Lightnin' Hopkins

Cool video of Lightnin' Hopkins on YouTube.

Goin' Down Slow


Many years ago (1964), I asked Lightnin' about a blues he'd composed following his flight over to Europe, the one in which he begs "Mr. Aer'plane Driver" not to let his aeroplane fall out of the sky. Was it meant to be humorous?

"No boy. That song were deadly serious. Poor ole Lightnin' have never bin so afraid."

The more I fly, the more I've come to agree with Lightnin' about the risks of air travel.

He wasn't in the mood for talking much on that occasion:

"I'd like to talk, but you see, I've got big troubles on my mind."

But he joked across the dressing-room to Sleepy John Estes:

"Hey Sleepy, yuknow if the blues was whisky I'd stay drunk all the time."

Lightnin' was every inch the bluesman. He wasn't pretending.