Lightnin' Hopkins_ His Life and Blues - Alan Govenar [110]
Poor Antoinette hadn’t been very long gone
She used to cook my breakfast, fix my table like it should 19
Carroll Peery, who had worked at the Cabale in Berkeley, recalls that when Lightnin’ stayed with him, he’d talk about his wife Antoinette, but then bring “dates” back to his apartment: “Lightnin’ liked his women, but he was cool. He never acted like low life. His style was if he met somebody, white or black, and he was attracted to her, he’d get to know her well before he’d bring her home. He was very careful; on one hand he totally understood white society, but on the other hand he was scared to death of it, especially when he was by himself. Antoinette didn’t travel much with him, but one time she showed up when he wasn’t expecting her. This was in 1967, after I had left the Cabale. I had arranged for him to perform at the Forum on Telegraph Avenue and the place was big and full of hippies and students who really liked folk and blues. So the darndest thing happened. He was on stage performing, and Antoinette walked through the door. Never gave him any warning. She wanted to catch him, and afterwards, they had a big flap about that, but when I saw it, I knew I better get a certain person [with whom Lightnin’ was having a little fling] out of there. Antoinette and Lightnin’ were shouting. But he didn’t shout very much. She was doing most of the shouting. And he was criticizing her for showing up. Usually Antoinette was very careful with what she said and did. But there was a lot of fire in that woman.”20
At some point in 1968, Dr. Cecil Harold, an African American surgeon in Houston (who retired in 1994), started to act as Lightnin’s manager. Harold, who was considerably younger than Lightnin’, said he started to work with Hopkins because Lightnin’ needed help. Having listened to his music for years, Harold wanted to meet Hopkins, and in 1967, he saw that Lightnin’ was playing at the Jewish Community Center and went to see him. The two men met and talked and struck up a friendship.21 About a year later, Lightnin’ told Harold that he was getting ripped off by the people who were booking and recording him and that he needed help in keeping up with his scheduled dates. “He never was completely sure where he was supposed to play,” Harold said. “He’d tell someone he was to play at this place Saturday, and then he might tell someone else the same thing. I just organized things for him, took his calls and made sure he got a fair deal. I never got any money out of it. I did it because I loved his music and him.”22 The extent to which Harold was involved with Lightnin’s bookings is unclear. As many have observed, Lightnin’ was his own man, and as he became more well known, he was able to do essentially whatever he wanted and get paid. Still he often needed help in getting what was promised to him, and Harold was invaluable in his role as a buffer and manager of his business affairs.
During the first four months of 1968, Lightnin’ had five sessions in rapid succession, but none compared to the intensity and focus of his Texas Blues Man album on Arhoolie. On January 3 and 4, Lightnin’ recorded one of the strangest albums of his career that was given the pretentiously psychedelic title Free Form Patterns for the local International Artists label at the old Gold Star studios in Houston. For the session Lightnin’ was accompanied by his longtime friend, Billy Bizor, on harmonica, as well as by Duke Davis on bass and Danny Thomas on drums, who were both members of the psychedelic rock band The 13th Floor Elevators. Overall, the recordings were raggedy and mixed badly: “Fox Chase” had a pop country beat with Billy Bizor on harmonica and vocals performing a sloppy version of a traditional tune; “Give Me Time to Think” had a fuller R & B sound; “Mr. Charlie” rehashed old material and rambled on. “Mini Skirt” was a humorous commentary on 1960s fashion, but the mixing muddies the song; when the piano comes in, it drowns out all the other instruments.
Mansel Rubinstein, who had the pawnshop in the Third