Topic: Miller's Breakdown

[frankie]

Thanks for posting those memories, John...  so odd to hear Bo was stricken with blindness in his adulthood...  makes me think of Blind Boy Fuller in that sense.

[eric]

John, That's a great story.  Thanks for posting.

[Pan]

Thank you John, very much for sharing those memories with Sam Chatmon!

Cheers

Pan

[One-Eyed Ross]

John, THANK YOU.  Of all the things I've read here on WeenieCampbell, I think that this last post has been the most wonderful. 

[Blues Vintage]

Some more information about Sam;

Hilarious quote from the interview;
I never changed my name either except at my birth. I was named ?Vivian? but I changed it to ?Sam,? because that was a girl?s name and I didn?t want to be named after no woman.

http://sandiegotroubadour.com/2012/09/sam-chatmon/

[David Kaatz]

Thanks also from me, John, for the stories about Sam.
I recall at Pt Townsend hearing some of that story from you, about when a man gets married, he'll have a treasure. That was before you were married, of course, and I believe I said something untowardly snarky. If you remember, that, I would like to apologize. And if you don't, well, nevermind!

Dave

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I have a new puzzler for you.  The song is Lightnin' Hopkins' "I'm A Crawling Black Snake", and here is his recording of it:



The questions on "I'm A Crawling Black Snake" are as follows:

   * What playing position/tuning did Lightnin' use to play the song?
   * Where does he fret the run that he plays from :04--:08?
   * Where does he fret the chordal position he plays from :28--:34?
   * Where does he fret the run he plays from :53--:56?
   * Where does he fret the chordal position he plays from 1:21--1:24?
   * How was it possible for someone to be as cool as Lightnin' Hopkins?

Please use only your ears and your instruments to arrive at your answers and please don't post any answers before Thursday, June 4 at 8:00 AM in your own time zone.  Thanks for your participation and I hope you enjoy Lightnin's song and his performance.
All best,
Johnm

[Chezztone]

Great sound! Seems to work for me in Vestapol, tuned low to match the recording. The runs work on the first and third frets and open strings. For the chord at .28 slide thumb to 5th fret for bass notes, first finger at same fret for high notes, third finger grabs the 7th fret for higher note. That cool chord at 1:21 is 6th fret third string, 8th fret second string, 7th fret first string. To be as cool as Lightnin Hopkins, get a nice suit and tie, a good haircut (skip the dark glasses, those have been co-opted by a certain movie), and learn to play and sing the blues in a commanding yet laid-back manner.

[banjochris]

I didn't figure out all the runs and chords, but it sounds to me like Lightnin' is playing out of dropped D and his G chord is 5-x-x-4-3-5 low to high. Not sure he really bothers with the B note on the third string.

As far as being cool, it's 30% voice, 40% attitude and 30% the sunglasses. I agree with Chezztone that the glasses have become a clich?, but Lightnin' looks MUCH better with them.
Chris

[David Kaatz]

I was zero for two last time, but I'm still trying!

Lightnin' Hopkins Crawlin Black Snake
Cross Note tuning (E B E G B E) tuned low - I didn't check to what note.
The run from :04 to :08 is like this:
E|0 3 0 2 0--------------------------
B|---------3 0 2 0-------------------
G|-----------------2 0 2 0-----------
E|-------------------------0---0 3 0
B|---------------------------3-------
E|-----------------------------------0

From :28 to :34
              E|-7-
              B|-5--
              G|-x-
              E|-0 or x-
              B|-5-
(slide up to) E| 5

From :53 to :56
E|0 2 3 -----------
B|------2 0--------
G|----------0------
E|------------0-0--
B|-------------2---
E|----------------0

From 1:21 to 1:24
E|-7
B|-8
G|-7
E|-x
B|-x
E|-0

We only wish we knew how he is so cool!

Dave

[Prof Scratchy]

I'm going to go for dropped D, tuned a half step down. I agree with Banjochris on how he plays the IV chord. The opening run is quite hard to capture at the speed he plays it, but I think he starts playing the notes of a G7 on the top two strings, then moving to notes found in a C chord before going back to the dropped D note. Same approach to the run at :53 onwards, except  he puts in a slightly sustained open B note on the second string. From 1;21 to 1;24 the chord is, I think, a D chord moved up three frets and bent slightly.

[Old Man Ned]

Unfortunately had very limited time too listen too this so will only answer the first and last questions.  For the playing position/tuning did Lightnin' use to play the song I'm in agreement with Banjo Chris and Prof Scratchy, it sounds like Dropped D tuning to me.

How was it possible for someone to be as cool as Lightnin' Hopkins?  I think it's impossible for folk like us to say.  Would Lightin' know how he was so cool?  He just was.  I think he was born cool and didn't have to do anything else except be who he was and he made a pretty good job of that.  Not sure a suit and smart haircut will cut it. I recall a photo of Lightin' in a lemon V neck jumper that I wouldn't have been seen dead in, but as looked at the photo, I thought, yeah, he looks pretty cool in that!

[Chezztone]

Wait a minute -- Hopkins wasn't born cool any more than he was born playing guitar. Being cool is something cool people work at, as he obviously did. Especially if you're a performer (in which case it's your job to be cool) you have to carefully choose your clothes, words, movements etc. -- and musical sounds of course -- until they become so natural that noncool people think you were born that way. Saying "I guess I wasn't born cool so I don't have to try," or what seems like the opposite but amounts to the same result, "Maybe I was born cool so I'll just wear what I happen to be wearing even though I just came in from gardening," are both cop-outs. There are various ways to be cool. But there are many more ways to be uncool! Copying Hopkins' style might not get you to full coolness but it'd probably be a step in the right direction.

[frankie]

   * How was it possible for someone to be as cool as Lightnin' Hopkins?

How was it possible? It was fully IMpossible and IMplausible. Lightnin' is a fluke of nature - his very being folded up time and space into concentric folds and literally DREW coolness (ashe, if you will) out of the cavernous depths of the past and the shadowy, unknowable future. Doing so effectively

• makes his coolness WAY more than the sum of his parts
• makes him a platonic ideal of coolness
• reduces the potential for coolness in all times past, present and future, making it unthinkable that we shall ever see his like again in any lifetime

Just had to get that off my chest.

Dropped D - yes.

[frankie]

(skip the dark glasses, those have been co-opted by a certain movie)

yeah but... yeah but...  the hook! with muddy's band!

the rest of the movie just kinda is what it is...  but the hook!!! and big walter!!!