Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Lightnin' Hopkins Doing "Lonesome Road".
DVD/CD Reviews
This review has been used to cover several Lightning Hopkins CDs and a DVD review of an instructional film, "The Guitar Of Lightnin' Hopkins", directed and taught by Ernie Hopkins, Stephan Grossman Studio Workshop, 2004, on learning his guitar style. I might add that this film makes abundantly clear that learning Lightning's eccentric style is definitely not for beginners. Go to the Willie Dixon song book for that.
Lightnin'!, Lightning Hopkins, Arhoolie Records, 1993
Free Form Patterns, Lightning Hopkins, Fuel 2000 Records, 2003
Blue Lightning, Lightning Hopkins, Paula Records, 1995
Lightning Hopkins & The Blues Summit, Lightning Hopkins, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Big Joe Williams, EMI-Capitol Records, 2001
I have spilled plenty of ink in this space tracing the main line of the blues from its acoustic origins down in the plantation South up river through the way station of Memphis and then to the electric "Mecca of Chicago. Along the way I have occasionally mentioned some of the other branches of the blues line like the North Carolina pick. I have not spent nearly enough time on some of the other important branches of the blues expansion, especially in the post World II period such as the West Coast blues and, as will be noted here, Texas blues.
If the blues is synonymous with the black struggle to get by day to day, to make ends meet and to make it to Saturday night and some relieve then the very big locale of Texas and its harsh hard scrabble life and strict Jim Crow laws hardly seems out of place as a key blues outpost. From the days, in the 1920's and 1930's, of Blind Lemon Jefferson working the streets of rural small town Texas, cup in hand, up to the artist under review, Lightning Hopkins, working the small black clubs and "juke joints" of the cities (like Houston) and beyond to the sounds of blues revivalists like Stevie Ray Vaughn and his brother there has been more than enough misery to create a separate Texas blues tradition.
Moreover, Brother Hopkins brings a distinctive guitar pick of his own to the "dance". He is famous, above all, for what is called the E shuffle sound as he works the guitar to create a sound that is a little "happier" than the forlorn one of the Delta or the "amped up" one of Chicago. I, unfortunately, did not get a chance to hears Lightning live until late in his career in the early 1970's when he had lost a little of his fine-toned edge. One can recapture some of that though through some of these earlier recordings from a tie when he was in full blown Lightning form. Listen up if you want to learn a different way to run a guitar from that of Muddy Waters, Bukka White, B.B. King or, for that matter, Eric Clapton
Needless to say Lightning had covered most of the known blues classics of his time as well as his own material. The borderlines of what is one's own material and what one has reworked from the blues pool is not always clear but you need to hear, for starters, "Mojo Hand", "Hello Central", "Little Girl" and "Rock Me Baby" to get a feel for his sound. Add on such classics as "Wig Wearing Woman", "Lonesome Dog Blues" (with an eerie dog bark included free), "Back Door Friend" and you are ready to become an aficionado. Throw in the talking blues-styled "Mr. Charlie", "Baby Child" and "Cooking Done" for good measure. Finally, team up Lightning with the likes of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and the amazing Big Joe Williams (especially on Hopkins' "Ain't Nothing Like Whiskey" and "Chain Gang Blues") at the famous 1960"blues summit" and you are ready for the graduate course.
Blues Lyrics - Lightnin' Hopkins
Back Door Friend
What you gonna do with a woman, yeah, when she got a
back do' friend
What are you gonna do with a woman, yes, when she got a back do' friend?
She just prayin' for you to move out, so her back do' friend can move in
Yes, it's hard to love a woman, yes, you know she got a back do' friend
Yes, it's hard to love a woman, oh Lord, yes, you know she got a back do' friend
Yes, when she prayin' for you to move out, so her back do' friend can move in
Yeah, you know I bought that woman a diamond ring, I thought that she would change
I went home one morn' and I caught her doin', whoa, that same old thing
Now what you gonna do with a mad woman, oh, when she got a back do' friend
When she prayin' all the time for you to move out, so her back do' friend, he can move in
__________
Note: this song is also known under the title "Letter To My (Back Door Friend)" on Charly Blues Masterworks Vol. 8, recording of 1963, Houston
Blues Lyrics - Lightnin' Hopkins
Coffee Blues
Mama got mad at papa 'cause he didn't bring no coffee home
Mama got mad at papa 'cause he didn't bring no coffee home
She begin to wonder what is going on wrong
Papa said, "Mama, I ain't mad with you, now, don't you get mad with me
Baby, I ain't mad with you, now, don't you get mad with me"
Papa must have been teasing mama 'cause she said, "I ain't mad with you"
Papa must have been teasing mama 'cause she said, "I ain't mad with you"
She said, "Everything's all right; don't make no difference what you do"
(Spoken: You know papa got good with mama somehow)
And I was crying for bread, and yes, I,
baby, I was crying for bread; and these are the words I said
(Spoken: Now look at mama, just trying to shout)
It was early one evening but papa came home late at night
It was early one evening but papa came home late at night
That's when mama was mad and her and papa began to fight
Blues Lyrics - Lightnin' Hopkins
Little School Girl
Little school girl,
let me tote
your books to school today
Please, little school girl,
let me tote your books to school today
She said, "I says you's a bad boy,
mama said please keep you away"
(spoken: That's what she said about Lightnin')
Mama want to know what you're doin',
yes, after you get out of her sight
She said "If I let you tote my books,
still I know, Sam, that ain't right"
When I get back home with my mother and dad,
that's where I might have a fight
I told the school teacher,
little school girl carryin' too heavy a load
Yes, I told that school teacher,
little girl was carryin' too heavy a load
She say, "You better get your big, bare feets,
Lightnin', make it down the road"
(spoken: That little school girl was all right in her place,
but she got me, so I walked away and I say...)
Good mornin', little school girl,
how have you been today?
Good mornin' little school girl,
how have you been today?
I say I'll tote your books, I'll tote your books,
darlin', 'cause you are goin' my way
__________
Note 1: tote, to carry by hand.
Blues Lyrics - Lightnin' Hopkins
One Kind Favor I Ask Of You
There's one kind favor I'll ask of you
There's one kind favor I'll ask of you
There's one kind favor I'll ask of you
See that my love will come thru
I was down last night on my bended knee
I was down last night on my bended knee
I was down last night on my bended knee
No people in the world seems to care for me
That's all I know darlin' what to do
That's all I know darlin' what to do
That's all I know darlin' what to do
I wouldn't be here worryin' if it hadn't been for you
Wish I had-a died when I was young
Wish I had-a died when I was young
Wish I had-a died when I was young
Wouldn't be here today with my head hung
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