Nicky Hopkins, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ry Cooder – Jamming With Edward (1972)

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Jamming with Edward! is a 1972 album by three Rolling Stones band members (Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman) accompanied by Nicky Hopkins and Ry Cooder.

The album was recorded at London’s Olympic Studio on April 23, 1969, during the Let It Bleed sessions, and released on Rolling Stones Records in 1972.
It consists of a series of loose jams performed by band members while waiting for Keith Richards to return to the studio.
The reason for Richards’ absence is uncertain; though it is commonly believed that he walked out over Cooder being brought in as a support guitarist, producer Glyn Johns has attributed his absence to a phone call from his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg.
Although Jamming with Edward! reached No. 33 on the US charts in February 1972 during an 11-week stay.
“Edward” is a nickname for pianist Nicky Hopkins, originating from some earlier studio conversation between Hopkins and another Rolling Stone, Brian Jones.
Hopkins also contributed the cover art. In the original liner notes, Mick Jagger describes the album as “a nice piece of bullshit… which we cut one night in London, England while waiting for our guitar player to get out of bed. It was promptly forgotten (which may have been for the better) … I hope you spend longer listening to this record than we did recording it.”

Though many feel that the Stones were at their best when playing loose, sloppy rock & roll à la Exile on Main St., with this 1972 release on Rolling Stones Records the unrehearsed style of the album is more of a hindrance than a call to ragged glory.
Not an official Rolling Stones release, the assembled band does contain three-fifths of the group (Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts) along with session man extraordinaire Nicky Hopkins and guitarist Ry Cooder.
The band stumbles through keyboard-dominated original numbers such as “Boudoir Stomp” and “Edward’s Thrump Up,” as well as more conventional cuts like a cover of Elmore James’ “It Hurts Me Too.”
Yet the songs never get beyond giving the listener the impression they were thrown together during a drunken night’s rehearsals. In that sense the album is a bit of a letdown; though any Stones fan would surely clamor for lost material from the band’s golden age, Jamming With Edward instead makes one wish it had never been released.

 

Side one

  1. The Boudoir Stomp – 5:13
  2. It Hurts Me Too (Elmore James/Mel London; original version: Tampa Red, 1941; includes a quotation from Pledging My Time (Bob Dylan) – 5:12
  3. Edward’s Thrump Up – 8:11

Side two

  1. Blow with Ry – 11:05
  2. Interlude a la El Hopo (Includes a quotation from "The Loveliest Night of the Year [Webster, Ross]) – 2:04
  3. Highland Fling – 4:20

All tracks are written by Ry Cooder, Nicky Hopkins and Charlie Watts, except where noted

 

Personnel

Companies, etc

Credits

Notes
Released: 7 January 1972
Recorded: 23 April 1969, Olympic Studio, London, United Kingdom
Genre: Blues Rock
Length: 36:05
Producer: Glyn Johns

Label – Rolling Stones Records

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