Can You Play This Riff? Ep.15 "Lightnin' Hopkins"

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[@GuitarPilgrim]

Lightnin' hopkins is probably one of my favorite guitarists, he was one of a kind!

[@boomerdell]

Agreed! He and so many of his fellow blues men, women, and people from that era and the years leading up to their music...all the rock we love, in all genres, owes it to them to remember them as the legends and influences they are.

[@boomerdell]

Ooooo, reminds me: would love to see you do something on some of the amazing music by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Talk about a LEGEND!

[@ThatOtherRaccoon]

Can you do a video on “Sailing” by Christopher Cross?

[@markwoodland9756]

wish you was my big brother

[@lacucaracha3694]

He even has a song called watch my fingers this would be a good episode

[@daveowens9490]

Hey Thom, happy patron here. Thanks for doing this. I saw Lightnin' play at a college in NYC a few weeks before he passed on. He wore a purple polyester suit and was pretty drunk. He did not sing much, but played a bunch of minute-long snippets. Despite the challenges, he stayed in the groove and oozed power and authenticity. It was remarkable, and the memory of that night is still vivid after all these years. Take care and thanks!

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I'm not a guitar player but enjoy watching you demonstrate the mechanics with your smiling upbeat way. Merci beaucoup.

[@CorbCorbin]

My favorite acoustic blues player. Sonny Terry is a badass too.

[@jaredjenkins1310]

I have waited for a guitar pilgrim Lightin Hopkins video for like 2 years. Thank you

[@sapelesteve]

👍👍That was fantastic Thom! All of those old Blues men were unique in their own way. Let's not forget that besides coming up with those guitar licks, they also had to sing along as well. Now that's really tough to do! Hope that you & that little one are doing well. 👍👍👏👏🎸🎸

[@tonypurcell1049]

Loved this "back to the roots" vid. As a young boy way back in the sixties we grooved to The Animals not realising how much cooler the original was. Nice one

[@noahtenshen]

I love starting my day with your recreations of classics. This is one of my all-time favorite jams and you put a big smile on my face. Thanks and Be Well Most Amazing One! You are a treasure.

[@cliffordpaul7643]

Nice work! It's kind of like trying to play an ocean or a storm or separate grains of sand from the mud. But if the foot is tapping you're getting something right.😊

[@brocluno01]

Excellent - love LH. Need a few more of his tunes/licks on this channel 😊

[@robertlemoine3500]

You sir are good , Thankyou Thom .

[@denisechetty4019]

Fantastic lesson!!! Love these licks 👍🙏🎸😇

[@Tom-wm4gy]

Never boring! Thanks for the tutorial...

[@ppvk2610]

Ah really really great, I love those old blues cats.. My favourite version of this is Muddy Waters 1978 RockPalace, with the great harpist Jerry Portnoy on fire there... And Muddy being an absolute boss at his 65' That whole show is highly recommendable Thx for the great lesson, try to play it often, got close but now I got it right

[@iannicholls7476]

Nice one! Thanks GP, that really does rock!

[@Scorhos]

Why the fender doesn't call you for a signature model? You are the proof that we can play everything with a strat. Excellent lesson, as always.

[@aleksandrsbaranovs2861]

Отлично!👍👍👍 Спасибо!✌

[@crisco-crispy8509]

Good teaching!

[@hawaiirealmedia5610]

Classic blues lick for sure. Nice video too!

[@timmclaughlin1787]

Great learning this , thanks for the video.

[@timomarra3315]

Really nice lesson!

[@Scorhos]

Man,thanks for share this riff with us.

[@theclassicrock8644]

nice blues song.loved to play on the guiter.really thanks a lot for the lesson.

[@jonmcg9731]

Nice playing! Thank you

[@johnmirabile3535]

ITS NOT ONLY THE RIFF THATS GREAT.......THAT BASSLINE IN PLEASE DONT GO IS THE HIDDEN GEM OF THAT SONG.....I LOVE THOSE DRIVING, BOUNCY, MINOR SOUNDING BASS LINES.....I LISTEN CLOSLEY TO GARY CLARK JR.'S MUSIC. HE IS A MASTER OF THAT DARK ,MELODIC, RIFF BASED BLUES......I LOVE MAJOR SHUFFLES, BUT THERES NOTHING LIKE HEAVY MINOR RIFF BLUEZ! ITS VERY HARD TO MAKE MAJOR BLUEZ APPEAL TO A YOUNGER AUDIENCE.....MY MODO IS? THERE A MILLION MORE GREAT BLUEZ RIFFS THAT HAVENT BEEN DISCOVERED YET, AND EVERYDAY IM ON A MISSION TO WRITE ONE........PEOPLE SAY THE BLUEZ IS SIMPLE, ITS BASICALLY, A 1,4,5 AND THE PENTATONIC SCALE! YEAHHHH RIGHTTTTT! ITS BECAUSE THE BLUEZ IS SUCH A SMALL PALET, MAKES IT EVEN HARDER TO WRITE SOMETHING LIKE LIGHTNIN, OR GARY CLARK JR'S SONGS....THEY DONT GET THAT? YES, ANYONE CAN LEARN TO PLAY THE BLUES, BUT ONLY 1% OF PLAYERS CAN CATCH THAT SWEET SPOT, IT TAKES AN AWESOME EAR, GREAT TIMING, EXTRAORDINARY DYNAMICS, AND FEEL, KNOWING HOW TO DIAL IN TONE FOR A SPECIFIC SOUND, LEAVING SPACE ESPECIALLY AT THE RIGHT TIME AND RIGHT PLACE, I CAN GO ON AND ON........THE FEW GREAT PLAYERS, ARE ABLE TO TAKE THERE FAVORITE PLAYERS, AND CREATE THERE OWN MIX, AND SOUND, WHICH BECOMES UNIQUE TO THERE STYLE, NOTTTTTT EASYYYYYY! TRY TAKING THIS LIGHTNIN SONG, AND MAKING IT YOUR OWN, I BET 99 OUT OF 100 PEOPLE WILL REALIZE THAT ITS NOT JUST A FEW NOTES, AND SIMPLE BASSLINE, WELL, IN THEORY, IT IS, TRY GETTING IT TO SOUND ANYWHERE NEAR THAT, WITHOUT COMPLETELY COPYING IT, YOULL SEE THEN, THAT THE BLUEZ IS FROM THE SOUL, AND TRANFERS TO THE HANDS, THERES LITTLE NUANCES, IN THERE THAT CAN ONLY BE CONVEYED BY A POOR BLACK GUY FROM THE SOUTH, WITH A WHOLE LOTTA HEARTACHE!.....THERE ARE ACCEPTIONS, AND HARD WORK WILL CERTAINLY PAY OFF, BUT THE AUTHENTICITY CAN NEVER BE TAUGHT 100% WHATS THAT SAYING? OFTEN REPLICATED NEVER DUPLICATED, SOMETHING LIKE THAT, YOU GET THE POINT, AND WHOEVER GETS THROUGH READING THIS WHOLE THEORY, AND ARE BLUEZ PLAYERS? IM SURE WILL AGREE!

[@paulholmes8885]

Great stuff very well explained. Thank you.

[@EMACHERRE]

Magnífico ... saludos desde España

[@charalampostseronis6500]

4:42 if you notice him playing that B7, I think he hits F# in the low E string. Watch him carefully at 3:47. And he always does that if you watch other videos on KZbin playing the same lick

[@hawaiirealmedia5610]

He came to my high school to play a show. I was shocked. WHO is this guy??? Back in 1969. I was blown away.

[@BoynamedMagnus183]

I love Lightning Hopkins

[@jamesdarnell8086]

Great!

[@bluesbyluca4272]

Thanks echt weer een vette video

[@RowanGroen]

Awesome

[@jacoponotarberardino755]

I prefer the Fred McDowell version, but Lightnin Hopkins he’s legendary too! From Lightnin Hopkins i love the duo album with John Lee Hooker, especially Hard Times.

[@seano2112]

the coolest bluesman of all

[@chrisbauman2562]

Oh we can sure think we can play this. But we'll never have the touch and tone of a true blues man. Something bout their hands give them all this unique tone.

[@drgitanovander7672]

Muy bien máster 👍👍

[@Beachbumartist]

Lightning is great.

[@kymcha]

You listen to the old masters stuff and think "that's pretty straightforward". Pick up the guitar and pretty quickly you're thinking "maybe not so simple". I think Mance Lipscombe had that droning base on the same string too. When you are used to an alternating base , your thumb just won't do the drone :)

[@giovanniviola6285]

💙

[@FSarnicola]

Top

[@FSarnicola]

I love Eric Gales

[@johnnygonzales3211]

I've said it before and I'm saying it again my friend that we want to see Guitar Pilgrim play a full song of whatever he likes your awesome too my friend😜

[@marions.120]

Thanks brother. More people need to know about Lightning! ✌️😎🎸🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶 p.s. I could use Rollin’ and Tumblin’ Elmore James. For some reason I keep getting lost on that one. Thanks again, have a great day.

[@UbbeFred]

U did the easiest thing try to play a cover of "lonesome road blues" u gonna find a live of Mr.hopkins sitting on a chair on the road playing the hardest licks I ever heard.

[@filipealexandresousa2087]

You should check out Green Onions from Lightnin'

[@fooll]

Far Out

[@andrewbenjamin1564]

what pedals are you using? I like your distinctive sound.

[@gabrielharapu7133]

Lightin hopkins style inspires a lot john lee hooker's style

[@dukeravenshadow5532]

Try the licks from "Watch My Fingers" ;)

[@jaspergillespie511]

Do you have a Spotify

[@Nick-sd7um]

I wonder if he had any impact on Mark knopfler. There's an interview of Mark somewhere talking about how he practiced that thumb bass beat foreveeeerrrrr

[@marcelnavarro2888]

Saúde Man!!!!, you're awesome! In Brazil we have some good musicians unknow'd by and unrecognized too. Chek for 2 that have a diferent and unique tecnique, please, see the HENRY PAUL TRIo!!! He is a Rockabilly/boogie guitar player and do an amaizing Bass/solo/ritm... In te same time! The other is absolutelly hated by 99.9% of brazilians named XIMBINHA. He do a swing caribean strange and impossible LINE to play rs see it and keepng guitar, man!!!

[@craigthomson3621]

So Lightning Hopkins is not as good as Steve Vai. I think it was Hound Dog Taylor who, after being asked how he wanted to be remembered as a musician, stated “If people say: “he couldn’t play for shit , but he sounded soooo good”.

[@matthewdeepblue]

If you aren't going to use his mojo hand (with that thumb going) don't start my dude

[@paulbillingham6769]

Is this where the Doors got their 'Love me two times' from? Sounds very similar?

[@alfiehenshall688]

Sounds like your in 'out of phase ' mode - in between middle & neck p/up but your switch looks in neck position ? Clarify please ? Great playing btw 👍🎸

[@TRICK-OR-TREAT236]

I CAN PLAY THAT RIFF ............................ IN 3 NOTES ! L.O.L.

[@Billsingsong]

Travis picking

[@vvoof2601]

Now do it without the capo and with some fingerpicks.

[@DpKris]

Hi Thom, can you do something of Joe Satriani?