Sam ‘Lightnin’ Hopkins [1912-1982] was known as “the Godfather of Texas Blues.” As a songwriter and storyteller, he was both prolific and original. As a gutarist and lyricist, he had the uncanny ability to improvise words and music simultaneously. As a poet and performer, Hopkins is remembered as one of blues most accomplished artists.
♦ A clip from «The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins» ↓ [doc by Les Blank]
◊ ‘Trouble in mind’ ↓
Trouble in mind, babe, I’m blue, but I won’t be blue alwaysYou know the sun gonna shine in my back door one day. I’m gonna lay my head on some long sad, old railroad iron
I’m gonna let that 2:19 satisfy this mind of mine. That’s what I’m gonna do one day
♦→ Mojo Hand ⇐
I’m goin’ to Louisiana, and get me a mojo hand . . .I’m gonna fix my woman so she can’t have no other man I lay down thinking, Buy me a mojo hand . . .
I wanna fix my woman so she can’t have no other man Cold ground was my bed last night, rocks was my pillow too
Cold ground was my bed last night, baby, rocks was my pillow too
You know I woke up this morning, I’m wondering, What in the world am I gonna do? Now, can’t a woman act funny, heheheheh, when she got another man
Can’t a woman act funny, when she got another man
You know she won’t look straight at you, always raisin’ sand I’m going in the morning, but I won’t be gone very long
I’m gonna get me a mojo hand, I’m gonna bring it back home (Spoken) That’s what I’m gonna do. Come on baby, come go home with me. . . I’ll make you happy in the morning as any woman can be . . . You know I’m gonna stop by a place I’ve never been before
÷ ÷ ÷ ÷
¤ Robert Johnson
An itinerant blues singer and guitarist born in Mississippi, who lived from 1911 to 1938. He recorded 29 songs between 1936 and ‘37 for the American Record Corporation, which released eleven 78rpm records on their Vocalion label during Johnson¹s lifetime, and one after his death.
Most of these tunes have attained canonical status, and are now considered enduring anthems of the genre: “Cross Road Blues,” “Love In Vain,” “Hellhound On My Trail,” “I Believe I¹ll Dust My Broom,” “Walking Blues,” “Sweet Home Chicago.”
Like many bluesmen of his day, Johnson plied his craft on street corners and in jook joints, ever rambling and ever lonely – and writing songs that romanticized that existence. But Johnson accomplished this with such an unprecedented intensity, marrying his starkly expressive vocals with a guitar mastery, that his music has endured long after the heyday of country blues and his own short life.
Never had the hardships of the world been transformed into such a poetic height; never had the blues plumbed such an emotional depth. Johnson took the intense loneliness, terrors and tortuous lifestyle that came with being an African-American in the South during the Great Depression, and transformed that specific and very personal experience into music of universal relevance and global reach. “You want to know how good the blues can get?” Keith Richards once asked, answering his own question: “Well, this is it.” Eric Clapton put it more plainly: “I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson.”
This short film, featuring illustrations from Brooklyn artist Christopher Darling, ↑ centers on the urban myth of the singer-guitarist selling his soul to the devil, a tale fueled by his itinerant lifestyle, otherworldly talent and renowned prowess as a ladies’ man.
Δ ‘Come On in My Kitchen’ ↑
You’d better come on in my kitchen, babe it going to be rainin’ outdoors
Ah the woman I love took from my best friend
Some joker got lucky, stole her back again
You’d better come on in my kitchen, babe it going to be rainin’ outdoors
Oh-ah she’s gone, I know she won’t come back again
I’ve taken the last nickel out of her nation sack
You’d better come on in my kitchen, babe it going to be rainin’ outdoors . . .
When a woman gets in trouble, everybody throws her down
Lookin’ for her good friend – none can be found
You’d better come on in my kitchen, babe it going to be rainin’ outdoors
Winter time’s comin’ – it’s gonna be slow
You can’t make the winter babe, that’s dry long so
You’d better come on in my kitchen, babe it going to be rainin’ outdoors
Δ ‘ Love In Vain’ ↑
And I followed her to the station, with a suitcase in my handAnd I followed her to the station, with a suitcase in my hand
Well, it’s hard to tell, it’s hard to tell, when all your love’s in vain
All my love’s in vain When the train rolled up to the station, I looked her in the eye
When the train rolled up to the station, and I looked her in the eye
Well, I was lonesome, I felt so lonesome, and I could not help but cry
All my love’s in vain When the train, it left the station, with two lights on behind
When the train, it left the station, with two lights on behind
Well, the blue light was my blues, and the red light was my mind
All my love’s in vain Ou hou ou ou ou, hoo, Willie Mae – Oh oh oh oh oh hey, hoo, Willie Mae
Ou ou ou ou ou ou hee vee oh woe – All my love’s in vain
Δ ‘Cross Road Blues’ ←
I went down to the crossroad – fell down on my knees . . .
Asked the lord above «Have mercy now, save poor Bob if you please»
Yeeooo, standin’ at the crossroad – tried to flag a ride
ooo ooo eee … I tried to flag a ride
Didn’t nobody seem to know me babe – everybody pass me by
Standin’ at the crossroad babe – risin’ sun goin down
Standin’ at the crossroad babe – eee eee eee, risin’ sun goin down
I believe to my soul now, Poor Bob is sinkin’ down
You can run, you can run – tell my friend Willie Brown . . .
(th)’at I got the croosroad blues this mornin’ Lord, babe, I’m sinkin’ down
And I went to the crossraod momma – I looked east and west . . .
Lord, I didn’t have no sweet woman, ooh-well babe, in my distress
Δ ‘Me & The Devil Blues’ ↑
Early this mornin’, when you knocked upon my door
Early this mornin’, ooh, when you knocked upon my door
And I said, «Hello, Satan, I believe it’s time to go»
Me and the devil, was walkin’ side by side
Me and the devil, ooh, was walkin’ side by side
And I’m goin’ to beat my woman, until I get satisfied
She say you don’t see why, that you will dog me ‘round
(spoken: Now, babe, you know you ain’t doin’ me right, don’cha)
She say you don’t see why, ooh, that you will dog me ‘round
It must-a be that old evil spirit, so deep down in the ground
You may bury my body, down by the highway side
(spoken: Baby, I don’t care where you bury my body when I’m dead and gone)
You may bury my body, ooh, down by the highway side
So my old evil spirit, can catch a Greyhound bus and ride
Δ ‘Hellhound On My Trail’ ↑
I got to keep moving, I got to keep moving
Blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail
Mmm, blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail
And the day keeps on remindin’ me, there’s a hellhound on my trail
Hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail
If today was Christmas eve, if today was Christmas eve, and tomorrow was Christmas day
If today was Christmas eve and tomorrow was Christmas day
All I would need is my little sweet rider
Just to pass the time away, to pass the time away
You sprinkled hot foot powder, mmm, around my door, all around my door
You sprinkled hot foot powder, all around your daddy’s door
It keeps me with ramblin’ mind rider
Every old place I go, every old place I go
I can tell the wind is risin’, the leaves tremblin’ on the tree
Tremblin’ on the tree
I can tell the wind is risin’, leaves tremblin’ on the tree
All I need is my little sweet woman
And to keep my company, hey, hey, hey, hey, my company
⊗ «Stop Breakin’ Down» . . . ⇒ clip [2] ⇔ clip [3] ⇔ clip [4] ⇐
A short film about Robert Johnson by Glenn Marzano. Narrator = Son House
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