Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.55 (953 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1556529627 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-01-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
I wanted more I was truly excited about reading this biography but I was left dissatisfied. I wanted to taste the gin, breathe the smoke, and feel as if I was sitting in the juke joint. This book did not provide that for me. Written more from a 'reporter' perspective, it gives the necessary details on Lightnin's recording career, but does not provide enough background on the world he lived in. His family members and those close to him seem little more than photographs. The book does give a sense of the private nature of. Po Lighnin' 'splained for true Lightnin’s story Is well-told and worth the read. Some of us are old enough to have lived in those early times and for that dwindling crowd the story may sometimes dwell on the obvious but for younger generations perhaps that is necessary. The book fills in a lot of gaps, paints a three dimensional portrait of a great bluesman, and has a great discography. I first heard “Hello Central” on a jukebox as a boy and was immediately taken with it and became an instant fan. Highly recommended fo. Great Lightnin' Hopkins book Neil Riethmuller Having enjoyed Lightning's music since first being exposed to it in the 1960's, it was rewarding to learn more detail of his life and music. The book confirms my knowledge gained over the years from LP cover notes, occasional articles etc. The overview of his status in the blues recording world and perception of his distinctive style was reassuring. His own songs are fairly autobiographical. They added to the stock of already extant blues present as "folk music". Contextualising his work is important to hi
By the time of his death in 1982, Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins was likely the most recorded blues artist in history. This biography delves into Hopkins’s early years, exploring the myths surrounding his meetings with Blind Lemon Jefferson and Texas Alexander, his time on a chain gang, his relationships with women, and his lifelong appetite for gambling and drinking. Hopkins didn’t begin recording until 1946, when he was dubbed “Lightnin’” during his first session, and he soon joined Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker on the national R & B charts. This brilliant new biography--the first book ever written about him--illuminates the many contradictions of the man and his myth. Born in 1912 to a poor sharecropping family in the cotton country between Dallas and Houston, Hopkins left home when he was only eight years old with a guitar his brother had given him. A second career emerged--now Ligh
Govenar finds that much else of what fans think they know about Hopkins doesn’t stand up to investigation, yet in pursuit of the truth via extensive interviews with family and friends, he turns up many nuggets as satisfying as the dispelled myths and inconsistencies. --Mike Tribby . Apparently dubbed Lightnin’ at his 1946 first recording session, the moniker wasn’t, as oft-rumored, a tribute to his guitar stylings but made to go with session-mate Wilson Smith being called Thunder. Leaving home when still a child, Hopkins spent most of his life pursuing the sex-and-drinks-and-blues lifestyle that preceded the sex-and-drugs-and-rock-’n’-roll model, at least in the popular imagination. His detailed examination of how the delightfully cantankerous Hopkins rode the folk music craze of the early 1960s to rediscovery and a second, probably more remunerative recording career should be a c