Beatle People: Nicky Hopkins

Nicky Hopkins (born Nicholas Christian Hopkins (February 24, 1944 - September 6, 1994) was an English pianist and organist.

He recorded and performed on some of the most important British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s and 1970s, and is widely regarded as one of the most important session musicians in rock history.

Biography

Hopkins was born in Harlesden, North London, England. He suffered from Crohn's disease from his youth. Poor health and ongoing surgery made it difficult for him to tour. This contributed heavily to his focus on working primarily as a studio player.

Hopkins started his musical career in the early 1960s as the pianist with Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages, which also included Ritchie Blackmore, founder of Deep Purple. He then joined The Cyril Davies R&B All Stars, one of the first British rhythm & blues bands, and played piano on their initial single, "Country Line Special."

He began his career as a session musician in London in the early Sixties and quickly became one of the most in-demand players on the thriving session scene there, contributing his fluid and dexterous boogie-woogie influenced piano style to many hit recordings. He worked extensively as a session pianist for leading UK independent producers Shel Talmy and Mickie Most and performed on albums and singles by The Kinks, Alun Davies and Jon Mark (later of the Mark-Almond Band), while Davies was touring with Cat Stevens, Donovan, and The Rolling Stones. His performances with The Rolling Stones were among his most memorable, notably on their Sixties albums Between the Buttons, Their Satanic Majesties Request, Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed. Hopkins also played on Jamming With Edward, an unofficial Stones release that was recorded during the Let It Bleed sessions, while Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, of the Stones, with Hopkins and Ry Cooder, were waiting for Keith Richards at Keith's Paris flat. The "Edward" of the title was an alias of Nicky Hopkins, derived from his outstanding performance on "Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder", a song from Quicksilver Messenger Service's Shady Grove LP.

In 1965, he played piano on The Who's debut LP, My Generation. He recorded with most of the top British acts of the Sixties, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks, and on solo albums by John Lennon, Jeff Beck, and others. In 1967 he joined The Jeff Beck Group, formed by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck, with vocalist Rod Stewart, bassist Ronnie Wood and drummer Micky Waller, playing on their influential LPs Truth and Beck-Ola. He also helped define the "San Francisco sound", playing on albums by Jefferson Airplane, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Steve Miller Band. He briefly joined Quicksilver Messenger Service and performed with Jefferson Airplane at the Woodstock Festival. In 1968 he played piano with the Swedish psychedelic group The Tages on the single "Halcyon Days", produced in Abbey Road Studio. He also appeared for The Who on "Getting in Tune" and "The Song Is Over" from band's 1971 album Who's Next.

Hopkins was added to the Rolling Stones live line-up on the 1971 Good-Bye Britain tour, as well as the notorious 1972 North American Tour and the early 1973 Winter Tour of Australia and New Zealand. He is featured heavily on the classic 1972 Exile on Main St. album. He started to form his own band around this time but decided against it after the Stones tour. He had planned on using Prairie Prince on drums, and Pete Sears on bass. Hopkins failed to make the Stones' 1973 tour of Europe due to ill health and, aside from a guest appearance in 1978, did not play again with the Stones live on stage. He did manage to go on tour with the Jerry Garcia Band, from August 5 to December 31, 1975. He continued to record with the Stones until 1980, and on solo records of members of the Stones up to 1991.

Solo albums

In 1969, Hopkins was a member of the short-lived Sweet Thursday line-up, a quintet made up of Hopkins, Alun Davies, Jon Mark, Harvey Burns and Brian Odgers. The band completed their eponymous debut album, however the project was doomed from the start. Their record label, Fontana Records didn't promote the album, and declared bankruptcy before the members could tour.

He released his second solo album in 1973 entitled The Tin Man Was a Dreamer. Other musicians appearing on the album include George Harrison (credited as George O'Hara), Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones, and Prairie Prince, who was later the drummer for the subversive punk band The Tubes. Re-released on Columbia in 2004, the album is a rare opportunity to hear Hopkins sing.

His third solo album, entitled No More Changes (Mercury SRM 11028), was released in 1975 Appearing on the album are Hopkins (lead vocals and all keyboards), David Tedstone (guitars), Michael Kennedy (guitars), Rick Willis (bass), and Eric Dillon (drums and percussion), with back-up vocals from Kathi MacDonals, Lea Santo-Robertie, Doug, Duffy and Dolly. Recorded in London and mixed and mastered in Los Angeles, this is probably Hopkins' best solo album.

A fourth album, Long Journey Home, remains unreleased. He also released three soundtrack albums in Japan between 1992 and 1993, The Fugitive, Patio, and Namiki Family (Toshiba EMI TOCT-6640, TOCT-6841, and TOCT-6914).

Hopkins lived in Mill Valley, California, for several years. During this time he worked with several local dealer bands and continued to record in San Francisco. At the Church Studio in San Anselmo, Marin County, a small jam band formed around Nicky: Bruce Walford, guitar, Larry Holman, drums,and Reb Blake, bass. Hopkins would play his songs and spin tales of his time in London's early rock scene and his father's piano playing in England during World War Two. Hopkins never allowed any of these sessions to be recorded, citing his complete disgust with the music business. One of his complaints throughout his career was that he did not receive royalties from any of his recording sessions, because of his status at the time as merely a "hired hand", as opposed to pop stars with agents. Only Quicksilver Messenger Service through its manager Ron Polti and its members gave Hopkins an ownership stake.

As a session player, Hopkins was renowned for his ability to give accomplished performances with little or no rehearsal, and for his quirky habit of reading comic books at recording sessions. The classic Kinks song "Session Man" from Face to Face is dedicated to (and features) Hopkins. The Kinks' Ray Davies wrote a memorial piece that appeared in the New York Times after Hopkins' death.

A member of the Church of Scientology, he was awarded the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) Freedom Medal in October 1989.

Hopkins died aged 50, in Nashville, Tennessee, of complications from intestinal surgery. At the time of his death he was working on his autobiography with Ray Coleman. He was survived by his wife, Moira.

Selected performances

* The Who, "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" (1965), My Generation album (1965), "The Song Is Over" (1971), "Getting In Tune" (1971), "We're Not Gonna Take It [movie remix]" (1975), "They Are All in Love" (1975), "Slip Kid" (1975)
* The Kinks, The Kink Kontroversy (1965), Face to Face (1966), "Mr. Pleasant" (1967), "Village Green" (1968), "Berkeley Mews" (1968)
* Jeff Beck, "Blues De Luxe", "Morning Dew" (1967), Truth (1967), "Girl From Mill Valley", Beck-Ola (1969)
* Cat Stevens, "Matthew and Son" (1967), Matthew and Son (1967)
* Marc Bolan, "Jasper C. Debussy" (1966-7, released 1974)
* The Rolling Stones, "She's a Rainbow" (1967), "Sympathy for the Devil" (1968), "No Expectations" (1968), "Gimme Shelter" (1969), "Monkey Man" (1969), "Sway" (1970), "Tumbling Dice" (1972), "Torn and Frayed" (1972), Exile on Main St. album (1972), "Angie" (1973), "Time Waits for No One" (1974), "Fool to Cry" (1976), "Waiting on a Friend" (1981)
* Jackie Lomax, "Sour Milk Sea" (1968)
* Led Zeppelin, "Rock and Roll" (1969)
* The Beatles, "Revolution" (single version) (1968)
* The Move, "Hey Grandma", "Mist on a Monday Morning", "Wild Tiger Woman" (all 1968)
* Jamming With Edward [jam session with Ry Cooder and some members of the Rolling Stones] (recorded 1969, released 1972)
* Quicksilver Messenger Service, "Shady Grove", "Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder", "Spindrifter"
* Jefferson Airplane, "Volunteers" (1969), "Eskimo Blue Day" (1969), "Hey Fredrick" (1969)
* The Steve Miller Band "Kow Kow Calqulator", "Baby's House".
* John Lennon, "Jealous Guy" (1971), "Oh My Love" (1971), "Oh Yoko" (1971), "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" (1971), Walls and Bridges album (1974)
* George Harrison, "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)" (1973)
* Joe Cocker, "You Are So Beautiful" (1974)
* L. Ron Hubbard, "The Mining Song" (1982), "The Banker" (1982)
* Dogs D'Amour, "Hurricane", "Trail of Tears", and "Princes Valium" from the Errol Flynn/King Of The Thieves album (1989)
* The Jayhawks, "Waiting for the Sun" and other tracks from the Hollywood Town Hall album (1992)

Wikipedia

John Lennon: 1975

By Pete Hamill / June 5, 1975

Do you think of New York as home now?

Yeah, this is the longest I've ever been away from England. I've almost lived here as long as I've lived in London. I was in London from, let's see, '64, '65, '66, '67, actually in London 'cause then it was your Beatlemania bit and we all ended up like a lot of rock & rollers end up, living an hour away from London in the country, the drivin'-in-from-the-big-estate bit. 'Cause you couldn't live in London, 'cause people just bugged the ass off you. So I've lived in New York longer than I actually lived in London.

In view of the immigration case, is one reason you've stayed here so long because if you left, they'd pull a Charlie Chaplin on you and not let you back in?

You bet. There's no way they would let me back. And . . . it's worth it to me. I can last out, without leaving here, another ten years, if that's the way they want to play it. I'll earn enough to keep paying them. I'm really getting blackmailed. I'm paying to stay. Paying takes, on one hand, about a half million dollars, and I've hardly worked very hard for that. I mean, that's with sittin' on me arse and I've paid a half million in taxes. So I'm paying them to attack me and keep me busy and harass me, on one hand, while on the other hand I've got to pay me own lawyers. Some people think I'm here just to make the American dollars. But I don't have to be here to make the dollars. I could earn American dollars just sittin' in a recording studio in Hong Kong. Wherever I am, the money follows me. It's gonna come out of America whether they like it or not.

Right. And the government doesn't choose that John Lennon makes money. The people who buy your music do that.

The implication that John Lennon wants to come to the land of milk and honey 'cause it's easier to pick up the money, so I can pick it up directly instead of waiting for it to arrive in England. Or Brazil. Or wherever I decide to do it. I resent the implication, especially as I'm payin' through the nose. I don't mind paying taxes, either, which is strange. I never did. I don't like 'em using it for bombs and that. But I don't think I could do a Joan Baez. I don't have that kind of gut. I did never complain in England either, because, well, it's buying people teeth . . . I'm sick of gettin' sick about taxes. Taxes is what seems to be it, and there's nothin' to be done about it unless you choose to make a crusade about it. And I'm sick of being in crusades because I always get nailed up before I'm even in the crusade. They get me in the queue while I'm readin' the pages about it: "Oh, there's a crusade on, I wonder should I . . ." I mean, I get caught before I've ever done anything about it.

You went through a period of really heavy involvement in radical causes. Lately you seem to have gone back to your art in a more direct way. What happened?

I'll tell you what happened literally. I got off the boat, only it was an airplane, and landed in New York, and the first people who got in touch with me was Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. It's as simple as that. It's those two famous guys from America who's callin': "Hey, yeah, what's happenin', what's goin' on? . . ." And the next thing you know, I'm doin' John Sinclair benefits and one thing and another. I'm pretty movable, as an artist, you know. They almost greeted me off the plane and the next minute I'm involved, you know.

How did all of this affect your work?

It almost ruined it, in a way. It became journalism and not poetry. And I basically feel that I'm a poet. Even if it does go ba-deeble, eedle, eedle, it, da-deedle, deedle, it. I'm not a formalized poet, I have no education, so I have to write in the simplest forms usually. And I realized that over a period of time - and not just 'cause I met Jerry Rubin off the plane - but that was like a culmination. I realized that we were poets but we were really folk poets, and rock & roll was folk poetry - I've always felt that. Rock & roll was folk music. Then I began to take it seriously on another level, saying, "Well, I am reflecting what is going on, right?" And then I was making an effort to reflect what was going on. Well, it doesn't work like that. It doesn't work as pop music or what I want to do. It just doesn't make sense. You get into that bit where you can't talk about trees, 'cause, y'know, y'gotta talk about "Corruption on Fifty-fourth Street"! It's nothing to do with that. It's a bit larger than that. It's the usual lesson that I've learned in me little thirty-four years: As soon as you've clutched onto something, you think - you're always clutchin' at straws - this is what life is all about. I think artists are lucky because the straws are always blowin' out of their hands. But the unfortunate thing is that most people find the straw hat and hang on to it, like your best friend that got the job at the bank when he was fifteen and looked twenty-eight before he was twenty. "Oh, this is it! Now I know what I'm doing! Right? Down this road for the next hundred years" . . . and it ain't never that. Whether it's a religious hat or a political hat or a no-political hat: whatever hat is was, always looking for these straw hats. I think I found out it's a waste of time. There is no hat to wear. Just keep moving around and changing clothes is the best. That's all that goes on: change.
At one time I thought, well, I'm avoidin' that thing called the Age Thing, whether it hits you at twenty-one, when you take your first job - I always keep referrin' to that because it has nothing to do, virtually, with your physical age. I mean, we all know the guys who took the jobs when we left school, the straight jobs, they all look like old guys within six weeks. You'd meet them and they'd be lookin' like Well, I've Settled Down Now. So I never want to settle down, in that respect. I always want to be immature in that respect. But then I felt that if I keep bangin' my head on the wall it'll stop me from gettin' that kind of age in the head. By keeping creating, consciously or unconsciously, extraordinary situations which in the end you'd write about. But maybe it has nothin' to do with it. I'm still mullin' that over. Still mullin' over last year now. Maybe that was it. I was still trying to avoid somethin' but doin' it the wrong way 'round. Whether it's called age or whatever.

Is it called growing up?

I don't want to grow up but I'm sick of not growing up - that way. I'll find a different way of not growing up. There's a better way of doing it than torturing your body. And then your mind. The guilt! It's just so dumb. And it makes me furious to be dumb because I don't like dumb people. And there I am, doing the dumbest things . . . I seem to do the things that I despise the most, almost. All of that to - what? - avoid being normal.
I have this great fear of this normal thing. You know, the ones that passed their exams, the ones that went to their jobs, the ones that didn't become rock & rollers, the ones that settle for it, settled for it, settled for the deal! That's what I'm trying to avoid. But I'm sick of avoiding it with violence, you know? I've gotta do it some other way. I think I will. I think just the fact that I've realized it is a good step forward. Alive in '75 is my new motto. I've just made it up. That's the one. I've decided I want to live. I'd decided I wanted to live before, but I didn't know what it meant, really. It's taken however many years and I want to have a go at it.

"When I'm Sixty-Four" Lyrics

by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Original Manuscript (1966)

When I get older losing my hair,
many years from now
Will you still be sending me a Valentine
Birthdays greetings bottle of wine,
[...]

Middle.

You'll be older too,
And if you say the word, I could stay with you

I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more?
Will you still need me, etc.....

Mid. Every summer we can rent a cottage
in the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
....grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck and Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely wasting away
give me your answer fill in a form
mine for evermore....
etc..

As Released by the Beatles (1967)

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?

If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door?
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?

You'll be older too
And if you say the word
I could stay with you.

I could be handy mending a fuse
When your lights have gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride.

Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more?
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?

Every summer we can rent a cottage
In the Isle of Wight
If it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save ((we shall scrimp and save))
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck and Dave.

Send me a postcard, drop me a line
Stating point of view.
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away.

Give me your answer
Fill in a form
Mine for evermore.

A - will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?
Hoo!

Did the Beatles Cover "Mrs. Robinson"?

No - not even during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, where the Beatles performed several off-the-cuff versions of contemporary songs (e.g. The Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream"). This question likely stems from people mistaking "Mrs. Robinson" for a Beatles song, when in fact it was written by Paul Simon and recorded by the duo Simon & Garfunkel. The only major connection of the Beatles to "Mrs. Robinson" is the fact that they lost two 1968 Grammy Awards to the song (they were nominated for "Hey Jude"). John Lennon appeared to have a less-than-flattering opinion of the group -- according to a studio engineer, when Simon visited Lennon in the studio for a jam session in 1974, Lennon stopped Simon from playing his guitar, saying he would signal for him to join in at the right moment. When this moment didn't come, Simon simply started playing, only to be stopped by Lennon. Annoyed after repetitions of this, Simon left the session. On his 1979 diary tape, Lennon refers to Simon as "the singing dwarf." The other Beatles treated Simon & Garfunkel more favorably. George Harrison played a duet with Simon on Saturday Night Live in 1976, and Paul McCartney has played a series of gigs with Simon over the past decade, including the Adopt-a-Minefield benefit in 2001.

"Martha My Dear" Lyrics

by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

As Released by the Beatles (1968)

Martha my dear, though I spend my days in conversation
Please - remember me, Martha my love
Don't forget me, Martha my dear.

Hold your head up you silly girl, look what you've done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you - silly girl.

Take a good look around you
Take a good look you're bound to see
That you and me were meant to be for each other - silly girl.

Hold your hand out you silly girl, see what you've done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you - silly girl.

Martha my dear, you have always been my inspiration
Please - be good to me, Martha my love
Don't forget me, Martha my dear.

"And I Love Her"

"And I Love Her" is a song recorded by The Beatles and is the fifth track on their third album, A Hard Day's Night. It was released 20 July 1964 with "If I Fell" as a single by Capitol Records in the United States, reaching #12 in Billboard (see 1964 in music).

The Beatles performed "And I Love Her" just once outside of Abbey Road Studios. On 14 July 1964 they played it for an edition of the BBC's Top Gear radio show, which was broadcast two days later.

Composition

This song was one of the first ballads with a title that starts in mid-sentence. Paul McCartney was pleased with himself that he came up with this clever idea.

A majority of this song switches back and forth between the key of E and its relative minor C#m. It also changes keys altogether just before the solo, to F. It ends, on the parallel major of the key of F's relative minor, D. This technique is known as tierce picarde and had been used in the past by some composers, including Bach.

The song was written mainly by McCartney, though John Lennon claimed in an interview with Playboy that his major contribution was the "middle eight" section ("A love like ours/Could never die/As long as I/Have you near me").

Beatles publisher Dick James lends support to this claim, saying that the middle eight was added during recording at the suggestion of producer George Martin. According to James, Lennon called for a break and "within half an hour [Lennon and McCartney] wrote...a very constructive middle to a very commercial song."

There are also many who believe that it would seem only logical to think that Lennon did, in fact, write the middle eight, considering the lyrics of that section do not "fit in with the rest of the song".

McCartney, on the other hand, maintains that "the middle eight is mine.... I wrote this on my own."



Releases

Different edits of this song have been released throughout the world; these differ in the number of times the closing guitar riff is repeated, and in McCartney's lead vocal being single or double-tracked in the main verses of the song. The version on the movie A Hard Day's Night is half a step lower than the album version.

Personnel

* Paul McCartney – lead vocal, bass guitar
* John Lennon – acoustic rhythm guitar
* George Harrison – acoustic lead guitar
* Ringo Starr – bongos, claves
* George Martin – producer

Covers

* As with many Beatles songs, this has been covered by many artists of varying style from RnB, Crooner, Pop and even Grunge. It was translated into a power ballad - of sorts - by Australia's John Farnham, on his Anthology #2: The Classic Hits album.

* On the American soundtrack album release of A Hard Day's Night, George Martin and his orchestra covered the song in a slower-tempo, easy listening-styled instrumental version lasting over a minute longer than The Beatles' vocal version on the same album.

* Roberto Carlos made a cover, (Eu) Te Amo, in Portuguese and later in Spanish.

* Jack Jones covered the song in 1965 for his album, "There's Love and There's Love and There's Love", arranged by Nelson Riddle.

* Esther Phillips reversed the gender of the song in 1965; her "And I Love Him" reached #54 that year on the Billboard charts.

* In 1965, Bob Marley & The Wailers covered the song on their album "The Wailing Wailers at Studio One".

* In 1970, Rita Lee covered the song on her album "Build Up".

* In 1972, Bobby Womack covered the song for his hit album "Understanding".

* In 1981, Sarah Vaughan covered the song for her album The Songs of the Beatles.

* In 1995, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles covered the song on "Motown Meets the Beatles".

* In 1995, Diana Krall covered the song on the compilation album "(I Got No Kick Against) Modern Jazz", subtitled "A GRP Artists' Celebration of the Songs of the Beatles".

* In 2006, Barry Manilow covered the song for his The Greatest Songs of the Sixties.

* in 2001, Cliff Richard covered the song on his album Wanted.

* In 2008, included in Kenny Lattimore's Timeless album.

* In 2009, Ryan Parks of Organic Keys covered the song for his recording project album.

* Also covered by The Wailers at Studio One in 1965.

* "And I Love Her" was slated to appear briefly in Across the Universe, with only its second refrain partially sung by Martin Luther McCoy, but it was removed during editing. It appears as a deleted scene on the DVD. It did, however, appear for a small section in the orchestral scoring of the movie.

* Richard Marx and Vince Gill covered the song as a duet for Marx's latest album titled Sundown.

Album: A Hard Day's Night
Released: July 20, 1964
Recorded: Abbey Road Studios, February 25–27, 1964
Genre: Pop
Length: 2:31
Label: Parlophone (UK)
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Producer: George Martin

B-side: "If I Fell"
Released: July 20, 1964 (US)
Format: 7"
Label: Capitol 5235 (USA)

Wikipedia

"She Said She Said" Lyrics

by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Original Manuscript (1966)

She said I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it is to be sad
and it's makeing [sic] me feel like I've never been born.

I said who put all that crap in your head
I know what it is to be mad
and it's making me feel like my trousers are torn

no no no it's wrong no it's wrong.

She said I will look you up when [ ]
I said w



As Released by the Beatles (1966)

She said I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it is to be sad
And she's making me feel like I've never been born.

I said who put all those things in your head
Things that make me feel that I'm mad
And you're making me feel like I've never been born.

She said you don't understand what I said.
I said no, no, no you're wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right, everything was right.

I said even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave,
'cos you're making me feel like I've never been born.

She said you don't understand what I said.
I said no, no, no you're wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right, everything was right.

I said even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave,
'cos you're making me feel like I've never been born.

She said (she said)
I know what it's like to be dead (I know what it's like to be dead)
I know what it is to be sad (I know what it is to be sad).
I know what it's like to be dead (I know what it's like to be dead).