Berks Blues Fest Blog

"Not Anymore" - Screamin' Jay Hawkins! Rare Chicago Blues Metal 45RPM Negative from 1957

Jalacy Hawkins, best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins (July 18, 1929 � February 12, 2000) was an African-American singer. Famed chiefly for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of songs such as "I Put a Spell on You" and "Constipation Blues," Hawkins sometimes used macabre props onstage, making him perhaps the first shock rocker.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Hawkins originally set out to become an opera singer, and has regularly cited Paul Robeson as his idol. When his initial ambitions failed, he began his career as a conventional blues singer and pianist.

He served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific Ocean during World War II, primarily as an entertainer, although he claimed to have been a POW. Hawkins was an avid and formidable boxer: in 1949, he was the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska.

In 1951, he joined guitarist Tiny Grimes for a while, and recorded a few songs with him. When Hawkins became a solo performer, he often performed in a very stylish wardrobe, featuring leopard skins, red leather and wild hats.

"I Put a Spell on You"

His most successful recording, "I Put a Spell on You" (1956), was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Later career

Hawkins had several further hits, including "Constipation Blues", "Orange Colored Sky", and "Feast of the Mau Mau". Nothing he released, however, had the monumental success of "I Put a Spell on You".

He continued to tour and record through the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in Europe, where he was very popular. He appeared in performance (as himself) in the Alan Freed bio-pic "American Hot Wax" in 1978. Subsequently, the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch featured "I Put a Spell on You" on the soundtrack � and deep in the plot � of his film Stranger Than Paradise (1983) and then Hawkins himself as a hotel night clerk in his Mystery Train. ad roles in �lex de la Iglesia's Perdita Durango and Bill Duke's adaptation of Chester Himes' A Rage In Harlem.

His 1957 single "Frenzy" (found on the early 1980s compilation of the same name) was included in the compilation CD, "Songs in the Key of X: Music From And Inspired By The X-Files", in 1996. This song was featured in the show's season 2 episode "Humbug". It was also covered by the band Bratmobile

In July 1991, Hawkins released his album Black Music for White People. The record features covers of two Tom Waits compositions; "Heart Attack and Vine" (which, later that year, was used in a European Levi's advertisement without Waits' permission, resulting in a lawsuit), and "Ice Cream Man" (which, contrary to popular belief, is a Waits original, and not a cover of the John Brim classic. Incidentally, Hawkins also covered the Waits tune "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard" for his album Somethin' Funny Goin' On.)

Hawkins also toured with The Clash and Nick Cave during this period, and not only became a fixture of blues festivals, but appeared at many film festivals as well.

His performance style earned him a loyal following � the use of a skull, a moving arm and, in his early days, a coffin �added to his charisma.

Hawkins died on February 12, 2000 after surgery to treat an aneurysm. He left behind many children by many women; about 55 were known (or suspected) upon his death, and upon investigation, that number "soon became perhaps 75 offspring", according to this website.

Ain't misbehavin'......savin' my love for you - Leon Redbone

No one to talk to ....all by myself
No one to walk with.....I'm happy on the shelf
Ain't misbehavin'......savin' my love for you

I know for certain......the one I love
I'm through with flirtin'......it's just you that I've been thinkin' of
Ain't misbehavin'.......savin' my love for you

Like Jack Horner.....in that ole corner
Don't go nowhere.....what do I care?
Your kisses are worth waitin' for......believe me

I don't stay out late.......no where to go
I'm home about eight......just me and my radio
Ain't misbehavin'.......savin' my love for you

Like Jack Horner.....in that ole corner
Don't go nowhere.....what do I care?
Your kisses are worth waitin' for......believe me

I don't stay out late.......no where to go
I'm home about eight......just me and my radio
Ain't misbehavin'.......savin' my love for you

Ain't misbehavin'......I'm savin' my love for you

T Bone Walker Performing Live

T-Bone Walker (May 28, 1910 � March 16, 1975[1]) was an American blues guitarist, singer, pianist, and songwriter who was one of the most important pioneers of the electric guitar. He was the first blues musician to use an electric guitar.[2] In September 2003, he was ranked #47 in Rolling Stone magazine's[3] list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
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LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS - Mojo Hand 1962

Sam "Lightnin�" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 � January 30, 1982[1]) was a country blues guitarist, from Houston, Texas, United States.
Life

Born in Centerville, Texas, Hopkins' childhood was immersed in the sounds of the blues and he developed a deeper appreciation at the age of 8 when he met Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic in Buffalo, Texas.[1] That day, Hopkins felt the blues was "in him" and went on to learn from his older (somewhat distant) cousin, country blues singer Alger "Texas" Alexander.[1] Hopkins began accompanying Blind Lemon Jefferson on guitar in informal church gatherings. Jefferson supposedly never let anyone play with him except for young Hopkins, who learned much from and was influenced greatly by Blind Lemon Jefferson thanks to these gatherings. In the mid 1930s, Hopkins was sent to Houston County Prison Farm for an unknown offence.[1] In the late 1930s Hopkins moved to Houston with Alexander in an unsuccessful attempt to break into the music scene there. By the early 1940s he was back in Centerville working as a farm hand.

Hopkins took a second shot at Houston in 1946. While singing on Dowling St. in Houston's Third Ward (which would become his home base) he was discovered by Lola Anne Cullum from the Los Angeles based record label, Aladdin Records.[1] She convinced Hopkins to travel to L.A. where he accompanied pianist Wilson Smith. The duo recorded twelve tracks in their first sessions in 1946. An Aladdin Records executive decided the pair needed more dynamism in their names and dubbed Hopkins "Lightnin'" and Wilson "Thunder".
Hopkins recorded more sides for Aladdin in 1947 but soon grew homesick. He returned to Houston and began recording for the Gold Star Records label. During the late 40s and 1950s Hopkins rarely performed outside Texas. However, he recorded prolifically. Occasionally traveling to the Mid-West and Eastern United States for recording sessions and concert appearances. It has been estimated that he recorded between 800 and 1000 songs during his career. He performed regularly at clubs in and around Houston, particularly in Dowling St. where he had first been discovered. He recorded his hits "T-Model Blues" and "Tim Moore's Farm" at SugarHill Recording Studios in Houston. By the mid to late 1950s his prodigious output of quality recordings had gained him a following among African Americans and blues music aficionados.
In 1959 Hopkins was contacted by folklorist Mack McCormick who hoped to bring him to the attention of the broader musical audience which was caught up in the folk revival.[1] McCormack presented Hopkins to integrated audiences first in Houston and then in California. Hopkins debuted at Carnegie Hall on October 14, 1960 appearing alongside Joan Baez and Pete Seeger performing the spiritual Oh, Mary Don�t You Weep. In 1960, he signed to Tradition Records. Solid recordings followed including his masterpiece song "Mojo Hand" in 1960.
By the early 1960s Lightnin' Hopkins reputation as one of the most compelling blues performers was cemented. He had finally earned the success and recognition which were overdue. In 1968, Hopkins recorded the album Free Form Patterns backed by the rhythm section of psychedelic rock band the 13th Floor Elevators. Through the 1960s and into the 1970s Hopkins released one or sometimes two albums a year and toured, playing at major folk festivals and at folk clubs and on college campuses in the U.S. and internationally. He travelled widely in the United States, and overcame his fear of flying to join the 1964 American Folk Blues Festival; visit Germany and the Netherlands 13 years later; [2]; and play a six-city tour of Japan in 1978.
Filmmaker Les Blank captured the Texas troubadour's informal lifestyle most vividly in his acclaimed 1967 documentary, The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins.[1]
Houston's poet-in-residence for 35 years, Hopkins recorded more albums than any other bluesman.[2]
Hopkins died of esophageal cancer in Houston in 1982 at the age of 69.
A statue of Hopkins stands in Crockett, Texas.[2]
[edit]Style

Hopkins' style was born from spending many hours playing informally without a backing band. His distinctive fingerstyle playing often included playing, in effect, bass, rhythm, lead, percussion, and vocals, all at the same time. He played both "alternating" and "monotonic" bass styles incorporating imaginative, often chromatic turnarounds and single note lead lines. Tapping or slapping the body of his guitar added rhythmic accompaniment.
Much of Hopkins' music follows the standard 12-bar blues template but his phrasing was very free and loose. Many of his songs were in the talking blues style, but he was a powerful and confident singer. Lyrically his songs chronicled the problems of life in the segregated south, bad luck in love and other usual subjects of the blues idiom. He did however deal with these subjects with humor and good nature. Many of his songs are filled with double entendres and he was known for his humorous introductions.

Statue of Lightnin' Hopkins in Texas
Some of his songs were of warning and sour prediction like Fast Life Woman:
"You may see a fast life woman sittin' round a whiskey joint,
Yes, you know, she'll be sittin' there smilin',
'Cause she knows some man gonna buy her half a pint,
Take it easy, fast life woman, 'cause you ain't gon' live always..."[2]
[edit]Influence

Hopkins was an influence on local musicians around Houston and Austin, Texas in the 1950s and 1960s. His recordings from the early 1960s reveal a lead guitar style that anticipated the popular blues based rock guitar of the later 1960s. Jimi Hendrix reportedly became interested in blues music listening to Lightnin� Hopkins records with his father. Stevie Ray Vaughan's Grammy Award-nominated instrumental Rude Mood was described in the words of the legend himself as "a take-off from a Lightnin' Hopkins riff". He was an influence on Jimmie Vaughan's work and on the vocals and blues style of Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, the keyboardist of the Grateful Dead until his death in 1972. He was also an important influence on Townes Van Zandt, the Texan folk/blues songwriter and performer, who often performed Hopkins numbers in his live concerts. Doyle Bramhall II is another Texas artist who was influenced by Hopkins, as evidenced by a tattoo of Hopkins on his upper left arm.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, John Frusciante, was influenced by listening to Hopkins around the time of his Stadium Arcadium recordings.
A song named after him was recorded by R.E.M. on their album Document.
A tribute track called "Po' Lightnin'" appears on Texas blues/rock band Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat's CD, Tijuana Bible (2009).
The Houston Chronicle included Hopkins in their list of 100 Tall Texans, 100 important Texans who influenced the world. The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum included Hopkins in a 100 Tall Texans exhibit that opened in September 2006. The display included Hopkins' Guild Starfire electric guitar and performance video.
Hopkins� Gibson J-160e guitar (on loan from the Joe Kessler Collection) is on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
Lightnin' is number 71 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Link [1]
Mentioned on Erykah Badu's critically acclaimed song "Window Seat." (On this porch I'm rockin' back and forth like Lightnin' Hopkins)
[edit]Discography

1959 - Lightnin' Hopkins Strums the Blues (Score)
1959 - Lightnin' Hopkins (Folkways)
1959 - Lightnin' and the Blues (Herald)
1960 - Country Blues (Tradition Records)
1960 - Last Night Blues (Bluesville Records)
1960 - Mojo Hand (Fire Records)
1960 - Lightnin' (Bluesville)
1961 - Autobiography in Blues (Tradition)
1961 - Blues in My Bottle (Bluesville)
1962 - Walkin' This Road By Myself (Bluesville)
1962 - Lightnin' and Co. (Bluesville)
1962 - Lightnin' Strikes (Vee-Jay Records)
1963 - Blues Hoot (Vee-Jay Records; live at The Ash Grove 1961 w/ Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Big Joe Williams)
1963 - Smokes Like Lightnin' (Bluesville)
1963 - Goin' Away (Bluesville)
1964 - Down Home Blues (Bluesville)
1965 - Hootin' the Blues (Bluesville)
1965 - Lightnin' Strikes (Tradition)
1965 - The Roots of Lightnin' Hopkins (Verve Folkways)
1966 - Soul Blues (Bluesville)
1967 - My Life in the Blues (Bluesville)
1967 - Original Folk Blues (Kent Records)
1967 - Lightnin'! (Arhoolie Records)
1968 - Freeform Patterns (International Artists)
1969 - California Mudslide (and Earthquake)
1991 - Swarthmore Concert Live, 1964
1991 - Sittin' in with Lightnin' Hopkins(Mainstream Records)
1991 - The Hopkins Bros. (Arhoolie Records, with his brothers Joel and John Henry)
1992 - Lonesome Life (Home Cooking/Collectables)
1992 - It's a Sin to Be Rich (Gitanes Jazz Productions)
1993 - Mojo Hand: The Lightnin' Hopkins Anthology (Rhino Records)
1995 - Po' Lightning
1999 - The Very Best of Lightnin' Hopkins

Old Blues

David "Honeyboy" Edwards - That's Alright

David Honeyboy Edwards - Standing on the Corner - Norwich Arts Centre- 01/10/2009

Standing on the corner
I didn't mean no harm
When a big policeman
Grabbed me by the arm

Now I was down in Memephis
On the corner of Beale and main
He said " Now hey big boy
I'm gonna have to know your name

Now you can find my name
On the tail of my shirt
I'm a Tennessee hustler
And I never have to work

But I'm telling all you rounders
You best leave my woman alone
I'll take my.38 special
And I'll run you rounders home

new song -- well not really but its the blues just the same

Honeyboy Edwards Two Trains Running

The Muddy Waters version was originally recorded in 1951 under the title "Still A Fool". Thans to Anita Cantor for alerting me to this, and pointing me to a Rob Quinn transcription of the lyrics. According to Anita, Muddy Waters also recorded it with different lyrics under the title "She's All Right"

The Muddy Waters lyrics are:

Well now there's two
There's two trains runnin'
Well ain't not one, (ho!) goin' my way
Well now one run at midnight
And the other one runnin' just 'fore day
A runnin' just 'fore day
It's runnin' just 'fore day
Oh Lord
Sure 'nough then
Oh well

Hmm, (ho) (ho)
Somebody help me (ho) with these blues
Well now, she's the one I'm lovin'
She the one I do hate to lose
I do hate to lose
I do hate to lose
Oh Lord
Sure enough I do
Oh well

I been crazy
Yes I been a fool
I been crazy, oh all my life
Well I done fell in love with her
With another man's wife
With another man's wife
With another man's wife
Oh Lord
Sure 'nough I done
Oh well

Long, she's long and tall
'Til she weeps like a willow tree
Well now, then say she's no good
But she's all right
She's all right with me
She's all right
She's all right
She's all right
She's all right

John Henry - Fiddlin' Arthur Smith

John Henry
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

Now John Henry was a mighty man, yes sir. He was born a slave in the 1840's but was freed after the war. He went to work as a steel-driver for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, don't ya know. And John Henry was the strongest, the most powerful man working the rails.

John Henry, he would spend his day's drilling holes by hitting thick steel spikes into rocks with his faithful shaker crouching close to the hole, turning the drill after each mighty blow. There was no one who could match him, though many tried.

Well, the new railroad was moving along right quick, thanks in no little part to the mighty John Henry. But looming right smack in its path was a mighty enemy - the Big Bend Mountain. Now the big bosses at the C&O Railroad decided that they couldn't go around the mile and a quarter thick mountain. No sir, the men of the C&O were going to go through it - drilling right into the heart of the mountain.

A thousand men would lose their lives before the great enemy was conquered. It took three long years, and before it was done the ground outside the mountain was filled with makeshift, sandy graves. The new tunnels were filled with smoke and dust. Ya couldn't see no-how and could hardly breathe. But John Henry, he worked tirelessly, drilling with a 14-pound hammer, and going 10 to 12 feet in one workday. No one else could match him.

Then one day a salesman came along to the camp. He had a steam-powered drill and claimed it could out-drill any man. Well, they set up a contest then and there between John Henry and that there drill. The foreman ran that newfangled steam-drill. John Henry, he just pulled out two 20-pound hammers, one in each hand. They drilled and drilled, dust rising everywhere. The men were howling and cheering. At the end of 35 minutes, John Henry had drilled two seven foot holes - a total of fourteen feet, while the steam drill had only drilled one nine-foot hole.

John Henry held up his hammers in triumph! The men shouted and cheered. The noise was so loud, it took a moment for the men to realize that John Henry was tottering. Exhausted, the mighty man crashed to the ground, the hammer's rolling from his grasp. The crowd went silent as the foreman rushed to his side. But it was too late. A blood vessel had burst in his brain. The greatest driller in the C&O Railroad was dead.

Some folks say that John Henry's likeness is carved right into the rock inside the Big Bend Tunnel. And if you walk to the edge of the blackness of the tunnel, sometimes you can hear the sound of two 20-pound hammers drilling their way to victory over the machine.