Nicky Hopkins, Nigel Olsson, Mick Ronson

There are very few things I have wished for in my life. Thankfully, I have been fortunate to enjoy a good life with a lot of love from my family and close friends. I can honestly say that life has been good to me so far. Every once in a while however, I dream of what would I have liked to be at this stage of my life if I didn't take the steps that have led me to this point. Hands down, the answer would be that I would have wanted to be a "session man." A session man is the guy who plays on recording dates and occasionally goes on tour as part of the band for a major performing group. To me, that is the ultimate job. Of course, the one primary facet of this job is to have incredible musical talent, which eliminates me from consideration.

Session men, also known as sidemen are an essential part of the music scene. For all my devoted readers who now know how to spot a gem of an obscure album, the knowledge of the players on the album can be most informative. Today, I will talk about three men who have played on recording dates and concert tours with the most famous stars.

What do Nicky Hopkins, Nigel Olsson and Mick Ronson have in common? Yes, they are all English and yes they have played music with the most famous rock stars of our time. However, the answer is that they all have released solo albums that by and large, suck. This is most appalling to me since they have all the prerequisites that should have equated to success. They had talent and the knowledge of what it takes to make a great album. Unfortunately, those principals never were applied. They did not learn their lessons well.

My most favorite of the three is Nicky Hopkins. This guy has played music with the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Who, Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck among others. You have obviously heard his keyboard work on many albums, His album, The Tin Man Was A Dreamer (Columbia KC32074) has people like Mick Taylor and Klaus Voorman, on the album. The best selection is Waiting For The Band To Come. After that, it seems that Nicky has lapsed into total mediocrity. Fortunately, this album is out of print. If you can find it, buy it for the cover art.

Next on the list is Nigel Olsson. This guy was Elton John's drummer. If anyone should have learned something about making a decent record, it should have been Nigel. Sadly, he must not have been paying attention. I have three of his albums. I kept hoping that he would finally get it right. The first one is on Elton's label (Rocket 2158) and it still needs help. He then goes on to record for Columbia (Epic JC 35048) which eclipses the first one in the banality category. I should have known something was amiss when they first two albums had the same title. On the third one, he slips down to Bang Records (36491) and even get Elton to guest on one song and also gets Dee Murray, Elton's bass player to play on another song. These albums are examples of over production at it are worst. Ironically, Nigel's got a great voice, but it is buried in lushly produced pop. I actually was playing the first album in the background while writing this column and had to mercifully turn it off.

Mick Ronson played as a sideman to David Bowie. His album on RCA (APL1-0681) called Play Don't Worry typifies Nicky and Nigel. This guy was a great guitarist, but the album leaves you flat. As is the case in the Nicky Hopkins album, this one is also deleted. Unless you are a great Bowie fan, you will not be happy with this offering.

In summation, although you may have had success with others, the reality is that the success in not transferable.