Lightnin' Hopkins_ His Life and Blues - Alan Govenar [87]
Lightnin’ was in demand, and although he often was reluctant to travel, some gigs were too good to refuse. On November 7, 1964, he was featured in another show at Carnegie Hall, which by then had become a major venue for folk and blues shows. Lightnin’ appeared on the same bill as Mississippi John Hurt, Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk, and Doc Watson. Barbara Dane, who by then had moved from Berkeley to New York, attended the concert but was disappointed: “Lightnin’ walked on stage and put his shades on and started to do his thing, and it was totally, how should we say it, contained. He was not giving anything, not giving anything emotionally to it that was visible. He wasn’t attempting to communicate or do the kind of thing he would have done at the Cabale or the Ash Grove where he’s sitting face to face with people, basically talking to them through his music. In this case, in the Carnegie Hall setting, I was really studying it carefully, and saw how different his demeanor was. My take on it was, he was saying, ‘Okay, you know, this is a hot shit place and everything. I’m not giving you anything because you don’t understand it. It’s not for you. I’ll just do what I gotta do. You all love me if I do something great or not because you’re into this sort of gotta really love the black artist, that kind of thing, and I’ll just do and get off of here.’ And that’s what he did. Then, of course, the audience went wild.”39 While Dane sensed that Lightnin’ felt contempt for the audience at Carnegie Hall, other factors may have been at play. She wasn’t with him backstage, and what she observed may have simply been an indication that he had had too much to drink, as he sometimes did, before he got on stage. Lightnin’ was very much aware of the fact that he was revered by white audiences no matter what or how he performed. Mitch Greenhill said that he once asked him “whether he preferred performing to white audiences or black audiences. And he said that white audiences were much more attentive and respectful. He was really happy to have found this little niche and he was working it.”40 In other words, he didn’t have to work very hard for the money he earned from such performances. Lightnin’ was a star, but he was loyal to his longtime supporters, and when he returned to Houston, he performed at the Jewish Community Center on November 19 as part of its folk song series, a gig that no doubt paid considerably less than what he got from appearing at Carnegie Hall.
On December 2, 1964, Lightnin’ made his last LP for Prestige/Bluesville; it was produced by Sam Charters, who featured six song tracks and eight tracks of interviews that he did with Lightnin’. These interviews constitute the only recorded autobiography that Lightnin’ ever did. However, they contained little new material. By the time these recordings were made, Lightnin’ had done countless interviews, and the stories related to his childhood, his meeting with Blind Lemon Jefferson, travels with Texas Alexander, move to Houston, discovery by Lola Cullum, getting his nickname, and thoughts on the blues had appeared in liner notes and articles by Mack McCormick and others. What’s particularly striking, however, is Lightnin’s tone and awareness that he was shaping his own legacy, even if the facts were skewed and somewhat vague.
In addition to recording for Bluesville in December 1964, Nashville producer Aubrey Mayhew (who may have been responsible for the Bird Lounge LP) brought Lightnin’ into a studio in Houston and recorded a solo album with him for the Pickwick label. The overall quality of the session was poor; Lightnin’ rehashed old material, drawing upon previously recorded songs and reiterating themes and lyrics that had become the staples of his concert performances.
For the first few months in 1965, Lightnin’s touring slowed down,