#477: lightnin’ hopkins - lightnin’s blues (live 1964)
it’s like everything that could possibly redeem mankind (truth, beauty, humor, ray ban sunglasses, tuxedos, melody, simplicity, the mid-60s, black-and-white film, integration, improvisation, insight, pompadours) was distilled into three and a half minutes. and at the end, as if lightnin’ hopkins hadn’t already given us enough, he says out of nowhere, “when that ticktock quits ticking, you don’t keep time no more,” which is the best thing anyone who’s not oscar wilde ever said about death.
