Lightnin' Hopkins_ His Life and Blues - Alan Govenar [162]
The Rising Sun Collection was released in 1996.
Note: This various artists CD also includes Louisiana Red, Brownie McGhee, and Sonny Terry.
Forever—Last Recordings
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
Forever—Last 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.
Endnotes
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. 124–125. 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. 83–116.
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.
7. Handbook of Texas Online. www.tsha.utexas.edu/hanbook/online.
8. Gates and Fox.
9. Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “My Family,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
10. Ibid.
11. For more information on Abe Hopkins and the Hopkins family, see www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/–txhousto/biographies/hopkins_Lightnin.htm; Timothy J. O’Brien, “Sam Hopkins: Houston Bluesman, 1912–1960,” M.A. Thesis, University of Houston, 2006. O’Brien writes that Sam’s mother’s maiden name was Frances Washington. Ray Dawkins says her maiden name was Davis. However, the Leon County Web site about Lightnin’, the one that presents solid census research on Abe, says her maiden name was Frances Washington, but she is also listed as Frances Sims pre-1903, and speculates that she may have been married before Abe.
12. Thirteenth Census of the United