Lightnin' Hopkins_ His Life and Blues - Alan Govenar [56]
Asch responded to Hopkins’s letter by stating that Folkways was not “a large company and the $300 represents a lot of money to us. We could have made this money part of a royalty agreement if you had received $100 advance and the balance to be paid at the rate of 25 cents per record sold. However, you did receive the $300 and we think this covers the lifetime of the record.”62
Hopkins answered Asch in a typed letter, dated December 12, 1959, which sounded as if it had been written by McCormick, asking that Folkways remove the record from sale. Hopkins also explained that prior to recording for Charters, he was paid $350 for recording four songs for the San Antonio–based TNT label: “It was my original idea that I was to receive my standard fee which would have been $200 for two songs. I was trapped into thinking this and did not find out otherwise until the recording had already begun. You got 9 songs altogether and I was only paid a part of the money down and my understanding was that royalties would be paid to make up the rest.”63 In addition, the letter mentioned that he was paid $120 for the lease of a selection of his recordings to be issued in a limited edition of ninety-nine copies and to be sold only by mail order from England (The Blues in East Texas LP on Heritage). Moreover, it stated that Hopkins was “protected by the fact that my original songs are not copyrighted (and so are not subject to the compulsory license provision of the copyright law) and so are still my property and cannot be used without my agreement.”64 Hopkins (McCormick) then reiterated his fundamental point that he would agree to Asch’s “making an album” only if he was given a “fair royalty payment,” and went on to detail what he thought was fair: “That would be 7%-of-the-retail price on all copies sold after the first 100; the first 100 copies would be paid for at $100. This is the same agreement as I have made with the English company. I will give you the same opportunity if you sent [sic] out the contract immediately.” However, Hopkins (McCormick) also insisted that Asch’s contract include “some bond with a $100 penalty” to be paid if he did not receive his royalties on time. In addition, he alluded to the royalty problems that John Lomax Jr. had been having with Folkways and the grievances articulated in McCormick’s December 5, 1959, letter to Ed Badeaux, written on behalf of the Houston Folklore Group, John Lomax Jr., and Lightnin’ Hopkins.65
Charters says Asch had told him that he was going to be sued by McCormick on behalf of Hopkins, but he never heard what ultimately transpired to settle the dispute, and there are no written records in Asch’s files that indicate that the suit was ever filed or brought to court. In a letter Charters wrote to Asch, dated January 13, 1960, he complained, “I am much disturbed that McCormick is bothering you about Hopkins. As I’ve told you, McCormick is simply a leech on Hopkins’ side. I’m sorry I even gave him Hopkins’ address,” implying that McCormick didn’t even know where Hopkins lived until Charters told him.66 Charters, in an effort to bolster Asch’s position, wrote, “If it will be of any help to you in dealing with him—my English contact has written that McCormick sold an LP of Hopkins material to an English company for the total sum of $70. No royalty. I really fail to see where McCormick can involve himself. Especially after we took all the chances and presented him on LP.”67
Over the next several months, the tension surrounding Hopkins’s Folkways album intensified. An unsigned memo, dated May 6, 1960, apparently from Marian Distler to Asch, stated that McCormick had not really been interested in recording Lightnin’, even though he claimed through a letter written for Hopkins, dated December 12, 1959, that he