Fact #31587
When:
Short story:
Sam Hopkins is born in Piney Woods, Centerville, Texas, USA. He will find fame as blues star Sam 'Lightnin' Hopkins.
Full article:
Lightnin' Hopkins : My family, we come up in Leona County. It's just a little old country where they farm and raise cotton and corn and peas and peanuts, things like that. So that's where I grew up to know myself - back out from Centerville about twelve miles back in the country.
I heard my brother playing a guitar. It was the first one I ever seen. He wouldn't let me play his guitar. I wanted to play it, so at last one day they come in and caught me with the guitar 'cause I couldn't hang it back up - see, I had to get in a chair to get it down. So he caught me fair.
He said, 'Boy, I done told you - don't fool with that guitar.' He says, 'Can you play this guitar?' I say, 'Yeah, I can play it some.' He said, 'Well, go ahead and let's see what you can do.' I went ahead and played him a little tune, and he liked it. So he said, 'Yeah, he can play some. Where you learn that from?' I said, 'Well, I just learned it.'
So I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it, take me a little piece of plank, nailed it onto that cigar box, and I got me some screen wire and I made me a bridge back there and raised it up high enough that it would sound inside that little box, and I got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune, and I played from then on. So I got me a guitar of my own when I got to be eight years old.
Tom Waits : When I was about sixteen I saw Lightnin' Hopkins in a little club called the Candy Company. What was it like? It was like watching birds land on a wire and take off again. Simple and very moving.
(Source : not known)
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I heard my brother playing a guitar. It was the first one I ever seen. He wouldn't let me play his guitar. I wanted to play it, so at last one day they come in and caught me with the guitar 'cause I couldn't hang it back up - see, I had to get in a chair to get it down. So he caught me fair.
He said, 'Boy, I done told you - don't fool with that guitar.' He says, 'Can you play this guitar?' I say, 'Yeah, I can play it some.' He said, 'Well, go ahead and let's see what you can do.' I went ahead and played him a little tune, and he liked it. So he said, 'Yeah, he can play some. Where you learn that from?' I said, 'Well, I just learned it.'
So I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it, take me a little piece of plank, nailed it onto that cigar box, and I got me some screen wire and I made me a bridge back there and raised it up high enough that it would sound inside that little box, and I got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune, and I played from then on. So I got me a guitar of my own when I got to be eight years old.
Tom Waits : When I was about sixteen I saw Lightnin' Hopkins in a little club called the Candy Company. What was it like? It was like watching birds land on a wire and take off again. Simple and very moving.
(Source : not known)