀
Interesting how he said the piano on Jumping Jack Flask was too low .Was that rectified in subsequent remasters?
No. You have to listen very, very closely. And the organ only becomes clear in the final 40 second coda/fade.
I think the playing on Exile stands out as being integrated into the music as if he can feel his way into it. But that’s the way that album is. It all seems to fit organically somehow.
“Hopkins was way better than Keith Emerson”
Ya wouldn’t let it lie…🙁
I saw the documentary The Session Man at the Doc n Roll film festival last year. It confirms your view that he should have had a writing credit. Keith Richard said that he would have the basics of a song and Nicky would come in and finish it off. There was Q&A after the screening. My mate asked about this. The panel agreed, but it was a job for his management.
It’s a very interesting documentary if you ever get to see it. They clearly couldn’t afford to licence any of the music so had piano players talking about and demonstrating his parts. It worked very well.
https://thesessionmanfilm.com/
That sounds great!
It is. They were trying to get funding for better distribution. I hope they succeed.
I think it is on Netflix
Not in Blighty.
Maybe BFI will get it.
Nope – not in Oz, anyway. Or any other channel according to JustWatch.
Just checked too – nada.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/nicky-hopkins-documentary-who-stones-beatles-1235116524/
This article claims it will be on Amazon prime (could just be in north America).
His piano line on Sympathy For The Devil holds the entire song together. Without him, there would be no song, as Jean-Luc Godard’s film demonstrates.
His management clearly missed out.
No. An integral part for sure but all is pretty much perfect for that song.
It is the lead instrument, carrying the melody. Richard’s bass is tremendous and the percussion great but it’s the piano that keeps it all together, creating the platform for one of Richards’ most excoriating solos. Jagger is outstanding, too, but Watts barely audible and Jones inaudible altogether (he gets an acoustic guitar credit).
Maybe, but it’s not the whole song. I guess I kind of think of the sambas, Jagger’s brilliant vocal and Keith first (plus the ooh oohs of course)
Anita came up with the woo-woos.
Calling Moose!
The biography by Julian Dawson is highly recommended.
Yes, it is! I came here to make that point
“And on Piano …Nicky Hopkins: The Extraordinary Life of Rock’s Greatest Session Man” – a splendid read
Hard to find though.
Blackwells have new copies.
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780984436224?source=65769&destination=GB&a_aid=65769
Ordered, thanks
He was brilliant in The Jeff Beck Group where he even had a solo piano track on”Beckola”, the stately “Girl from Mill Valley “.
I’ve been looking for a reasonably priced copy of his autobiography for years but I don’t think such a thing exists
For something different, and very of its time, try 60s supergroup, Sweet Thursday, from 1969
Nicky Hopkins, Alun Davies and Jon Mark
One of the bands he had association with in the 60s did gain him a writing credit.
The Ox
A few years ago there was that Stones exhibition – yopu know where they recreated MIck’nKeef’s bedroom from the early days. There was also a room with a bunch of music players and you could solo different tracks. Nicky’s playing on Angie (mentioned above) is just perfect. Apart from his melodic sense (also mentioned above) the thing about him was his sense of time. Musicians talk about the “feel”, the “groove” – it’s the way the musicians gel and create a sound that has forward motion and space to breathe but is also tight as all fuck, to use a technical musical term. So Nicky Hopkins could fit in with anyone, and make the rest of the track sound good, as well as his own playing. Something like that
Upthread, it’s all about “Sympathy…” – but for feel and groove, I’d go for “Jigsaw Puzzle”, especially (but not limited to) the outro. Nicky is just superb.
The clarity of the piano part on this demo version lays bare exactly what he was doing…
This
Further to this :
Here’s Nicky with the Kinks: “Session Man” off the “Face to Face” album.
Hopkins on the harpsichord.
Some say that Ray Davies actually wrote the song about Nicky …