Alan Govenar (53 page)
Authors: Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life,Blues
Tags: #Biography, #Hopkins; Lightnin', #United States, #General, #Music, #Blues Musicians - United States, #Biography & Autobiography, #Blues, #Genres & Styles, #Composers & Musicians, #Blues Musicians
“Lightnin'!
(a double LP) was released in 1970.
May 20, 1969, and December 8, 1969. Berkeley, CA. Producer: Chris Strachwitz
Vocal/electric guitar with Francis Clay, drums.
| “Send My Child Home to Me” | Arhoolie LP 1063 |
| “Wipe Your Feet on the Floor” | Arhoolie LP 1063 |
| “Sellin' Wine in Arizona” | Arhoolie LP 1063 |
| “Please Settle in Viet Nam” | Arhoolie LP 1063; (45) Joliet 205 |
| “Up on Telegraph Avenue” | Arhoolie LP 1063 |
| “Brand New Lock” | Arhoolie LP 1063 |
| “Little and Low Blues” | Arhoolie LP 1063 |
Lightning Hopkins in Berkeley was released in 1973.
Note: Several songs on this album had been previously released on the Lightnin'! LP on Poppy; only those uniqut to this LP have been listed.
1971. Live, unknown location.
Vocal/guitar with unknown bass and drums.
| “I Got a Feeling” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
| “Walking All Night Long” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
| “I Crawled By Your Window” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
| “Take Me Back” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
| “Blues Is My Business” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
| “Mojo Hand” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
| “Pinetop's Boogie” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
| “Throw This Old Dog a Bone” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
| “Cook My Breakfast” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
| “You Can Look at Me” | Edsel (UK) CD 353 |
Blues is My BusinessâLive 1971, Previously Unreleased, Vol. 1 was released in 1993.
1971. Live, unknown location.
Vocal/guitar with unknown bass and drums.
| “Rock Me Baby” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
| “Put Your Red Dress On” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
| “Lightnin' (He) Can Do It” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
| “Lightnin' Boogie” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
| “Mr. Charlie” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
| “Baby Please Don't Go” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
| “Lightnin's Gone Again” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
| “One-Eyed Woman” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
| “Hardly Trying” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
| “You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone” | Edsel (UK) CD 357 |
You're Gonna Miss MeâLive 1971, Previously Unreleased, Vol. 2
was released in 1993.
Note: Edsel CD 353 & CD 357 reissued as one CD on Edsel CD 8011.
May 16 and 17, 1972. Village Recorder Studio, Los Angeles, CA.
Vocal/electric guitar/piano* with John Lee Hooker, guitar**/speech+; Jesse Edwin Davis, guitar; Luther Tucker, guitar; Mel Brown, guitar/piano/organ; Charlie Grimes, guitar; David Cohen, guitar; Clifford Coulter, piano/melodica***/bass; Michael White, violin; Joe Frank Corola, bass; Lonnie Castile, drums.
| “Roberta” | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “Katie Mae” + *** | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “Howlin' Wolf” [spoken] | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “The Rehearsal”** | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “It's a Sin to be Rich, It's a Low-Down Shame to be Poor” | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “Y'all Escuse Me” [sic] | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “Just Out of Louisiana” | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “Get Out Your Pencil” [spoken] | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “I Forgot to Pull My Shoes Off” | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “Turn Me On”* | Verve CD 517 514 |
| “Candy Kitchen”** + | Verve CD 517 514 |
It's a
Sin
to be Rich
was released in 1993.
1974. Houston, TX. Producer: Sam Charters
Vocal/electric guitar/electric bottleneck guitar* with Ira James, harmonica; Carl “Rusty” Myers or Ozell Roberts, bass/guitar; Larry “Bones” McCall, drums.
| “Please Help Poor Me”* | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
| “Way Out in Abilene” | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
| “Don't You Call That Boogie” | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
| “Swing in the Backyard” | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
| “The Hearse Is Backed Up to the Door”* | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
| “That Meat's a Little Too High” | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
| “Let Them Little Things be True” | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
| “I Been Burning Bad Gasoline” | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
| “Don't You Mess with My Woman” | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
| “Water Fallin' Boogie” | Sonet (Sweden/UK) LP 672 |
The Legacy of the Blues Vol. 12
was released (initially in Sweden and the United Kingdom only) in 1975.
April 11, 1976. Live at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans Fairgrounds, New Orleans, LA.
Vocal/guitar with Big Will Harvey, bass; unknown, drums.
| “Mojo Hand” | Island (UK) LP 9424 |
| “Baby Please Don't Go” | Island (UK) LP 9424 |
| “All Night Long” | Island (UK) LP 9424 |
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 1976 was released in 1977.
Note: This various artists LP features Lee Dorsey, Ernie K-Doe, Professor Longhair, Irma Thomas, and others.
June 23, 1977. Live at the Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club, Montreal, Canada.
Vocal/electric guitar with Phillip Bowler, bass; Walter Perkins, drums.
| “Trouble in Mind” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “Have Mercy” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “Cook My Breakfast” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “It's Hard to Love a Woman” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “Get Up/Katie Mae” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “Goin' to Louisiana” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “Forgot What to Say” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “Lightnin's Boogie” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “Coming Back Home” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “Early in the Morning Blues” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “My Babe Don't Stand No Cheatin'” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
| “Rock Me Baby” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 009-2 |
The Rising Sun Collection Vol. 9 was released in 1996.
Probably June 19, 1978. “The Juneteenth Blues Spectacular,” Miller Outdoor Theater, Houston, TX. Producer: Tom Usselmann
Vocal/electric guitar with unknown bass, drums.
| “I Love My Biscuits” | Catfish (UK) CD 225 |
| “Key to the Highway” | Catfish (UK) CD 225 |
| “Come In” | Catfish (UK) CD 225 |
| “Messin' Around” | Catfish (UK) CD 225 |
| “Mighty Crazy” | Catfish (UK) CD 225 |
| “Lightnin' Does It” | Catfish (UK) CD 225 |
| “Lawd Have Mercy” | Catfish (UK) CD 225 |
| “Catfish Blues” | Catfish (UK) CD 225 |
Mighty Crazy
was released in 2002.
Note: This is a split CD between Hopkins and Big Mama Thornton. Although there is no date or location listed, a former Catfish Records producer recalled that it had been recorded for one of the annual Juneteenth Blues Spectaculars in Houston by Tom Usselmann, owner of the Lunar #2 label. The most probable year in which it was recorded is 1978, as it was the only time Lightnin' appeared with Big Mama Thornton and Juke Boy Bonner at the festival. Usselmann released a posthumous LP of Bonner recorded at that year's festival.
July 22, 1980. Live at the Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Fest, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada.
Vocal/electric guitar with Louisiana Red, guitar; Johnny “Big Moose” Walker, piano; unknown, bass; Styve Homnick, drums.
| “Lightnin's Blues” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 0011 |
| “Blues Ain't Nothin' But a Feelin'” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 0011 |
| “Trouble in Mind” | Just a Memory (Canada) CD 0011 |
The Rising Sun Collection was released in 1996.
Note: This various artists CD also includes Louisiana Red, Brownie McGhee, and Sonny Terry.
July 1, 1981. Live at the Rock House, Houston, TX.
Vocal/electric guitar with Larry Martin, bass/guitar; Andy McCobb, drums.
| “Intro” | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “Watch Yourself” (1st version) | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “Houston Rock” | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “Baby Please Don't Go” | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “Pa and Ma Hopkins” | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “Mojo Hand” | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “Don't Let That Bad Sun Shine Down on Me” | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “Watch Yourself” (2nd version) | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “Rock Me Baby” | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “My Babe” | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
| “Trouble in Mind” | Paris (French) LP 3368 |
ForeverâLast Recordings was released in 1983.
Significant Early Reissues
Lightnin' Hopkins Strums the Blues (Score) 1958
The first Hopkins album, this collects together some of the Aladdin material, with reverb added to the masters.
Last of the Great Blues Singers (Time) 1960
The first reissue of the Bob Shad/Sittin' In With material, with reverb added to the masters.
Lightnin' and the Blues
(Herald 1012) 1960
Twelve of the Herald singles.
Lightning Hopkins Sings the Blues
(Crown) c.1960
RPM/Modern singles.
Lightning Strikes Again
(Dart 8000) 1961
The first reissue of the Gold Star material.
Early Recordings Vol. 1 (Arhoolie 2007) 1965
Early Recordings Vol. 2 (Arhoolie 2010) 1971
The first comprehensive reissues of the Gold Star material.
Introduction
1.
Interview by Les Blank, Skip Gerson, John Lomax Jr., Audio outtakes from
The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins,
Flower Films, 1969.
2.
Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins, 1969.
3.
David Evans,
The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Blues
(Perigree/Penguin, 2005), pp. 124â125. For more information, see David Evans, “Musical Innovation in the Blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson,”
Black Music Research Journal,
Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring 2000), pp. 83â116.
4.
Jas Obrecht, ed.,
The Postwar Blues Guitarists: Rollin' & Tumblin',
(San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books, 2000), p. 74.
5.
www.hawkeyeherman.com/pdf/Lightnin-Hopkins-BluesLife.pdf
.
6.
Sam Swank, interview by Alan Govenar, September 30, 2008.
7.
Cecil Harold, M.D., F.A.C.S. letter to Alan Govenar, February 16, 2008.
8.
Bryan Wooley, “Birthing the Blues: East Texas provided plenty of material for Clyde Langford and others who sang of love, sex, drinking, prison, poverty and death,”
Dallas Morning News,
November 12, 2000.
1. Early Years
1.
Ray Dawkins interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008.
2.
“Going Home Blues (Going Back and Talk to Mama),” an unissued Gold Star recording released on
The Gold Star Sessions, Vol. 1
, Arhoolie LP 2007 and Arhoolie CD 330.
3.
Frances Jane Leathers, Through the Years: A Historical Sketch of Leon County and the Town of Oakwood, Privately printed, 1946.
4.
W. D. Wood, A Partial Roster of the Officers and Men Raised in Leon County, Texas, Privately printed, 1899.
5.
J. Y. Gates and H. B. Fox, A
History of Leon County
(Centerville: Leon County News, 1936).
6.
“Texas Mob Lynches Slayer,”
New York Times,
April 6, 1910.