WWNHD: What Would Nicky Hopkins Do? (Part 1)

When you start thinking about rock ‘n’ roll turning into rock you can typically point to The Beatles and just say, “Watch what they do.” The British Invasion itself is a convenient starting point. I mean, ultimately you’re just choosing a spot on the map, but these spots hold high ground. However, another way you can see rock take shape is the relative segregation of piano. Rock ‘n’ roll was based around guitar (Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley/Scotty Moore, Buddy Holly) AND piano (Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino). After The Beatles, rock was all about guitar — and to some degree has never NOT been about guitar. Even though most British Invasion bands included piano on their recordings and wrote songs on piano, when it came time to hit the stage you rarely saw a piano. The Animals, Dave Clark Five, and Them, for example, all featured keyboardists, but those musicians were playing organ. Even if you come over to the American side of the Atlantic, you can hear a keyboard-driven early rock song like my beloved “She’s About A Mover.” But, what was Augie Meyers of the Sir Douglas Quintet playing? A Vox organ.

Why is this? As far as I’m concerned it’s as simple as volume. Despite the unparalleled versatility of an acoustic piano, in the context of a rock band, it’s gonna get swallowed up by electric guitars and drums unless you mike it correctly. Mid-’60s amplification technology simply wasn’t advanced enough to solve this problem. A Hammond or Vox could carve out space next to a Telecaster because they’re loud instruments and don’t compete at the same frequency. A pianist has gotta fortissimo the shit outta some ivories just to sneak through the din and even then the keys can get lost in a cymbal wash. This is undoubtedly why you hear piano in studio settings. The producer and engineer(s) can control the levels of the instruments.

Because of this segregation, it’s interesting to see how piano evolves as a rock instrument. And when I say rock, I mean rock. I don’t mean ballads or pop songs. It’s easy in that context to have a piano front and center because by the very nature of a ballad, it makes sense to have a piano sympathetically accompany the voice. There are no hi-hats or electric guitars drowning out the keys. So, if we’re going to trace the evolution of piano in rock music — the British Invasion at first, but ultimately traversing the entirety of the genre — let’s do this right.

 

The greatest pianist in rock history is Nicky Hopkins and on some days I don’t qualify it with rock. He produced shimmering waterfalls of melody, what Jagger (I believe) called “little diamond tiaras,” no doubt because of his classical training. But, he was also one of the swinginest motherfuckers to ever sit at the bench. Such a natural feel for syncopation, be it Jelly Roll Morton habaneros, stride and boogie woogie, New Orleans R&B, or postwar Chicago blues. I’m one of those music nerds who loves the continuum from early jazz, blues, country, and gospel, through all the permutations of swing, into R&B, rock ‘n’ roll, and rock. All of that music was inside Nicky Hopkins and it combined with whatever God-given talent he naturally possessed. He had access to notes that other musicians didn’t have, like his alphabet came with extra letters. He’s the only musician to play on sessions by The Beatles, Stones, Who, AND Kinks and I think those sessions — and many others — are worth a revisit (a la Clarence White).

Like so many musicians his age, he started out enthralled by blues and R&B, but like many of those same musicians, he soon cut a stylistically wider swath. His ability to integrate the piano into rock music didn’t just mirror the evolution of rock ‘n’ roll into rock, but rather he was one of rock music’s insurgent forces. To understand then, how the piano integrated itself into the rock music vocabulary there is but one governing principle: What would Nicky Hopkins do?

BORN IN A CROSSFIRE HURRICANE

Nicky Hopkins was born on London on February 24, 1944, during what the Germans called Operation Steinbock and the British called the Little Blitz or Baby Blitz, in homage to The Blitz of 1940-41. When he was 3 years old, Nicky’s mother, Freda, bought him a piano. He began lessons at 6 and between the ages of 11 and 16 (1955-1960) studied piano at the London’s Royal Academy of Music. However, in February 1960, Hopkins quit school to play with Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages. Sutch was basically the British Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and The Savages were an aptly named anarchic rock ‘n’ roll band covering who you might expect — Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Elvis Presley.

 

Hopkins drifted in and out of the Savages over the next two years, including a brief stint with a group called The Saxons. While he was no road warrior, this was pretty much the only time in his life where toured with even semi-regularity. At some point in 1961, Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages recorded their first single with producer Joe Meek. From everything I’ve read, Hopkins was not on this single, but sax player, Pete Newman, references him in a quote. According to The Complete Story of Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages, a wonderful resource for all things Sutch and Savage, Newman says:

I met Joe Meek through an advert in the Melody Maker asking for bands to record at his studios in Holloway, North London in early 1961. I only did the one session with Dave Sutch to do ‘Till The Following Night’ b/w ‘Good Golly Miss Molly.’ If you listen to ‘Good Golly Miss Molly,’ you will note that in the short time that records were made then there were a sax solo by me, a guitar solo by Bernie Watson, a piano solo by Nicky Hopkins, and a drum solo by Carlo Little. Many years after that record was made — because it was played at a high speed — many other musicians said it must have been a trick recording. In fact, the count-in was too fast and we all had to go along with the speed we started with. Joe Meek loved it and that take was the one you hear now.”

Judge for yourself.

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages – Good Golly Miss Molly
Recorded/released 1961

This is a fun song, but I’m not sure that’s Nicky. I realize Pete Newman was at the session, so prima facie it seems ridiculous to question a primary source. But, memory is a tricky thing. Maybe you remember an event exactly as it happened. But, maybe you don’t. In the case of “Good Golly Miss Molly,” it’s not that the pianist couldn’t be him. The piano part is fast, but obviously in the Hopkins wheelhouse. However, the fact there’s no piano solo means Newman misremembered the session on at least one level. Who knows. I prefer to think this is Charlie Parker on piano — no no, not THAT Charlie Parker — and Hopkins’ first actual recording session comes later.

In September 1962, Hopkins joined Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers in the studio to cut a country song, “My Old Standby.” He’d briefly been a part of the Rebel Rousers in the summer, during which time he met his idol, Jerry Lee Lewis. Lewis is supposed to have said upon hearing the 18-year-old pianist, “Goddamit, that boy can really pound that keyboard!” Heady stuff. “Standby” was actually the B-side. The A-side was a cover of Doris Day’s “Everybody Loves A Lover.”

Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers – My Old Standby
Recorded September 1962
Released July 1963

Not a great song and not a particularly inspired piano part, but solid enough. The confusing thing is Nicky’s next possible recording date may have come before the Bennett date, but it also might not have included Hopkins. Clear as mud. Anyway, at some point in 1962, Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages began recording their next single. According to Julian Dawson’s bio, And on Piano …Nicky Hopkins: The Extraordinary Life of Rock’s Greatest Session Man, “Sandwiched in between gigs, a second visit to Holloway Road (i.e. Joe Meek’s home studio) produced Nicky and Bernie (Watson)’s first appearance on record. Sutch’s single, ‘Jack The Ripper’ b/w ‘Don’t You Just Know It,’ another horror milestone that sadly still failed to ignite the pop charts when it was finally released over a year later.” (And on Piano…, p. 29).

I’m a little surprised Dawson doesn’t go into greater detail on “Ripper.” If it was, in fact, Nicky’s first recording session, why isn’t there more than a single paragraph celebrating that fact? Complicating matters is this excerpt from another different Savages blog, “A first recording session of ‘Jack The Ripper,’ produced by Joe Meek, took place in November 1962 with a lineup featuring Carlo Little. The final one may have featured another lineup with drummer Derek ‘Deggsy’ Sirmon.” Not that this necessarily contradicts Dawson, but there’s no mention of Nicky and we can’t be sure which recording was used for the single, released in March 1963. That said, if one thing works in Dawson’s favor it’s that in my research, every time I see the name Carlo Little referenced in this 1961-63 period, Nicky Hopkins isn’t far behind.

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages – Jack The Ripper
Recorded 1962
Released March 1963

The other thing backing up Dawson’s version of events is that this piano part sounds a LOT like Hopkins. Now, it should be mentioned that one of the Savages’ other pianists in the early ’60s, Fred Cheeseman — who later adopted the nom de plink, “Freddie Fingers Lee” — was also heavily influenced by Jerry Lee. So stylistically, it really could’ve been either guy. But, the more I listen to it, the more I think it’s Hopkins. Maybe 80/20 in favor. What say you?

CYRIL DAVIES & HIS RHYTHM & BLUES ALL-STARS

If “Jack The Ripper” was recorded in November 1962, then that was Nicky’s second most important development of the month. For November was when the original Savages agreed to become Cyril Davies‘ backup band, The R&B All Stars (aka The All Stars). Davies was HUGELY influential to the budding London blues and R&B scene of the early 1960s. He was a harmonica player, shouting blues singer, and blues/R&B purist. He had to be talked into covering Chuck Berry for fucks sake. In Davies’ defense, he’d earned the right to stay in his blues box having successfully done that for the better part of a decade. In 1961, right around the time The Savages were starting up, Davies and Alexis Korner started a band called Blues Incorporated. They were a band in the sense that Davies and Korner (who played guitar) were the constants, but they kept a rotating cast of musicians on speed dial. You’ve heard of some of them.

Technically, Blues Incorporated was the first professional British blues band. We were playing electric stuff by then and Cyril and me were getting thrown out of perfectly respectable jazz clubs for doing so.”

Cyril Davies split from Korner and formed his own band, the All Stars. From then on Blues Incorporated was kept fresh with a steady infusion of personnel. Anyone who was around joined when they could. Eric Burdon, Long John Baldry, Ronnie Jones (a black GI), Paul Jones. There was a ‘nervous’ Charlie Watts on drums, Dick Heckstall-Smith on saxophone, Jack Bruce on bass. And for six months in 1961, Mick Jagger.
–Alexis Korner, Rolling Stone, July 8, 1971

 

Korner makes an interesting observation later in that interview about how he saw the band back then.

Commercially, Blues Incorporated was at its peak in 1962 when we played the Rothschilds’ ball and all that sort of stuff. I’m sure that one of the reasons why so many great musicians chose to work with me was because there was simply no alternative. There wasn’t another R&B band that played regularly twice a week to at least a thousand people. But we never thought of ourselves as being popular, in the sense that the Tremeloes or some group like that is. We didn’t play the pop ballrooms and so I don’t think that the development of pop music had much to do with us.”
–Alexis Korner, Rolling Stone, July 8, 1971

Davies initially formed The Cyril Davies Blues Band with Jimmy Page in October, but Page’s encroaching studio work squashed that unit after a handful of shows. So, Davies recruited the final piece of the Savage puzzle, guitarist Bernie Watson, and Davies rebranded the outfit The R&B All-Stars (or just The All-Stars). The band quickly picked up residencies at the Railway Hotel, The Roaring Twenties, and The Piccadilly Club, before landing Thursday nights at The Marquee Club beginning in January 1963. The band was courted by both Decca and Pye Records before Davies settled on Pye because they had a blues/R&B subsidiary, Pye International. On February 27, 1963, Cyril Davies & His Rhythm & Blues All Stars entered the studio to cut a couple of crowd favorites.

Cyril Davies & His Rhythm & Blues All Stars – Country Line Special
Recorded February 27, 1963
Released May 1963

Cyril Davies – vocals, harmonica
Bernie Watson – guitar
Nicky Hopkins – electric piano
Ricky Brown – bass
Carlo Little – drums

(Country Line Special)’ took until the 13th take to capture the excitement that was felt in the live performances. I felt that the stuffiness of the studio situation was holding us back, so by the last take, after the guitar solo, I did a big roll round the kit and pushed the whole thing forward right to the breaking point!”
–Carlo Little

When “Country Line Special” b/w “Chicago Calling” was released in May 1963, it was the first recorded document of Nicky Hopkins to be released. He actually sat in on another session the week before this, however, that song came out two months later in July. So, we’ll save that one for last.

Right out the gate, Hopkins brings his A game, and in a bit of a twist, he plays electric piano on the A-side. B-side is acoustic piano. There’s a lot to like about “Country Line Special” and I have to remind myself that he was 19 years old at the time. Nicky solos from :47-1:13 and it sounds remarkably like what we’d hear from him in the future. That heavy, yet delicate right hand. Honestly, the whole band is crackin’ and this tune showcases their obvious camaraderie. Another Davies (unrelated to Cyril) agrees with me:

The record that kick-started The Kinks

One of the greatest records of its type ever made. It’s a seminal English R&B track played brilliantly. I saw the band when I was at Hornsey Art School in 1962 and my girlfriend booked all the bands that played. I thought she’d be good to latch onto because she would get me free tickets. She booked the Rolling Stones for £50 and Alexis Korner, so art school gave me access to music I wouldn’t have otherwise heard. The Kinks came through after that.”
–Ray Davies, The Guardian, January 21, 2006

Cyril Davies & His Rhythm & Blues All Stars – Chicago Calling
Recorded February 27, 1963
Released May 1963

Cyril Davies – vocals, harmonica
Bernie Watson – guitar
Nicky Hopkins – piano
Ricky Brown – bass
Carlo Little – drums

As much as I like “Country Line Special,” I think “Chicago Calling” better showcases both Hopkins and Davies. Cyril’s blues shouting and harmonica playing is no joke. If he favored singing the blues, it was probably because it’s what he sang best. Phil Alvin-esque. Nicky unleashes a spectacular solo from 1:24-1:55, full of triplets and hard swing, but in the chorus leading up to that solo — right at 1:12 — he has these wonderful giddyups that setup and anticipate the solo. Taken together, the A-side and B-side are a perfect first step in representing the wonderful duality of Nicky Hopkins. He’s the ideal sideman, dutifully serving the song as needed. But, even as he aims to complement, he’ll give you something you’ve never heard before and something no one else would’ve come up with.

As I said above, Hopkins was actually committed to tape a week before his session with Davies and the All-Stars. Brian Casser (aka Casey Jones)

Casey Jones & The Savages – One Way Ticket [Demo]
Recorded February 20, 1963
Unreleased

Brian Casser (aka Casey Jones) – vocals, guitar (?)
Ray King – guitar
Nicky Hopkins – piano
Danny McCullough – bass
Carlo Little – drums

This track was re-recorded a few months later in 1963 with The Engineers — get it, Casey Jones And The Engineers? — and released by Columbia in July. A few months after that, Eric Clapton joined the band for seven shows, at which point he left to join The Yardbirds. However, this version is far superior to the official release. Apparently, this demo was discovered in Carlo Little’s collection after he died. Hopkins’ solo from 1:42-2:09 is the best thing about a mediocre song. To be fair, the band is solid, especially as a rhythm section. I just think ol’ Case was punching above his weight.

At this point in his career, Nicky Hopkins is not quite playing rock. All the ingredients are there, but he’s still operating inside of a blues/R&B context. Not that those influences ever disappear in his playing, but in a couple years he’d have a slightly different artistic philosophy:

I can go anyway, way I choose
I can live anyhow, win or lose
I can go anywhere, for something new
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

TAKE ME DOWN TO THE HOSPITAL

“Country Line Special” should’ve rightly kicked off Nicky’s career, but the single went nowhere, and then he succumbed to very serious health problems. In May 1963, Hopkins was admitted to the hospital for a series of operations that almost killed him, reportedly losing his gall bladder, left kidney, and suffering a collapsed lung in the process. I’m not sure if this is when he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, but that would make sense. He was bedridden for 19 months, finally leaving the hospital around Christmas 1964. Sadly, while Hopkins was hospitalized, Cyril Davies contracted pleurisy and quickly drank himself to death. He passed away on January 7, 1964.

No longer strong enough to tour, Nicky Hopkins took a negative situation and flipped it on its head. If he couldn’t be in a touring rock band, he could carve out a career as a session man. In fact, in very short order, he’d be THE session man. This chapter of his life begins in early 1965 and that’s where we’ll pick up next time.

NEXT TIME

Diamond Tiaras: What Would Nicky Hopkins Do? (Part 2)