Alan Govenar by Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life, Blues Page B

to similar blues artists, such as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, but it also points out how well Lightnin’s records were actually selling, or perhaps, how Quinn expected them to perform in the marketplace. In fact, it was highly unusual for a label to give an artist an advance on every single release, much less an advance of two hundred dollars. How much money Quinn ultimately made from these releases is unknown, and there are no records to indicate whether or not Lightnin’ was ever paid any royalties.
    By the early 1950s, Lightnin’ was nationally known and was firmly part of the R & B mainstream that updated older styles of down-home country blues. In many ways, Hopkins’s career paralleled many of his contemporaries. In Texas, Frankie Lee Sims, one of Lightnin’s cousins, had two acoustic releases on Blue Bonnet around 1948, but then was discovered in Dallas in 1953 by Specialty, which recorded him with electric guitar, bass, and drums. L. C. Williams, Lightnin’s friend in Houston, who was sometimes billed as Lightnin’ Jr. on his Gold Star releases, had a national hit with “Ethel Mae” on Freedom. Lil’ Son Jackson, who probably had little or no direct contact with Lightnin’, was also recorded by Gold Star and then Imperial. Decca discovered Andrew “Smokey” Hogg with B. K. “Black Ace” Turner and brought him to Chicago to record in 1937, and during or right after World War II, he recorded for Modern: his rendition of Big Bill Broonzy’s “Little School Girl” went to #9 on the
Billboard
R & B charts in 1950. Lightnin’, however, was the most successful of his generation of down-home blues singers from Texas, and the arc of his achievement was comparable to those of both Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.
    Like Hopkins, Waters and Hooker came from rural farming backgrounds in the South and had ambiguous dates of birth; Waters was born in 1913, but always told people it was 1915, and Hooker’s birth has been variously reported as 1915, 1917, 1920, and 1923. All three had limited educations and moved to the city as soon as they were able. All three switched from acoustic guitar to electric, and in time, put together small bands that included bass and drums. Waters, of course, added the harmonica, and Hooker the saxophone, and their fuller and tighter band sounds certainly propelled them forward. However, during the late 1940s Hopkins was getting paid more than twice the union rate ($82.50) per session that Waters was likely earning, making him almost certainly the best-paid country blues singer of that era. By the early 1950s, Hopkins, Waters, and Hooker were competing with each other on the
Billboard
charts, and Waters ultimately became more famous, with sixteen charting hits between 1948 and 1958.
    What hurt Lightnin’ the most during the early years of his career with Gold Star was that he didn’t want to go out on the road with the so-called Chitlin’ Circuit tours. These concerts at black-owned venues were organized by the Theater Owners Booking Association and promoted the records of those blues artists who were part of the touring package shows. 57 Lightnin’ wanted to stay close to home and didn’t seem to understand that touring with his records would have made him considerably more money. Consequently, his records did not sell as well as they might have to the people who listened to them on jukeboxes and radios around the country. The early 1950s were the beginning of one of the most lucrative eras for blues, if the performers were willing and able to travel and promote their records.
    By late 1950, Quinn was finding it increasingly difficult to sustain his label. His wife was dying of cancer. Harry Choates had left him for his rival Macy’s early in the year, and his country and blues series were selling poorly. Despite several national hits, Quinn had refused to aggressively market his label, and it