I don't know if this has been posted already. If so, sorry about that.

Let's give some credits to those who played the piano with the Stones through times. In the studio or on tour.

Ian Stewart



Nicky Hopkins



Billy Preston



Ian McLagan



Chuck Leavell





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-26 17:37 by DiamondDog7.

And also...

Jack Nitzsche



Al Kooper

Been talked about here every now and then.

I would choose player 1 to 4.

Everybody hates Chuck but there wouldn't be a Stones without him in the modern era. The 'purists' consistently overlook how many Stones songs owe the major aspects of their character to the piano parts. Especially the the sixties up thru mid seventies stuff. Chuck can play all those styles and all those parts. Unfortunately he comes off like a goody-two-shoes which belies the Stones character.

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R
Everybody hates Chuck but there wouldn't be a Stones without him in the modern era. The 'purists' consistently overlook how many Stones songs owe the major aspects of their character to the piano parts. Especially the the sixties up thru mid seventies stuff. Chuck can play all those styles and all those parts. Unfortunately he comes off like a goody-two-shoes which belies the Stones character.

Chuck isn't my favorite pianoplayer for the Stones. Nor will he ever be. BUT indeed he plays an important part within the Stones now. Hate to admit it...

Jim "Wild Horses" Dickinson!

C

Did Leon Russell ever play with the Stones or does he just cover their stuff?

Yes he did

__________________________

I like very much the two guys playing piano and electric piano in "Memory Motel"...

- Doxa

who's the least talented person in these photos.the myth that chuck can play all the different styles of the men above is just that-a myth.its crap put forth by chuck and mick and keith.if you think he sounds like stu or nicky or any of the others you should have your ears checked.after seeing stu many times behind his grand piano i almost throw up when i see that casio and the plinking away.also,he always says "we" when he talks about the stones which is particularly grating,stu always said "they". when the stones were the stones they always changed the back-ups every couple of years.waaaay overdue.

Ian and Nicky were the silent ones behind the Stones, but they delivered outstanding performances! Historical ones. Billy Preston was a real showman and he fit among the members of the Stones. Technical player but more important, soulful with the music.

I can't bother to listen to Chuck, with all respect. He's good, but he's too kind of a fellow and doesn't fit the Stones. But hey, it's just my opinion.

So what have they done for Stones and their sound? The only one I would mention besides the original Stones-members is Bobby Keys.

2 1 2 0

Nicky, closely followed by Ian Stewart, played a tremendous part in creating the Stones sound during their greatest period. Much more so than the others, IMHO.

Nicky, just listen to Loving Cup, perfection

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Come On
So what have they done for Stones and their sound? The only one I would mention besides the original Stones-members is Bobby Keys.

Nicky Hopkins did the most. Listen to She's a Rainbow, Angie, Lovin Cup, Sympathy for the Devil, Time Waits For No One.

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DiamondDog7

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Come On
So what have they done for Stones and their sound? The only one I would mention besides the original Stones-members is Bobby Keys.

Nicky Hopkins did the most. Listen to She's a Rainbow, Angie, Lovin Cup, Sympathy for the Devil, Time Waits For No One.

OK. I will take a closer look at these tracks..

Ha ha....doesn't Matt Clifford count?

And who was on the 78 tour? Somebody came and went quite early, after a couple of shows. Can't recall at this time.

First of all is a I like to say that Chuck Leavell is a great player. He often is criticised to hard. Nicky Hopkins was wonderful(Monkey Man), and Stu was important as we know. After seeing Charlie Watts with Jools Holland a few weeks ago, I think it would be great if they would invite him for a new album and maybe for a tour, his playing is really impressive.

ROCKMAN

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DiamondDog7

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Come On
So what have they done for Stones and their sound? The only one I would mention besides the original Stones-members is Bobby Keys.


Nicky Hopkins did the most. Listen to She's a Rainbow, Angie, Lovin Cup, Sympathy for the Devil, Time Waits For No One.

If I remember right you can see in the One Plus One movie how Nicky is creating harmonies and licks on his organ you later can find in Keith`s guitar parts. Nicky had a big creative influence.

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skipstone
And who was on the 78 tour? Somebody came and went quite early, after a couple of shows.

Ian Stewart and Ian McLagan. They were both there for the whole tour.

Nicky Hopkins is just about the best piano session man in rock history. Stu was awesome, and Chuck has his moments - as did the great Billy Preston - but Hopkins is my favorite. Speaking as a keyboardist first and foremost, these guys all deserve credit and I am glad they're getting some on here.

Jim Price did some keyboard work as well.

And did it well, indeed!

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erikjjf

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skipstone
And who was on the 78 tour? Somebody came and went quite early, after a couple of shows.

Ian Stewart and Ian McLagan. They were both there for the whole tour.

One covering for Ronnie and one covering for Keith. Most of their contributions never got past the stage monitors.

<One covering for Ronnie and one covering for Keith. Most of their contributions never got past the stage monitors.>

?

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lem motlow
who's the least talented person in these photos.the myth that chuck can play all the different styles of the men above is just that-a myth.its crap put forth by chuck and mick and keith.if you think he sounds like stu or nicky or any of the others you should have your ears checked.after seeing stu many times behind his grand piano i almost throw up when i see that casio and the plinking away.also,he always says "we" when he talks about the stones which is particularly grating,stu always said "they". when the stones were the stones they always changed the back-ups every couple of years.waaaay overdue.

exactly. chuck is good on organ with the allmans, but when it comes to piano with the stones, the only style he knows is plink. maybe if the stones would've kept chuck on organ & gotten a real piano player, he wouldnt be so despised by stones fans.

Nicky was fantastic. Loved him with the Jerry Garcia band as well!

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".[2]

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, The Move, Alun Davies and Jon Mark (later of the Mark-Almond Band), while Davies was touring with Cat Stevens. In 1965, he played piano on The Who's debut LP, My Generation, and would subsequently play on their 1971 album Who's Next and 1975 album The Who By Numbers.

Hopkins would go on to record with most of the top British acts of the Sixties, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Donovan, and on solo albums by John Lennon, George Harrison, 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,[3] 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.[4] In 1968 he played piano with the Swedish psychedelic group Tages on the single "Halcyon Days", produced in Abbey Road Studio.

Hopkins's performances with The Rolling Stones were among his most memorable, as he played on all of their studio albums from Their Satanic Majesties Request in 1967 through Black and Blue in 1976, including the prominent piano parts in "She's a Rainbow" (1967) and "Sympathy for the Devil" (1968). During this period, Hopkins tended to be employed on the Stones' slower, ballad-type songs, with longtime Stones keyboardist Ian Stewart playing on traditional rock numbers and Billy Preston used on soul and funk-influenced tunes. 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.

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.[5] He continued to record with the Stones through the sessions for 1976's Black and Blue, and appears on solo records of members of the Stones up to 1991.

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DandelionPowderman
<One covering for Ronnie and one covering for Keith. Most of their contributions never got past the stage monitors.>

?

More to the point, giving each of them a comfortably familiar musical anchor should they lose their respective ways.

Nice thread! (Can't remember any thread covering them collectively, lately). To me, Nicky Hopkins ist the one, very distincitve in style, serving the songs and in many cases a major-contributor in shaping their sound (just imagine Beggars Banquet without him). Billy Preston on the other hand is very distinctive, too, but the songs (and sounds) he was contributing to were much less original IMO. They just echoed what was "happening" at the time, when everybody was getting funky (not least Led Zeppelin on "Trampled under Foot" or "The Crunge"). So I think they hired Preston primarily to get a hip sound - which worked quite well for some time. But in the long run I think, he also marginalised their sound, which slowly veered into rather superficial territory, lacking the depth and true feeling of Nicky Hopkins' contributions.