Davy Jones, singer with the Monkees who sadly died yesterday at the age of 66, shares a proper name – David Jones – with…
…David Bowie, who when he started out in the mid-1960s also recorded by the name of Davy (or Davie) Jones. To avoid confusion with his namesake, however, he renamed himself Bowie, apparently after the knife which itself was named after and popularised by American frontiersman, Jim Bowie. In June 1969 Bowie drafted a young…
…Rick Wakeman to play mellotron on his song Space Oddity, for which he was apparently paid £9. Wakeman would be invited back to play with Bowie the following year, contributing piano parts to Life on Mars, Changes and Oh! You Pretty Things, and again in 1985 to play on Absolute Beginners. Wakeman started out as a session musician before going on to join the Strawbs, and then more famously, prog rock band Yes in 1971. He also played piano on the 1971 version of Morning Has Broken released by English singer-songwriter…
…Cat Stevens. Cat Seven’s other hits included the 1966 song Matthew & Sons, which featured piano playing by…
…Nicky Hopkins, who more famously played on the Rolling Stones’ studio albums between 1967 and 1981. Hopkins was one of London’s most in-demand session pianists during the 1960s, also playing on records by The Kinks, The Pretty Things, The Move and The Who. On a number of occasions – includng the Matthew and Sons session and as part of a supergroup that guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck attempted to put together in 1996, which included Jimmy Page and Keith Moon, Hopkins would play with another session musician who like Wakeman and Page would go on to rock superstardom, bass player…
…John Paul Jones.
(by @rocktilyoudrop)
