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an agreement with Chris Strachwitz to release it in December 1963 on an LP titled The Unexpurgated Folk Songs of Men, for which he provided no artist credits because of the sala-ciousness of the lyrics.56 There was, however, a sixteen-page insert authored by McCormick, who wrote that the anthology was “an informal song-swapping session with a group of Texans, New Yorkers and Englishmen exchanging bawdy songs and lore.” McCormick traced the origins of the dozens in African American folklore as a cycle of ritual insults in which “the players strive to bury one another with vituperation. In the play, the opponent’s mother is especially slandered and thus the male asserts himself through the rejection of the feminine and by the skill with which he manages the abuse. The appropriate reply is not to deny the assault, but to return even the greater evil-speaking hurled at the other person’s mother.”57 In Lightnin’s version of “The Dirty Dozens,” there is no verbal battle; it is instead a diatribe that strings together a series of insults that are at once vile and offensive:

What the hell you trying to play the dozens with me?

I don’t play the dozens with nobody.

Now, hell, I don’t like the way you talkin’ no how.

Talkin’ about my mama, your mammy, and all that kind of junk….

You got a crooked ass hole, nigger, and you can’t shit straight….

You old black son of a bitch, you were born with a rag in your ass …

Your mama had the shingles around her bloody cock, you big black bastard, now get out of here!58

Clearly it was impossible for McCormick to credit Lightnin’ as the singer of “The Dirty Dozens,” as it no doubt would have identified him as obscene and would have made it very difficult to get him booked in “respectable” venues. It remains one of Lightnin’s least-known recordings.

McCormick was building a reputation for himself as a folklorist, and 1960 was a Watershed year. In addition to the release of his recordings of Hopkins, he issued a two-LP set A Treasury of Field Recordings, a compilation of blues, zydeco, country, and folk materials recorded from 1951 to 1960 by the Houston Folk Group.59 McCormick had made a majority of the recordings himself. At the same time that McCormick was working on these projects, he also sought to undermine Charters and create problems at Folkways.

On November 26, 1959, Antoinette Charles, apparently with McCormick’s guidance, handwrote a letter on behalf of Lightnin’ to Folkways. Lightnin’ usually referred to Antoinette as his wife, though in fact they were never married. “Nette,” as Lightnin’ often called her, had a husband and children and a separate residence in Houston’s Fifth Ward. How Lightnin’ met her is unknown, but in 1948 they started having an affair that continued until his death. According to Strachwitz, Antoinette was originally from southwestern Louisiana. She was related to Clifton and Cleveland Chenier, and it may have been through them that she and Hopkins got to know each other. In time they developed a romantic liaison, and at some point during the 1950s, Antoinette became involved in Lightnin’s business affairs. In her letter to Folkways, she complained about the terms that he had agreed to with Charters: [All spellings sic] “I was thinking I was going to get a share of the money that was made, and that would right I think any that sell your records they are suppose to give you part of the money made. If you dont agree I ask you to stop the records. This company doesn’t have the contrack to be selling my songs & my singing on records. they didn’t send me a copy of my records I did think they would send me one. I have a nother record coming out that is paying me Roaltes so I see no reason for not getting a shere from you all.”60

Lightnin’ had never wanted royalties before—even though Quinn had included a provision for royalties in one of his contracts with him—but instead had insisted upon cash payments. When Charters had recorded Hopkins, he had paid him three hundred dollars in cash and explained that it was payment in full.61 But once Charters was gone, McCormick