Lightnin' Hopkins_ His Life and Blues - Alan Govenar [41]
By the time Lightnin’ recorded for Herald in 1954, his records were on jukeboxes across the country, and for a brief period, perhaps unbeknownst to him, he was named “President of the Blues” by WDIA, the fifty-thousand-watt radio station broadcasting out of Memphis. Deejay Moohah Williams, who wore different hats at WDIA, one of which was “Mr. Blues,” hosted a down-home blues show called Wheelin’ on Beale and held mock elections for the title of “President of the Blues, commander-in-chief of the Royal Amalgamated Association of Chitterling Eaters of America, Inc. for the Preservation of Good Country Blues.”73 Ballots appeared in the African American newspaper the Tri-State Defender, and Mr. Blues encouraged his listeners to vote. The 1954 contest pitted the incumbent president Lightning Hopkins against Muddy Waters (whom Mr. Blues liked to called the “unclean stream”). About the election, the Defender reported, “President Hopkins is campaigning on a platform which says the pure country blues field is being invaded by modernists who will destroy its pure form and solid corn sound.”74 Muddy Waters denied that his blues had been tainted by modernity and campaigned “on a platform of pure popularity because of recent hot releases.” Mr. Blues sided with Hopkins and became his campaign manager, and in an interview just before the election, he said, “The forces of destruction are on the march and are boring from within with an insidious deadliness. We must not be caught unaware. Vote now for a true blues ticket. Vote for Lightning Hopkins.” 75 In the end, Hopkins won and retained his title as President of the Blues, but Muddy Waters trumped him on the Billboard charts with “Hoochie Coochie Man” in 1954 and ultimately surpassed him in sales.
Historian Louis Cantor maintains that “radio formats targeted at the African-American marketplace made a wide range of ‘hidden music’ suddenly accessible to all Americans,” and “more than ever before, white listeners could tune in and vicariously eavesdrop on black culture and music,” though the extent to which white listeners tuned into WDIA is unknown.76 Yet as early as 1943, Hunter Hancock was broadcasting black music on a show called Harlem Holiday on KFVD in Los Angeles, and by 1950, Hancock’s program had changed its name to Harlem Matinee and had expanded to two hours daily with a rapidly evolving play list that was primarily focused on rhythm and blues, with an increasing emphasis on down-home blues. In part, the shift in programming was propelled by the independent record producers who offered records and payola, though, according to Joe Bihari, Hancock never accepted payola.77 However, KFVD could be heard only in Los Angeles and WDIA could be picked up only in Memphis, while WLAC in Nashville broadcast nationally and quickly became the most famous station for popularizing R & B. Both blues harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite and rock ‘n’ roller Elvin Bishop, for example, recall listening to WLAC when they were kids searching the airwaves to hear the latest songs by Lightnin’ Hopkins or John Lee Hooker, among others—Musselwhite in Memphis, and Bishop in Tulsa, Oklahoma.78
Lightnin’s Herald recordings did not make the Billboard charts, and by the late 1950s his appeal to record companies declined. Rock ‘n’ roll dominated the pop charts, using a blues-based song structure and insistent back beat to combine the influences of blues, jazz, rhythm and blues gospel, country, and rockabilly into a music that was fast and danceable. The Herald sessions had anticipated the rock explosion of 1955 and 1956, but Lightnin’ had a hard time keeping pace with his contemporaries—Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard, to name a few.
Even without more national hits, Lightnin’ continued to have a local following in the little clubs and beer joints in Houston. The people in the Third Ward crowded in to hear him, and the raucous, smoke-filled banter fueled his live performance, but also stifled his career. As much as he was capable of