Chords for Nicky Hopkins | Britain's Number One Session Pianist

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_ [C] _ _ _ By the time you read this, Nicky Hopkins will be at home in San Francisco.
The cold winters
make Britain's number one [D] session pianist leave his native England for long [C] spells.
But Nicky's had a busy summer, appearing on the cream of British rock albums.
_ [Em] Tall, thin,
and with eyes that peer through you in [D] conversation, Nicky talks about his work with the superstars
of [C] the rock world without pretensions.
In the [C#m] front room of his Epsom semi stands a
grand piano and [G] a Fender amplifier. _
Most of his things have [D] been shipped out and just
one record lies by the [C] turntable, Let's See Action, by The Who.
No prizes for guessing
[G] who played piano on that one.
His association with The Who stretches back to the [D] group's
first single, Anyway Anyhow Anywhere.
[C] Nicky said, I did a lot of their early sessions
in 1965 [G] and appeared on the My Generation album with them.
I played on two or three
other [D] singles as well but then there was a gap of about three years before [C] the sessions
for Who's Next.
It's me on piano in [G] Song Is Over and Getting In Tune.
[Em] They are incredible
to work with because they haven't got [D] hang-ups like some people have.
Their material [C] is so
strong but it's basically down to me what I play on [C#] their records.
Pete brings demos
in for [G] us to listen to but the piano bits are basically my own.
[D] Some of his demos are
incredible, they [C] sound better than the finished project. _
Pete told me that if I ever wanted
[G] to be in a band permanently they would like me to consider them first.
I couldn't make
my mind [Am] up about it and in [C] the end nothing happened.
_ _ [D] Since February this year, Nicky
has been in England.
[A#m] He came back from the States at Mick Jagger's [Am] request to join The
Stones on their British tour early this year [D] and sessions have kept him busy ever since.
Nicky said, The Stones tour was over very quick.
[C] We had six [G] days of rehearsals at the
end of February [C] and then the tour [E] started.
It was the first [D] time I had actually appeared
with them on stage and it was Mick's [C] idea.
[G] There were hassles but the tour was enjoyable
all the same.
Next came a series of [D] album sessions.
First it was Jim [C] Price's solo album,
which was recorded at Jagger's house at Newbury in The Stones' [G] mobile studio.
[Em] Ringo star Klaus
Vorman and Jim Keltner were also involved.
Then it was Bobby Key's album sessions [D] at
Olympic and Command Studios.
Here the list of names [C] is even more impressive.
George Harrison,
Jim Gordon, [G] Dave Mason, Leslie West, [Em] Felix Papalardi, Jack Bruce and the Dixie Flyers
[D] were all involved.
The next album was John [C] Lennon's Imagine, which we did at his house
in Ascot.
[C#m] This was done in a week because John is very [G] quick.
Some strings were added
in New York but all the [D] rest was done in his own studio.
John is [C] very definite about
what he wants and there is no uncertainty working with him.
[G] He doesn't want to spend
much time recording.
I played electric piano on the [D] Imagine track and the main piano track
on Jealous Guy.
[C] My name was missed off the credits for that one through a mistake.
[G] I
was also on Crippled Inside, Oh Yoko and Soldier.
George Harrison [D] was there doing it with us,
and Klaus Vorman, Jim Keltner [C] and two guys from Badfinger.
I [D] did some work with George
and [G] Badfinger next but the album hasn't come [Em] out yet.
Then it was down to France for the
[D] Stones sessions, which took up Nicky's time between [C] July and November.
Nicky said, we
were [C#m] recording in the basement of Keith's house with the mobile outside [G] and things took
so long because we were only working four [D] nights a week.
Then there would be a week
off for [C] some reason or another and then another break for something else.
There [G] was a four-week
break at one stage when Mick had to go to Paris because of Bianca's baby.
[Am] Twenty Stones
tracks were cut during the sessions, [D] and contrary to reports, they were not all Keith
Richard [A#m] songs.
When [C#] Mick was away, we carried on doing [Am] some things and these were Keith's
songs but they weren't really finished [D] properly.
Mick came back and added more to them.
A lot
of the things are not what you'd expect from the Stones, [C] I think most [D] people will be really
knocked out by them.
[C] _ [Em] The toll of session [A] work draws to a [D] close with a short session in New
York with John and Yoko [C] working on their Christmas [G] single. _
_ With so much work to do in this country,
I wondered why [D] Nicky was adamant about leaving for San [C] Francisco.
Nicky explained, it's really
our home over there.
This [G] house is just where we live when we [Am] are in Britain.
We have a
house about seven [D] miles outside San Francisco in Mill Valley and I just don't want [C] to live
anywhere else.
The music scene over there doesn't interest me at all.
Bands like the
Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead or Quicksilver Messenger [D] Service are not nearly as serious
or together as bands like [C] the Stones and The Who.
Bands over here take their music so much
[G] more seriously and there is such a [Em] heavy drug scene over there it gets out of hand.
The [D] people are really friendly though and it never gets depressing.
[C] The rainy season lasts
two or three months and then it's [C#m] all sunny.
_ Does Nicky feel he wants [G] to join a permanent band?
Well, I'm just about [D] a permanent member of the Stones these days.
There are [C] no contracts or
anything, it just happens.
_ _ _ [G] Conversation then turned to jamming with Edward, the Stones album featuring
Rye Cuda and [D] Nicky.
Nicky explained, this was [C] done in May 1969 at Olympic Studios right in the
middle of some [G] Stones sessions.
We were halfway through a track when Keith had to leave so we
were [D] left sitting around with nothing to do.
Rye Cuda was [C] hanging around so we started playing to
pass the time.
[G] Glynn Johns took the tape but it was [Em] really just a jam. _
Mick played harmonica [D] but
everything happened at the spur of the moment.
_ [C] _ Nicky plans to make a solo album [C#m] next year.
I have been writing [G] material for it for about a year and I'll be getting down to it early [D] next
year.
It definitely won't be a jam [C] album. _ _
Previously Nicky's compositions have been
[G] featured only three times.
Once on a Jeff Beck album and twice on Quicksilver Messenger [Am] service
albums. _
With the wealth of [D] experience behind him, which artists does Nicky enjoy [A#m] working with the
most? _
Nicky said, it's [Am] difficult to say but I think The Who.
They're such [D] a great crowd and
have no hang-ups between them.
The Stones must follow a very close second because [C] their music
is so [G] incredible.
But George [C] Harrison always [E] knocks me out.
The first time I [D] met him was on a
Jackie Lomax session and it was just like [C] meeting my brother with him.
[G] Our birthdays are very close.
February 23rd is his birthday [D] and mine's on the 24th so that might explain [G] it. _ _
This was Nicky
Hopkins in 1971.
But now let's get further back to [N] 1967. _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ [E] _ _
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_ _ [D] _ [Am] Apart from Phil Denny's 23-year-old Nicky
Hopkins is probably the youngest session [E] pianist around.
And he only [A] lives a mile away from Phil.
That's in Wembley.
[D] It was here that he first took [A] to the piano.
He [E] started tinkering around when he
was six years old [A] so his parents asked him if he would like [D] to take lessons.
_ [A] Nicky agreed and for
the next six years went [D] regularly to a local music teacher.
He then took an exam for the Royal
Academy of Music, passed, and studied there [D] until he was 16. _
[E] The music he was taught at the academy
was [D] strictly classical but slowly a [A] love of more modern music evolved.
He decided that the pop
world [E] was for him and decided to get a [D] job.
It proved to be more difficult than he thought.
[D] He
had visions of working for a music [Am] publisher but couldn't find a vacancy and ended up in [F#m] a
solicitor's [A] office.
That lasted a grand total of three months.
While he was working there he started
doing a few gigs with the then unknown Screaming Lord Such and this [D] prompted him to leave his job.
[A] This was what he wanted.
Whereas [Dm] most other groups were [Am] playing Shadows numbers, Such was doing [E] all
the rock gear.
He left Such in [A] May 1962 and joined Cliff Bennett for six months after which he joined
the Cyril Davis band.
[D] Then [A] something happened that could have made the Nicky Hopkins story
completely different.
He was in hospital for a year and a half.
[Am] He had no less than 14 operations
on his stomach and even when he left the hospital he had to take it easy for some time.
_ Nicky said,
I honestly didn't know what to do.
I [D] wanted to start playing [Am] again but traveling was definitely
[A] out.
Then I got a phone call from some friends who wanted a pianist for [D] a session.
[A] I jumped at
the chance.
As far as I can [D] remember the session was a flop commercially but I [E] met someone who has
helped me tremendously.
Glyn Johns.
He said that he [D] would try to get me some work [A] and next thing I
knew Sheltalme was offering me some sessions.
Just a few of the recent hit records that Nicky has
played on [E] are Sunny Afternoon, Anyway [D] Anyhow Anywhere, Matthew and Son [E] and the first cut is
The Deepest plus [D] many other singles and album tracks.
[E] Talking of albums [D] some of you may have
heard the LP The [E] Revolutionary Piano of Nicky Hopkins _ and he's [A] currently got a single on release
[D] in the States.
It's called Mr Pleasant, a number written by Kink Ray Davies.
_ [A] Nicky hasn't the
faintest idea of what the future holds or even if he'll stay in the session field.
Who knows, I might
get fed up, Nicky said.
[Am] I'd like to go to the [D] States and possibly try [A] sessions there.
Something I would
like would be to [Dm] play for the Mamas [E] and the Puppas.
I should imagine that their sessions are as free and
easy as some of Andrew [A] Oldham's stuff.
Oh yes, I've just heard that the next Stone single will be one
of the tracks I played on.
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