Lightnin' Hopkins_ His Life and Blues - Alan Govenar [131]
Mikofsky had seen Lightnin’ on different occasions over the previous four or five years, and had had a chance to speak to him backstage. At the Village Gate, Mikofsky remembered one night seeing John Belushi at Lightnin’s show. “He was a big blues fan,” Mikofsky said, “long before he did The Blues Brothers, and he would hang out backstage, and instead of being a journalist or worshipping fan, he would take over. He was like a take-charge kind of guy, an aggressive type, not in a bad way necessarily, but one time, as I remember it, he set himself up as a kind of doorman. He was going to screen whoever was going to get access to the dressing room; he was the real boss of the door. He would keep the riff-raff out of Lightnin’s dressing room. Fortunately, I was already inside.”57
Mikofsky found Lightnin’ to be very friendly, “but at the same time, he had a certain reserve. He was very laconic. I used to wonder about the older black guys, if it was growing up in a segregated society, where you had to kow-tow a little bit. You didn’t want to be another Emmett Till. But once you got to know these old black musicians, they warmed up a lot. Lightnin’ definitely felt that way with real blues fans that were sincere, or other musicians. For example, there was a piano in a rehearsal room back stage. This is Carnegie, and he actually sat down and he started playing piano a little bit. He was a little more versatile than people think…. Lightnin’ was definitely chatting with people … I didn’t feel any animosity or resentment or anything, but I know that maybe at some point in the past in the South, they had to be cautious or careful of what they did or what they said. Or adopt a kind of glowering personality like Howlin’ Wolf, who felt he had to be more aggressive.”58
When Lightnin’ got to New York City for the Carnegie Hall show with Benson and Wrecks Bell, whom he had asked to come along as his bass player, Mikofsky was sensitive to Lightnin’s performance style and needs on stage and volunteered his services to find an appropriate drummer for the gig. “Lightnin’ felt,” Mikofsky says, “that he should be at least a trio, and drums would certainly round out his sound … and the best one that was available was Charles ‘HoneyMan’ Otis. He was, I think, from New Orleans, a very funky drummer. He had worked with a lot of various bands and black artists. So I fixed them up … and they got along famously. And they actually did very well together.”59
On stage, Lightnin’ was at ease. Bell had played bass with Lightnin’ on numerous occasions, but hadn’t really traveled much with him. “We brought him because Lightnin’ basically liked him,” Benson says. “But he had been in a fight, and his face was all bandaged up. And I think we had to lend him the money to get a tuxedo, but it all worked out in the end.”60
During the show, Benson was backstage talking with John Lee Hooker. Hooker asked if Benson wouldn’t mind letting Lightnin’ know that he had a special request, and much to Hooker’s amazement, Benson acted on it immediately. He crept out on the stage in the middle of the set and whispered in Lightnin’s ear that Hooker wanted him to sing “Mr. Charlie.” “John Lee stuttered,” Benson says, “and that was one of his favorite songs [because it’s about a boy who stutters and gets beyond it by singing]. So it seemed like the moment I said the words ‘Mr. Charlie’, Lightnin’ hit the note and launched into the song.”
For Christophe De Menil, Carnegie Hall was more than a concert; it was a social and media event. She planned a pre-party at Windows on the World on the 107th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and an after party at the restaurant One Fifth. “Look magazine,” Benson says, “even made some arrangement to take Lightnin’ on a carriage ride through Central Park and I had to go to do the sound check. Lightnin’ didn’t really like it…. He would have preferred to sit around the hotel and shoot the bull with Clifton and