The day after Nicky died (September 6, 1994), Ian McLagan and his wife Kim were shopping in Austin and stopped to have a drink in Nicky’s honor. They chose a weirdly appropriate bar, with church pews as benches and coffins for tables, and ordered a round of beers. They were amazed when, without them lifting […]
Read MoreRemembering July 14-15, 1973
When reviewing the worst days in music history, why not start at February 3, 1959? Of course, that’s the day Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in an Iowa plane crash. If you know this date, it isn’t because you’ve been going through a Holly phase and were doing online research. […]
Read MoreMr. Pleasant: What Would Nicky Hopkins Do? (Part 5)
“From about ’67 to ’68 it was really machine-like. I didn’t even know whom I was working for half the time. Anthony Newley was at one session, Sammy Davis Jr. was at another, maybe those two were for a movie soundtrack or maybe they were singles. I don’t know. I don’t even know if they […]
Read MoreThe Revolutionary Piano of Nicky Hopkins (WWNHD: Part 4)
There are people who read music and don’t make things up and people who make things up and don’t read music, so when you put them together it’s a powerful thing. Nicky could play whatever you put in front of him. It’s a rarity to have somebody who could do that as perfectly as all […]
Read MoreBut It Was Blues: What Would Nicky Hopkins Do? (Part 3)
In February-March 1965, Jimmy Page was producing a session for a singer named Andy Anderson. Jeff Beck was on guitar, Carlo Little was on drums, and engineering the session was a young upstart named Glyn Johns. On keyboards? Well, that was the problem. The piano player didn’t show up for the gig. So, Carlo […]
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