Nicky Hopkins

My favorite Rock and Roll Pianist is Nicky Hopkins, aka "Edward".  He played with nearly every important group involved in the English Blue Eyed Blues movement, the related British Invasion, San Francisco Music and more.  He had health issues that made it difficult for him to tour, so rather than play in a single band, he mostly worked in recording studios.   He was classically trained and rarely practiced, although he played so constantly that practice probably wouldn't help him, and he often found that his best take of any given song was his first. (He did join bands for a tour or two--Cyril Davies, Jeff Beck, Quicksilver, as well as shorter tours with the Airplane, Jerry Garcia, Steve Miller, and others when he was living in California).   Practically everybody he played with was influenced by him and quite a few preserved a some of his style after he'd moved on.  Here's a short sampler of his contributions.  A full list would be thousands of songs and a hundred or more groups.

She's Like a Rainbow  - The Rolling Stones.  The opening piano...
Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones.  Jean-Luc Goddard made a film that details how this song came to be arranged as it was, intercut with some other strange scenes that has nothing to do with it.  Ignoring the strange scenes, it's interesting, and Nicky Hopkins figures prominently.
Time Waits for No One - The Rolling Stones
Nicky worked with the Stones on almost every studio album they did.  The Stones had amazingly many wonderful pianists working with them--starting with the great Ian Stewart, who was their "Road Manager" despite having founded the band.
C C Rider - Cyril Davies and His R & B All Stars
Cyril Davies & His R & B All Stars
Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger and many others who would later become famous played with Cyril Davies at one time or another, who unfortunately died shortly after these recordings.
Got to be Free - The Kinks
Revolution - The Beatles
Nicky worked with the Beatles a lot, but most of his work lost to George Martin's sparer versions in the final mix.
The Song is Over - The Who
Nicky worked on a lot of albums with the Who.
Blues De Luxe - Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart vocals, Ron Wood bass, Mickey Waller drums.
My personal favorite.   Everything Rod Stewart did after his tour with Beck was anticlimax.
Barabajagal - Donovan, with Jeff Beck.
Nicky played with Donovan several times.  A semi-relevant story: On his previous album, Donovan's backing band had been Beck's friend Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham, on the verge of forming a new group.  They asked Nicky to join them but he was exhausted from touring with Beck and turned them down for health reasons. They also considered Donovan, but they decided he had too much history, so instead they went with Bonham's friend Robert Plant.
That's What Love Will Make You Do - Jerry Garcia Band
I saw them perform this live about 2 months earlier at the Concord Pavilion.  I think that's the only time I ever saw "Edward" in person. Another personal favorite.
Volunteers - Jefferson Airplane
Nicky only played with the Airplane for a little while--but that included Woodstock.  He suffers in the mix here and the cameraman was more interested in how tired the band was after having waited all night to do their set.  The version on the album of the same name is much better.
Baby's House - Steve Miller Band
Nicky played on several of Miller's early albums.  This Hopkins showpiece is from their "Your Saving Grace" album. with Ben Sidran on organ.  (Sidran also does the wonderful organ on the title track, which was plainly influenced by Hopkins)
Kow Kow (Calqulator) - Steve Miller Band
Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder - Quicksilver Messenger Service
The source of Nicky's nickname.  It's an impressive performance but I don't think it's great music.  The longest he played with any one band was with Quicksilver.
Who Do You Love - Quicksilver Messenger Service
Fresh Air - Quicksilver Messenger Service


Nicky Hopkins died in 1994 at age 50.  John Cippolina, Dino Valenti, Jerry Garcia, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Cyril Davies, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart, John Lennon, George Harrison and quite a few others on this list have also passed on.  What a band they could make!