Alan Govenar by Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life, Blues
Authors: Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life, Blues
Tags: United States, General, Biography & Autobiography, music, Biography, Genres & Styles, Composers & Musicians, blues, Hopkins; Lightnin', Blues Musicians - United States, Blues Musicians
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since at least the mid 1930s, when Joe Pullum had a program on KTLC. Moreover, on February 3, 1935, a
Houston Chronicle
radio log dated showed both Red Calhoun and Giles Mitchell broadcasting on KXYZ that day. In 1941, the
Informer
mentioned that the gospel quartet the Dixie Four were featured on a local station, and in 1945 the Eddie Taylor Orchestra appeared regularly on KTHT. Lonnie Rochon was the first black disc jockey in Houston (on KNUZ in February 1948). By 1950, there were several black disc jockeys on the air in Texas: Dr. Hepcat on KVET in Austin, Trummie Cain on KLEE in Houston, Bill Harris on KRIC in Beaumont, among others, but white deejays were also starting to play blues and other styles of black music.
Bill âRascalâ McCaskill, a white deejay on KCOH, says he played Lightninâ on his show as early as 1952. âWhen I first started the âHarlem Boogieâ on KCOH in 1952,â McCaskill says, âLightning Hopkins was one of my most requested singers. He was, in my opinion, a super talented artist who could really make a guitar talk. I also remember that when I was at KLEE that he was one of Trummie Cainâs favorite talents, too. Perhaps it was the advent of rhythm and blues and rock music that outdated his numbers as the requests for his songs dwindled down a great deal, but he was still one of the top music makers in the Houston area. I met him one time at the Club Matinee in late 1952.â 50 In the summer of 1953 a group of black businessmen headed by Robert C. Meeker bought KCOH, making it the first black-owned station in Texas and the first station in Houston to target black listeners. KCOH was followed in late 1954 by KYOK. According to Texas Johnny Brown, once KCOH became a black-owned station, they rarely âaired any of Lightninâs music. They were much more geared to the mainstream rhythm and blues of the day, which featured the Duke/Peacock sound.â 51
Despite the limited airplay that Lightninâ got on Houston radio stations after the mid-1950s, he had already become well known, especially in the segregated Third Ward where he lived and worked most of the time. Lightninâs music had an edge that he had honed in the gritty juke joints of the Third Ward, and he had built his reputation by giving voice to the downtrodden. In fact, his first song to make it to a national chart was a very unlikely hit. The Gold Star release of Hopkinsâs song âTim Mooreâs Farmâ on February 12, 1949, went to #13 for one week on
Billboard
magazineâs âMost Played Juke Box Race Records.â 52 Within weeks, Quinn had leased the record, called âa sleeper in the Southâ by
Billboard,
to the Modern label for national distribution. 53 His strategy worked, and in many ways its success was unprecedented. It was a protest song unique to Texas and was one of the only unambiguous black protest songs to ever become commercially viable. Like his decision to release âJole Blon,â Quinn was not guided by the usual commercial ideas that drove the record business, and this unpredictability is what makes Gold Star and other small regional labels like it especially interesting. A more experienced A&R man may have rejected âTim Mooreâs Farmâ on the basis that few would know who âTim Mooreâ was, or what exactly Lightninâ was singing about, making it unfit for commercial release. Quinn was unintentionally oblivious to such considerations.
âTim Mooreâs Farmâ was about the infamous
Tom
Moore, who owned a plantation in Grimes County, Texas, and was known for his cruelty to the blacks who toiled there. The song itself was traditional with as many as twenty-seven distinct verses that were added by the different singers who performed it. According to Mack McCormick, the song originated in the mid-1930s with a field hand named Yank Thornton who worked on the Moore plantation. McCormick first collected the
Houston Chronicle
radio log dated showed both Red Calhoun and Giles Mitchell broadcasting on KXYZ that day. In 1941, the
Informer
mentioned that the gospel quartet the Dixie Four were featured on a local station, and in 1945 the Eddie Taylor Orchestra appeared regularly on KTHT. Lonnie Rochon was the first black disc jockey in Houston (on KNUZ in February 1948). By 1950, there were several black disc jockeys on the air in Texas: Dr. Hepcat on KVET in Austin, Trummie Cain on KLEE in Houston, Bill Harris on KRIC in Beaumont, among others, but white deejays were also starting to play blues and other styles of black music.
Bill âRascalâ McCaskill, a white deejay on KCOH, says he played Lightninâ on his show as early as 1952. âWhen I first started the âHarlem Boogieâ on KCOH in 1952,â McCaskill says, âLightning Hopkins was one of my most requested singers. He was, in my opinion, a super talented artist who could really make a guitar talk. I also remember that when I was at KLEE that he was one of Trummie Cainâs favorite talents, too. Perhaps it was the advent of rhythm and blues and rock music that outdated his numbers as the requests for his songs dwindled down a great deal, but he was still one of the top music makers in the Houston area. I met him one time at the Club Matinee in late 1952.â 50 In the summer of 1953 a group of black businessmen headed by Robert C. Meeker bought KCOH, making it the first black-owned station in Texas and the first station in Houston to target black listeners. KCOH was followed in late 1954 by KYOK. According to Texas Johnny Brown, once KCOH became a black-owned station, they rarely âaired any of Lightninâs music. They were much more geared to the mainstream rhythm and blues of the day, which featured the Duke/Peacock sound.â 51
Despite the limited airplay that Lightninâ got on Houston radio stations after the mid-1950s, he had already become well known, especially in the segregated Third Ward where he lived and worked most of the time. Lightninâs music had an edge that he had honed in the gritty juke joints of the Third Ward, and he had built his reputation by giving voice to the downtrodden. In fact, his first song to make it to a national chart was a very unlikely hit. The Gold Star release of Hopkinsâs song âTim Mooreâs Farmâ on February 12, 1949, went to #13 for one week on
Billboard
magazineâs âMost Played Juke Box Race Records.â 52 Within weeks, Quinn had leased the record, called âa sleeper in the Southâ by
Billboard,
to the Modern label for national distribution. 53 His strategy worked, and in many ways its success was unprecedented. It was a protest song unique to Texas and was one of the only unambiguous black protest songs to ever become commercially viable. Like his decision to release âJole Blon,â Quinn was not guided by the usual commercial ideas that drove the record business, and this unpredictability is what makes Gold Star and other small regional labels like it especially interesting. A more experienced A&R man may have rejected âTim Mooreâs Farmâ on the basis that few would know who âTim Mooreâ was, or what exactly Lightninâ was singing about, making it unfit for commercial release. Quinn was unintentionally oblivious to such considerations.
âTim Mooreâs Farmâ was about the infamous
Tom
Moore, who owned a plantation in Grimes County, Texas, and was known for his cruelty to the blacks who toiled there. The song itself was traditional with as many as twenty-seven distinct verses that were added by the different singers who performed it. According to Mack McCormick, the song originated in the mid-1930s with a field hand named Yank Thornton who worked on the Moore plantation. McCormick first collected the
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