Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues by Alan Govenar

Author:Alan Govenar [Govenar, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, music, Composers & Musicians, Genres & Styles, Blues
ISBN: 9781556529627
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2010-05-01T07:25:01+00:00

Phillips was touched and amused by the song, but said she never drank wine with Lightnin’. She shared his beverage of choice, Gordon’s Gin. “It’s true that he consumed liquor on a daily basis (again part of a larger Texas ethos). Yet I never saw anybody drunk or not in control of their faculties.”13

How often Phillips got together with Lightnin’ varied: “I would see him a lot at Shorty Calloway’s garage. Sometimes I spent time at Mama’s on Hadley Street when Lightnin’ was elsewhere. Mama owned the rooming house and her kitchen was a lively gathering place, but for the most part, I went to Shorty’s. Lightnin’s cronies congregated there, and though it was a male environment, Shorty welcomed my presence, and I had a lot of fun hanging with these older men. Though Lightnin’ lived within easy walking distance to Shorty’s, he frequently drove his car over. At that time, he had a black-and-white Dodge.”14

Shorty’s had several chairs at the front of the garage, where people would sit around and drink: “They’d shuck and jive, tell lies and stories, while Shorty worked on a car. There was an alcove in the back where people would shoot craps on a fuzzy blanket with peewee dice. Lightnin’ was often found kneeling at the edge of the blanket, completely absorbed in the ritual and litanies of spinning the dice. And when Lightnin’ didn’t want Antoinette to know he was at Shorty’s, he’d walk over. She checked on him frequently. People told me that she’d drive around town looking for his car to ascertain his whereabouts. He was forever trying to move his car so she wouldn’t know where he was. However, sometimes he wanted her to think he was at Shorty’s, so he’d park his car in front of the garage and leave with someone in another car.”15

Once, Antoinette discovered Lightnin’s car parked outside another woman’s house at night, and had someone steal it: “So, Lightnin’ comes out and there’s no car. And he’s going crazy, running around telling everyone that his beloved, black and white Dodge had been stolen, but not revealing his specific whereabouts when the supposed theft occurred. However, Antoinette had already told Mama what she’d done and why, and Mama told everybody else who hung out at Hadley Street. Word spread to Shorty’s, so all of us knew what had happened. When he came into Mama’s kitchen with his lament, our mock expressions of shock and outrage for Po’ Lightnin’ turned to hoots of laughter as soon as he left the room. At times, he was made the butt of jokes because at times, he did silly things which deserved to make him the butt of jokes, but the joking was done with good humor, and he bore it with good humor, often laughing at himself, as he did when he finally learned just who stole his car and that he was the last to know.”16

Shorty’s was a good ole boys’ hang out, a “spit and argue” club,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.