Shotgun Blues / Rollin' Blues - Lightnin' Hopkins
Why included: Personal pick (#15 on RYM's top singles of 1950)
A-side: Shotgun Blues
Out of all the major post-war blues giants, Sam John "Lightnin'" Hopkins is easily the toughest nut to crack and dissect, let alone write about. At first, he seems like nothing special: just another country blues feller heavily influenced by the simultaneous rhythm-lead approach of Robert Johnson, the chilling weep of Skip James, and especially the enigmatic mystique of the great Blind Lemon Jefferson, who mentored the young Lightnin' Hopkins when playing together at informal church gatherings. Obviously a worthy playing and performing talent, but with a voice like that, he could even sound a bit meek compared to Charlie Patton or Blind Willie Johnson.
Yet, when you go back to all of the pre-war greats, you really don't find anyone like Hopkins, precisely because all of them were still playing from a personal perspective and concealing the pain of their own lives in musical form. I don't doubt that Sam didn't have quite a lot of himself in the music, but his style first and foremost dissolves himself and assumes a truly epic stance to country blues. It doesn't matter whether he is playing threateningly or tongue-in-cheek: when he does a song for you, he performs like an elder prophet delivering a sermon to a crowd of soon-to-be believers. Playing the humble "country blues" genre with that level of seriousness may be a recipe for disaster, but the combination of slow but absolutely scorching boogie lines with his overflowing levels of charisma and confidence makes the effect of this "jazz-and-poetry blues" truly astonishing. He might have meant some humor in a song like "Short Haired Woman", but with that style, it was simply impossible for the emotional effect not to be crushing.
The only issue that comes with this magnificent style is the monotony: like Nina Simone, every song of his feels so weighty and powerful that it can wear out the listener quickly, and Hopkins had a limited number of grooves he liked to repeat over and over. Yet, in the right dose, just a couple of his numbers can feel more important than some artists' entire discographies. "Shotgun" is a powerful demonstration of that talent. Hopkins's tone is most potent under a textured electric sound, but even under thinner acoustic, he wrings out every note, repeating each one enough times so their ringing impression remains deep with you. When he starts delivering those verses, you can feel that subtle, concealed danger without even glancing at its homicidal lyrics (that aggressive solo around 1:58 is enough to indicate the foul play going on). He has so much terrifying charisma that a mumble is all that's required to scare off the lighthearted, yet the elegant, free-form flow of the guitar and melody makes the vibe sound real and authentic.
Of course, much of Sam's appeal relies on absorbing his personality and presence rather than great compositional talent, which is why he's tougher to get into his discography compared to other blues greats of the 50s. Yet, it's not every day that a singer can come along and sing "if I don't get some competition, there's gonna be trouble in here" and make every breath of that believable, and sometimes, you just gotta live up to a talent like that.
B-side: Rollin' and Rollin'
Apple Music link: https://music.apple.com/us/album/rollin-and-rollin/724222820?i=724223761
With Hopkins in his prime, you can rarely go wrong, and this song delivers the goods nearly as well as the A-side. In this song, you can appreciate his signature playing technique in all of its glory, where at times he just lets his guitar loose to twist and turn in those winding series of chromatic turnarounds. Yet, the title isn't just for the guitar technique: the song's desolate, aggressive atmosphere almost embodies the narrative of a lone traveler that can't stay in one place for too long, a mood that is ideally suited for a guy like Lightnin' Hopkins. A mini-atmospheric gem right here, underrated only because of the sheer number of great (but repetitive) songs this prolific (but difficult) artist managed to release.
Verdict: Essential listening
As widely revered as Hopkins is, he is an artist I feel no person who genuinely loves blues music can truly be without, simply because no one could ever recreate the vibe that permeates all of his recordings. On his best singles like this one, it is almost mindboggling how he was able to bottle up the most explosive forms of aggression and misery within a subtle, minimalistic framework and still have the effect be absolutely shattering, and it's this unique personality that still makes this music sounds so timeless today. Perhaps some people might find him too stiff compared to most of his country blues elders, and it is true only 3-4 songs are necessary to understand his essence. Yet, there is a time for fun and variety and there is a time for the terrifying assault of the opening chords of "Shotgun", and it's best to appreciate the best of both of these worlds rather than believing one to be superior to the other.
No comments:
Post a Comment