and on piano...Nicky Hopkins - Julian Dawson

 

Anyone who loves rock'n'roll knows Nicky Hopkins' work, even if they don't know the man himself. He has played with giants like the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Jeff Beck and countless others over the years, all while maintaining sideman status and never looking for the starlight himself, even when he tried to be a solo artist. I became aware of him well after he began playing on countless hits that received continuous play in my bedrooms, most likely due to rock'n'roll zines like Circus or Creem. His legacy is beyond historic, having played on more hits than most people could even imagine, so I was certainly interested in learning more about the man himself.

The author, Julian Dawson, is apparently a musician himself - although I have never heard of him and he does not look the part (in my overblown critical viewpoint) - and, in fact, via a chance meeting, Hopkins did one of his last sessions with Dawson. This book was certainly a labor of love of his - started after Hopkins untimely death - and it is well-researched with lots of family and friends involved.

Hopkins was a sickly child but doted on by his parents and older siblings and was also a child prodigy on piano from an early age. Starting with classical, he became enamored with r'n'r as a teen as it raised its ragin' head, and his first real band was Screamin' Lord Sutch and the Savages. He went on to several other classic combos before another sickness sidelined him for literally a year and a half!

After that he took a reprieve from live shows and became a much sought-after session musician, playing on hundreds of cuts of all styles, but stand-outs were, of course, the Who and the Kinks and, a little later on, the Rolling Stones. Naturally, his time in the Jeff Beck Group is explored and, interestingly enough, there is an unusual animosity between Nicky and Jeff. From the tours of the USA, Nicky is enamored of the West Coast and works with the Jefferson Airplane (even playing Woodstock with them) and the Steve Miller Band, among others, particularly Quicksilver Messenger Service, in which he became a full fledged member for a short period of time.

The chapters are based on subjects - the Stones, Beatles, etc. - rather than necessarily chronological, so it can be slightly hard to follow the timelines, but the format is kind of understandable as Nicky went back'n'forth from England to the States and worked on his on solo records as well as innumerable sessions. He does leave'n'return some of these stars' orbits, and the amount of work in between - or even during - does mean that this format is logical for this purpose.

He did make a few solo albums with some major players but those essentially went nowhere and, per the descriptions here, probably deservedly so. Not a comment on his playing talent, but he is not a singer and his songwriting apparently fluctuated., particularly in the lyrics and also tending more towards classical than r'n'r. Having an incredibly overbearing (although quite attractive) wife (who is also interviewed by Dawson) probably both helped'n'hindered his career, as apparently she got work done but annoyed all too many (including a musician who had an affair with her while he worked with Nicky!). 

Being sickly to start with, the excesses of the 70's (in particular) were extremely damaging to Nicky's health, although most people say that he could play regardless of his inebriation - including a story of installing a "seat belt" on his piano bench so he couldn't fall off while playing!

Of course, the excesses eventually caught up with him and even affected his work - mostly due to unreliability - until he cleaned up via Scientology, of all things. By the 80’s, while he could still find work here and there, he was no longer a first call session man. Between this and the drugs and recovery, this part of the story inevitably is depressing. His death at an early age is incredibly sad, as he was by then clean and working to get his life back on track.

Dawson is a fine writer and the book is amazingly well researched with an incredible amount of anecdotes, from the mundane, to the historically interesting (Nicky made a total of 6 pounds for playing on the Beatles’ “Revolution “) to the laugh out loud hilarious. As I say, the 60’s and the 70’s are the most compelling, naturally, but a great story all around. Certainly recommended!