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Post by AlanB on Mar 15, 2014 11:22:31 GMT -5
JOEL & LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS 1959 Collector's Issue C-5530 JH: Good Times Here, Better Down The Road/Match Box Blues/Accused Me Of Forgin', Can't Even Write My Name/l Ain't Gonna Roll For The Big Hat Man No More/ Thunder In Germany, Red Cross On My Own LH: Long Way From Texas/Whiskey, Whiskey/Getting Out Of The Bushes Tap Dance/Suicide Blues/Look Out Settagast, Here Me And My Partner Come
Yet again it's taken an anonymous (and dubious?) source to bring back to catalogue a record of major documentary importance. This album (now with an additional track) originally appeared on Tony Standish's Heritage label and culled from Mack McCormick's at tempts to document the surviving Texas blues traditions of the Fifties/Sixties. The star of the album is without doubt Lightnin’s elder brother Joel. Born 1904, a true throwback, Joel Hopkins' archaic vocal and rudimentary guitar playing were, in 1959, a far more logical continuation of the Texas tradition than that of younger brother Lightnin'. The extended vocal lines of Texas Alexander, the playing of JT "Funny Paper" Smith, even nuances of Ramblin' Thomas and Little Hat Jones can all be detected, but never more so than in the hypnotic, eight minute improvisation, "Thunder In Germany". Such was its impact on me the song got three successive plays. Fans of Lightnin' will probably find Joel in comparison earthy, by contrast stark and, musically, somewhat hard going. Lightnin's own contribution emanate from the same source and will for some be far easier listening. I well recall how primitive a practitioner I first thought him to be when introduced to his music in 1962, but back-to-back with Joel he sounds positively ordered. Given Hopkins's formative career as a juke box artist the temptation to class these post jukebox days as "Hopkins for the folklorists" is quite tempting, but to his credit Lightnin' turns in several committed reworkings, a charming rendition of "Creole Belles" (as "Getting Out Of The Bushes Tap Dance") and "Suicide Blues" has to be one of the most remarkable insights into the contemplation and effects of suicide that's ever been committed to tape. This, too, I played repeatedly just to convince myself of what I was hearing. Whilst there may be a few like minded souls who will purchase this record to expand their understanding of Texas blues most, I suspect, will ignore this album as not warranting the expense. What this reissue will definitely provoke in some of us is a lament for the stillborn Oliver/McCormick Texas book. If publication of the work has proved impossible how about a series of features for "Blues & Rhythm" based on the research? Paul? Mack? Anybody? Alan Balfour (Blues & Rhythm 53 July 1990)www.wirz.de/music/hopkjfrm.htm
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Post by Admin on Mar 15, 2014 11:32:03 GMT -5
Alan, wasn't Lightnin' Hopkins a part of the famed American Folk Blues Festival of 1964? I don't see him mentioned in the various lineups
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Post by AlanB on Mar 15, 2014 12:01:38 GMT -5
Alan, wasn't Lightnin' Hopkins a part of the famed American Folk Blues Festival of 1964? I don't see him mentioned in the various lineups Indeed he was. The following might cause some mirth. Note: When news reached Britain of the death of Lightnin' Hopkins I received a call at 7pm from Phil McNeill, editor of the weekly New Musical Express, asking if I could prepare a few hundred word obituary, to be collected by courier 6am the following morning, to enable it to be published in that week's issue. Never having produced anything without prior preparation I was not at my best. The result was that the accompanying photograph (not shown) took more space than the obituary.DEATH OF A LEGEND Alan Balfour (New Musical Express w/e 6th February 1982) LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS, the last of the great traditional country bluesmen, died on Sunday, aged 69. Although he had been in poor health for some time, the full extent of his condition only came to light last July. Booked to play at London's Capital Jazz Festival, he cancelled at the last moment with a brief, poignant telegram. It read simply "Pray for Lightnin'". Cancer had yet again deprived us of seeing a blues artist in Britain, and now it has robbed the world of his immeasurable talent as well. One of six children, Sam Hopkins was born in the farming community of Centerville, Texas, on March 15, 1912. He began playing the guitar as a boy on a home-made instrument fashioned out of a cigar-box and baling wire. His earliest blues influence was the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson, of whom Hopkins recalled "When I was just a little boy I went to hanging around Buffalo, Texas Blind Lemon he'd come and I'd just get alongside and start playing." From Jefferson, through his cousin Texas Alexander, and via his older brother Joel, he developed his own blues style. By his early teens he had left home to sing on the streets of Houston, earning little more than dimes Throughout the '20s and '30s he travelled around Texas, usually in the company of recording star Texas Alexander, putting his musical abilities to good use in bars and dives. The '40s were a lean time for Sam but as they drew to a close his reputation as a respected street singer came to the notice of the Los Angeles based Aladdin label, who signed him up in 1946. For his first recording he was teamed with pianist Thunder Smith and together they recorded as ''Thunder and Lightnin'", a nickname Sam was to use for the rest of his life. Over the next seven years Lightnin' became one of the biggest recording names in Texas and certainly the most prolifically recorded bluesman of his time, cutting close on 200 sides. His status in Texas was, by today's standards, superstar. But in 1954 he seemed to drop out of the recording limelight, not surfacing until 1959 when he was "rediscovered" by folklorists Sam Charters and Mack McCormick. It was at this point that Lightnin' Hopkins's career became truly international. In the late '50s and early '60s the importance of the blues in the development of rock was being realised by the critics, and Hopkins (along with many other bluesmen) was finding himself in great demand the world over. Everybody from teenagers to DJs wanted to know about the blues and its practitioners, and over the next ten years Lightnin's individualistic guitar playing, deeply emotional blues and oddball humour were to become as well known halfway around the world as they were to his neighbours in Houston, Texas. Despite all his touring, he always seemed to find time to cut the occasional album between tours. Those "occasional albums" now almost equal the number of sides he cut when he first started out. There is currently only one UK released album available ('Lightnin' Strikes Back' on Charly) but there are at least a dozen US imports on the market. My only meeting with Hopkins was backstage at Croydon's Fairfield Hall on his one tour of Britain in 1964. I asked him to sign an album sleeve. He looked at me over the top of his dark glasses and said rather testily (people were plaguing him like mad for interviews and discographical information) "Boy, everybody's bin asking me one damn thing or another. I'll sing you something from that record when I get out there. You're here to hear me sing, ain't ya?" Looking back on that incident, I suppose the true legacy of Lightnin' Hopkins is not really the albums contained in one's collection (though that's a good part of it) but the enrichment the music on those albums brings to life as a whole. I never did get that autograph, but Lightnin' Hopkins has left us all a valuable legacy.
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Post by AlanB on Mar 17, 2014 12:24:00 GMT -5
Here's a photo taken of Hopkins, Paul Oliver and Chris Strachwitz at the American Embassy in London in 1964 when Paul was putting on an exhibition, "The Story of the Blues", later to be a book of the same name. Apologies for the image being so "grainy", the news cutting is very yellowed! Click image to zoom. Attachments:
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Post by Admin on Apr 14, 2014 6:08:55 GMT -5
Lightnin' Hopkins was one of those blues artists who rarely ventured over to the "sacred" side of blues. His recording of "Needed time" is one of those rare occasions: From the great album: Jakehead Boogie
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Post by AlanB on Apr 14, 2014 11:34:54 GMT -5
If I remember correctly, apart from Mac McCormick managing to get LH to sing the first two lines of "When The Saints Go Marching In" (12 May 1959), this was the only time he attempted the genre - and did two takes of it. These I'm sure must be on the Ace CD shown above.
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Post by JamesP on Mar 15, 2015 9:47:16 GMT -5
Remembering Lightnin' on the date of his birth: March 15 (Photo courtesy Margaret Santoro)
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Post by tom1960 on Mar 16, 2015 14:07:12 GMT -5
2 of my favs by Lightnin'
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Post by JamesP on Apr 28, 2015 4:31:24 GMT -5
Great input from Stefan Wirz on RBF: Lightnin - errh - Hopkins Volume II wink emoticon Everest / Archive Of Folk & Jazz Music FS 313 (US 1965)
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Post by AlanB on Apr 28, 2015 5:48:21 GMT -5
But what idiots to get the wrong photo. Many, many years ago - long before RBF - Stefan devoted one of his discographies to the subject. Presumably that's now what's on RBF.
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Post by kh1958 on Nov 15, 2015 22:57:06 GMT -5
Little Freddie King, a blues player based in New Orleans, is also supposedly a cousin of Lightnin' Hopkins.
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Post by billf on Nov 16, 2015 2:29:01 GMT -5
Alan, wasn't Lightnin' Hopkins a part of the famed American Folk Blues Festival of 1964? I don't see him mentioned in the various lineups Indeed he was. The following might cause some mirth. Note: When news reached Britain of the death of Lightnin' Hopkins I received a call at 7pm from Phil McNeill, editor of the weekly New Musical Express, asking if I could prepare a few hundred word obituary, to be collected by courier 6am the following morning, to enable it to be published in that week's issue. Never having produced anything without prior preparation I was not at my best. The result was that the accompanying photograph (not shown) took more space than the obituary.DEATH OF A LEGEND Alan Balfour (New Musical Express w/e 6th February 1982) LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS, the last of the great traditional country bluesmen, died on Sunday, aged 69. Although he had been in poor health for some time, the full extent of his condition only came to light last July. Booked to play at London's Capital Jazz Festival, he cancelled at the last moment with a brief, poignant telegram. It read simply "Pray for Lightnin'". Cancer had yet again deprived us of seeing a blues artist in Britain, and now it has robbed the world of his immeasurable talent as well. One of six children, Sam Hopkins was born in the farming community of Centerville, Texas, on March 15, 1912. He began playing the guitar as a boy on a home-made instrument fashioned out of a cigar-box and baling wire. His earliest blues influence was the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson, of whom Hopkins recalled "When I was just a little boy I went to hanging around Buffalo, Texas Blind Lemon he'd come and I'd just get alongside and start playing." From Jefferson, through his cousin Texas Alexander, and via his older brother Joel, he developed his own blues style. By his early teens he had left home to sing on the streets of Houston, earning little more than dimes Throughout the '20s and '30s he travelled around Texas, usually in the company of recording star Texas Alexander, putting his musical abilities to good use in bars and dives. The '40s were a lean time for Sam but as they drew to a close his reputation as a respected street singer came to the notice of the Los Angeles based Aladdin label, who signed him up in 1946. For his first recording he was teamed with pianist Thunder Smith and together they recorded as ''Thunder and Lightnin'", a nickname Sam was to use for the rest of his life. Over the next seven years Lightnin' became one of the biggest recording names in Texas and certainly the most prolifically recorded bluesman of his time, cutting close on 200 sides. His status in Texas was, by today's standards, superstar. But in 1954 he seemed to drop out of the recording limelight, not surfacing until 1959 when he was "rediscovered" by folklorists Sam Charters and Mack McCormick. It was at this point that Lightnin' Hopkins's career became truly international. In the late '50s and early '60s the importance of the blues in the development of rock was being realised by the critics, and Hopkins (along with many other bluesmen) was finding himself in great demand the world over. Everybody from teenagers to DJs wanted to know about the blues and its practitioners, and over the next ten years Lightnin's individualistic guitar playing, deeply emotional blues and oddball humour were to become as well known halfway around the world as they were to his neighbours in Houston, Texas. Despite all his touring, he always seemed to find time to cut the occasional album between tours. Those "occasional albums" now almost equal the number of sides he cut when he first started out. There is currently only one UK released album available ('Lightnin' Strikes Back' on Charly) but there are at least a dozen US imports on the market. My only meeting with Hopkins was backstage at Croydon's Fairfield Hall on his one tour of Britain in 1964. I asked him to sign an album sleeve. He looked at me over the top of his dark glasses and said rather testily (people were plaguing him like mad for interviews and discographical information) "Boy, everybody's bin asking me one damn thing or another. I'll sing you something from that record when I get out there. You're here to hear me sing, ain't ya?" Looking back on that incident, I suppose the true legacy of Lightnin' Hopkins is not really the albums contained in one's collection (though that's a good part of it) but the enrichment the music on those albums brings to life as a whole. I never did get that autograph, but Lightnin' Hopkins has left us all a valuable legacy. Yes, I saw Lightnin' during that British tour - at the St George's Hall, Bradford on 21st October 1964.
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Post by AlanB on Nov 16, 2015 9:42:11 GMT -5
The New Standard, Monday July 13, 1981 (p.14) published these few words:
Lightnin' Struck LEGENDARY blues star, Lightnin' Hopkins who was due to appear at Capital Radio's Jazz Festival this weekend, has cancelled because he has cancer. The 69-year-old singer, whose real name is Sam Hopkins gained his nickname in 1946, when he teamed up with a pianist called Thunder Smith. He has not played in this country for 15 years says a spokesperson for the festival. "He's very seriously ill. We received a Telex from the States that simply said: "Pray for Lightnin'."
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Post by JamesP on Jan 13, 2016 15:32:29 GMT -5
Liner Notes from "The Herald Sessions"
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