Lightnin' Hopkins_ His Life and Blues - Alan Govenar [171]
20. Ed Pearl, interview by Andrew Brown, e-mail correspondence, June 9, 2009.
21. Hopkins and McGhee were already quite familiar with each other; they had both recorded for Bobby Shad, and McGhee had actually recorded a song “Letter to Lightnin’ Hopkins” in 1952, in which he referenced Hopkins’ “Hello Central,” and how he was going to Houston to see Lightnin’s women.
22. Dane, March 27, 2008.
23. “Down South Summit Meetin’,” Billboard, October 24, 1960.
24. Chris Strachwitz, interview by Alan Govenar, July 18, 2008.
25. Paul Oliver, interview by Alan Govenar, September 5, 2008.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid., June 3, 2009.
28. Ibid., September 5, 2008.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Pete Seeger, interview by Alan Govenar, August 29, 2008.
32. Ibid.
33. Letter from John A. Lomax, Jr. to Irwin Silber, August 1, 1960. Courtesy Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
34. Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, Lightnin’ Hopkins file.
35. Robert Shelton, “Lightning Strikes,” New York Times, October 15, 1960.
36. Ibid.
37. Seeger, August 29, 2008.
38. Nat Hentoff, “A Long Way from Houston,” Reporter December 8, 1960, pp. 63–64.
39. Ibid.
40. Pete Welding, “Jazz Notes: Lightnin’ Hopkins,” Coda 3, no. 10 (February 1961), pp. 28–29 and Pete Welding, “Lightnin’,” Down Beat (July 20, 1961), pp. 18–19.
41. Welding, Coda, p. 29.
42. “Lightnin’ Hopkins—A Description,” Jazz Journal, October 1959, p.5.
43. Robert Shelton, “Lightning Hopkins at the Village Gate,” New York Times, October 24, 1960.
44. The first Bluesville release was with Al Smith and was followed by Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Willie Dixon, Lonnie Johnson, and Roosevelt Sykes, among others.
45. Last Night Blues, Bluesville LP 1029.
46. Mack McCormick, liner notes to Last Night Blues, Bluesville LP 1029.
47. Ibid.
48. Joe Goldberg, liner notes to Lightnin’: The Blues of Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bluesville LP 1019.
49. “Lightnin’,” Billboard, Vol. 73, No. 16, April 24, 1961, p. 28.
50. CBS Television Network press release, November 4, 1960, Institute of Jazz Studies, Lightnin’ Hopkins file.
51. John Sebastian’s son, also named John Sebastian, was about sixteen years old at the time and sat behind the camera in the studio to watch this television production. Lightnin’, he said, made a very strong impression upon him. The young Sebastian went on to establish himself as musician and songwriter, performing at Woodstock and with the Lovin’ Spoonful. In time he became friends with Lightnin’, inviting him stay in the apartment he shared with Nick Lore in New York City, carrying his guitar to gigs, and sometimes interceding on his behalf with club owners. For more information, see www.classicbands.com/JohnSebastianInterview.html.
52. The Candid recordings were out of print for about twenty-five years when Alan Bates acquired the masters and renamed his Black Lion Productions company Candid. Bates then worked to make the Candid titles available again on CD.
53. Nat Hentoff, liner notes to Lightnin’ in New York, Candid LP 8010.
54. “Lightnin’ in New York,” Billboard, April 3, 1961.
55. Harold Leventhal letter to George Hoefer [Down Beat magazine], September 23, 1960. Institute of Jazz Studies, Lightnin’ Hopkins file.
56. Mitch Greenhill, interview by Alan Govenar, October 10, 2008.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. John Broven, “Bobby’s Happy House of Hits: The Story of Bobby Robinson and His Famous Labels, Part 2,” Juke Blues No. 16, (Summer 1989), p. 11.
60. For more information on Bobby Robinson, see John Eligon, “An Old Record Shop May Fall Victim to Harlem’s Success,” New York Times, August 21, 2007; and Timothy Williams, “In Harlem, 2 Record Stores Go the Way of the Vinyl,” New York Times, January 21, 2008.
61. Broven, p. 11.
62. “Mojo Hand” charted in the first week: 49, second week: 37, third week: 27, fourth week: 26, fifth week: 36. For more information see George Albert, Frank Hoffman and Lee Ann Hoffman, The Cashbox Black Contemporary