Reminiscences of Blind Lemon - Lighnin' Hopkins

Yes, it’s been a long time but you know

I can remember some things that we used to do

I was playing with him when I was 8 years old

That would’ve made me such a guitar player in a way

Of speaking, because he never learnt me a note

But he’d always play it in front of me

And I’d do that on my own in a way of speaking at this

We had gone a long ways together, and

And we used to play together at a place you call

Buffalo, Texas, that was our signified going towards Dallas

The last I heard of Blind Lemon, he was in Dallas

And, so I heard that he got frozen up past

So I didn’t know, he was nice to me in every way

And I appreciated everything he’s done

And he used to holler at me, said «Boy, you better play it right»

And I’d go 'head on and play with him, and he say

«You know there’s one kind of favor I’ll ask to you»

And you see me and him would just Cadillac, at you know

And I just come on up to be one of them peoples, now

I’m an old man now, nearby old

'Cause I think I’m 16 tomorrow, ha haha, yeah

(When did you first hear him

What town did you first hear him)

Well the first the man was in Waxahachie

Waxahachie, Texas, now it was fixin' to be a sensation

At the Buffalo, Texas, uh, that we come and we

So we all got together and went up there

We rode a flat back '25 truck, mall truck

Yeah, all us just crowed up on the road

Better than to hear him singin' and all, so

I played with him

(Was he well known with your buddies?)

Well known, well known up there, that was his home

Where he was bred and born, his mother, daddy

And everything

Brothers, cousins all up there, up in there

(What'd he look like?)

Oh he was a great big fat dog man with big stomach

He’d lay that guitar 'cross his stomach, man, it was a shame

See and the guitar stick out way towards his chin

Yeah, yeah he had that much stomach way back, haha

(Was anybody there leading him around

Or did he get around on his own?)

No, he wouldn’t like leading 'cause you see

You called him blind, you know, don’t call him blind

'Cause he done never, he did never feel like he blind

'Cause he’s always like that, born like that, you see