Session Man Nicky Hopkins - The Mad Shirt Grinder

LA's famous Wrecking Crew

In a recent post I mentioned that Nashville studio musician Rob Moore has played bass on more than 17,000 sessions.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around that.  

Nashville, of course, is known for the number and quality of studio musicians who have worked with everybody from Elvis to Bob Dylan to Yo-Yo Ma.  The city's top session players were known as the "Nashville A-Team" and were immortalized in the lyrics to John Sebastian's 1966 hit song Nashville Cats:

"Nashville Cats, play clean as country water;  Nashville Cats, play wild as mountain dew;  Nashville Cats, been playin' since they's babies; Nashville Cats, get work before they're two."

Some former and current Nashville Cats include Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, Buddy Harman, Norbert Putnam, Vassar Clements, Tommy Jackson, Pete Drake, Owen Bradley, Charlie McCoy, Earl Scruggs, Hank Garland, and Boots Randolph.  My guess is you could put a random group of these guys in a recording studio at lunch time and have a fabulous album done before dinner.  

In addition to the Nashville A-Team, other notable groups of session players included Motown's "Funk Brothers" in Detroit, the "Rhythm Section" and "The Swampers" at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama, the "Memphis Group" at Stax Records (the "MG" from Booker T and the MGs), and perhaps the most famous of all, L.A.'s fabled "Wrecking Crew."  The dean of the Wrecking Crew was drummer Hal Blaine, but other notable members included Leon Russell and Glen Campbell.  [Fun fact: the only female session musician from all of these groups (that I'm aware of) was the Wrecking Crew's ace bass player Carol Kaye.]  If you have more than a handful of albums from the 60s and 70s, some of the cats from these session groups played on them.

Nicky Hopkins

The members of the session groups were geographically based, sometimes working for a particularly studio or label, other times hired as needed for studio work or live gigs.  Since session players were usually not credited on the albums they played on, many fans were not aware that their favorite band didn't always perform the music on their songs.  Just off the top of my head I can think of hits by The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and (of course) the Monkees that were actually played by session musicians.

In addition to the mostly anonymous players who made up the great studio groups, there were a number of well-known musicians who, in addition to having their own successful careers, were regularly asked by groups to sit in on their albums.  Duane Allman and Eric Clapton contributed unmistakable guitar licks to any number of hit records.  Keyboard player Billy Preston is featured on several Beatles recordings, and sax man Bobby Keys played so regularly with The Rolling Stones that he became a de facto member of the band.

One of the very best of the "star" session players was British pianist Nicky Hopkins, who played on hundreds of albums, including LPs by The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Zappa, Jefferson Airplane, Jeff Beck, John Lennon, The Kinks, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and The Who, just to name a few.

Hopkins was born in 1944 in a suburb of London and started playing piano at the age of three.  In his teens he won a scholarship to study classical music at the Royal Academy of Music.  However, in the swinging 60s in the UK, the lure of rock 'n' roll proved to be too great for the 17-year-old Hopkins, who left the Royal Academy to take a job with the pioneering UK rock band "Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages."  The band's namesake and nominal leader, David Sutch, was known more for his on-stage antics than his musicianship.  His schtick included wearing animal skins and horns on his heads while he raved around the stage.  The band specialized in covers of hits by early rockers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard.  Even though Lord Sutch never really made it big, the group (with an ever changing cast of members) had incredible staying power and lasted for nearly 30 years.  It also turned out to be a proving ground for a generation of UK rock stars.  Hopkins was one of the original members of the group, but other notables who spent some time with Lord Sutch include Jimmy Page, Richie Blackmore, Ian Hunter, Jeff Beck, as well as both other members of Jimi Hendrix's band, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding.  

After a stint with Lord Sutch, Hopkins was recruited to join a more established (and serious) group called Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers.  The Rebel Rousers toured extensively, and, like the Beatles, spent several months in 1962 playing at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany.  After a falling out with leader Bennett, Hopkins hooked up with one of the UK's first serious bluesmen, Cyril Davies.  It was in early 1963, as a member of Cyril Davies And His R&B All-Stars, that Hopkins first began to attract attention from his fellow musicians in London.  

In his excellent 2011 biography of Nicky Hopkins, And On Piano . . . Nicky Hopkins, noted musician/writer Julian Dawson says that blues fans like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Jimmy Page often turned up to catch shows by Cyril Davies and the band.  And in fact, a brand-new group called the Rolling Stones eventually opened several times for the All-Stars.  Hopkins was quickly becoming known as one of the best keyboard players in London and seemed well on his way to fame and fortune.  But alas, not yet.  In May of 1963, the 19-year-old Hopkins was rushed to the hospital with severe abdominal pain.  He was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and had most of his intestine removed.  The operation initially left him in a coma and then bed-ridden for the next nineteen months, during which he was near death several times.  If that weren't bad enough, while Hopkins was fighting for his life, his boss and bandmate Cyril Davies died in December, 1963 from complications of leukemia.

By the time Hopkins was finally back on his feet, he had been out of the music business for nearly two years.  It was now 1965, and what had been a nascent rock music scene in the UK had exploded with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and an ever-growing list of British bands topping the charts worldwide.  London's recording studios were now in overdrive trying to keep up with the soaring demand for new music.  Though Hopkins was not healthy enough to tour, his classical training and experience playing rock and blues with three different bands made him an extremely versatile session man.  What's more, his youth and unassuming manner allowed him to get along with even the most egotistical and volatile rock bands, while his ability to nail piano parts on the first take endeared him to producers and budget-conscious labels.  Hopkins was soon one of the most in-demand players in London.  

On the strength of his studio work, Hopkins was heavily courted by groups to join them on tour.  After three years working nearly non-stop in recording sessions, Hopkins was keen to get back on the road and finally felt physically up to it.  After turning down an offer to join a new group being put together by John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page (!), Hopkins joined the Jeff Beck Group on a tour of the US in the fall of 1968.  He returned with Beck for another leg in early 1969.  When the tour fell apart due to personnel issues in the band, Hopkins was left at loose ends.  The Jefferson Airplane heard he was available and asked him to come out to San Francisco to play on their new album, Volunteers.  Later that summer, after Hopkins had returned to England, the Airplane asked Hopkins if he would fly over and play with them at an outdoor music festival in upstate New York, which is how Hopkins ended up performing at Woodstock.

After spending time with the Airplane, Hopkins quickly became ensconced in the California music scene and became as in demand in the US as he had been in the UK.  Later in 1969 he hooked up with the Steve Miller Band to make an album and then joined the Quicksilver Messenger Service and stayed with them long enough to make three albums in 1969-70.  At the same time, he continued to record regularly in the UK with The Rolling Stones, The Who, Donovan, Rod Stewart, and others. 

In his biography of Hopkins, Dawson includes a 24-page list of albums and singles that Hopkins played on.  The list includes an astonishing number of LPs that would be on anyone's list of the 100 best rock albums of all time.  I hardily recommend Dawson's excellent book, where you can see the entire list.  If you just want to check out a "highlights" version, there is a good one on Nicky Hopkins' official web site here.  If you twisted my arm, my three all-time top Nicky Hopkins albums would be: Who's Next, by The Who; Exile On Main Street, by the Rolling Stones; and Shady Grove, by the Quicksilver Messenger Service.  I suspect you are familiar with the first two, but it's worth having another listen to focus on how Hopkins' piano work enhances the albums.  Check out the incredibly plaintive piano on Pete Townshend's "This Song Is Over" or the raucous barrelhouse piano on Jagger and Richards' "Rip This Joint" (with the added bonus of Bobby Key's extremely tasty sax.)  Shady Grove by Quicksilver may be less familiar, but it may also be Hopkins' best work.  If you don't have a copy, you should get one.  It's certainly a product of its time, recorded in the afterglow of Woodstock in the fall of 1969, but every song showcases Hopkins' prodigious talent.  In particular, the track called "Edward (The Mad Shirt Grinder)," which became Hopkins' signature piece, is a stone cold classic.  

In addition to his contributions to other bands, Hopkins had a modest solo career, releasing three albums.  The first, in 1966, was The Revolutionary Piano Of Nicky Hopkins.  It features slightly cheesy renditions of then-current pop and soundtrack hits done in an easy-listening style.  Do not seek it out.  His second album, 1973's The Tin Man Was A Dreamer, was written entirely by Hopkins and is by far his best solo effort (despite the slightly creepy cover illustration of Hopkins playing a piano with keys made of human fingers.)  As you might expect, Hopkins was able to call on a number of friends and top studio players for the gig, including Klaus Voorman, George Harrison, Ray Cooper, Mick Taylor, Bobby Keys, Jim Horn and Jim Price.  Harry Nilsson provided support in the control room.  The album received mostly positive reviews but sold poorly, perhaps because it lacked a solid single for radio play.  Which is a shame as the songs aren't bad, and the playing is first rate.  The highlight is a re-worked, tighter version of "Edward" (without "Mad Shirt Grinder" in the title this time) that may be better than the original.  Hopkins' final album, No More Changes, was released in 1975, and perhaps the less said about that the better.

It's worth mentioning one last Hopkins LP, a jam session with Mick Jagger, Ry Cooder, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman called Jamming With Edward, which was released in 1972.  The tracks were cut in May of 1969 at Olympic Studios in London when Ry Cooder and Hopkins were working with the Rolling Stones on their album Let It Bleed.  Apparently Keith Richards had to leave in the middle of a session because of a domestic issue, and everyone else decided that since they were there anyway, they would just roll tape and jam.  Most of the songs are credited to Hopkins (jointly with others in the group), and the cartoons on the front and back of the jacket were all drawn by Hopkins. 

In his book, Dawson explains the significance of the name Edward, which (you may have noticed) keeps cropping up in relation to Hopkins.  Dawson says it was an inside joke between Hopkins and the Stones that started at a session when Brian Jones yelled across the studio for Hopkins to play an "E" on the piano so he could tune his bass.  When Hopkins didn't hear him clearly, Jones yelled "Nicky, give me an E for Edward!"  Edward became the Stones' sobriquet for Nicky.  So Jamming With Edward was really Jamming With Nicky.  Which, I suppose, means that Nicky is also Edward the mad shirt grinder.  At any rate, while Jamming With Edward/Nicky is a bit shambolic, it's still a fun romp with some fine playing by all concerned.

Later in the 70s, though he continued to record and play regularly, Hopkins descended into years of drug and alcohol abuse.  In the 80s, he joined Scientology and managed to kick his addictions.  [Fun fact:  Hopkins recruited Van Morrison into Scientology, although it apparently didn't stick.]  Hopkins worked steadily throughout the 80s and early 90s, playing on numerous recording sessions and touring with performers such as Joe Cocker, Leo Sayer, Art Garfunkel, and Jerry Garcia.  He lived alternately in England and Los Angeles before moving to Nashville in January of 1994 with his second wife.  Beset with continuing health issues related to Crohn's Disease, he died there in September, 1994 at the age of 50.

Look what I got for Christmas!

Enjoy the music!