Richie Havens Appreciation

Yeah -- he definitely had his own style. I didn't like everything he did, but his improvisation at Woodstock will always be a great performance.
 
This was one of the first CDs/albums/whatever I got. I think I was watching Woodstock a lot at the time.

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Sold it a long time ago. :embarrassed:
 
I think I wore this one out.
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If anyone needs top and bottom pickguards, it would be Richie. :grin: This song works so well, even though it has nothing close the the Harrison guitar parts.
 
it's a damn good thing that the greatful dead didn't have richie havens sit in.......they STILL wouldn't have an end to that song.
 
mongooz said:
it's a damn good thing that the greatful dead didn't have richie havens sit in.......they STILL wouldn't have an end to that song.
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Poor Richie. The folks running Woodstock wouldn't let him off stage as there were no other acts there and ready. He played everything he knew and improvised on Motherless Child and came up with the now famous Freedom.
 
First time I heard him I wasn't yet a teenager and was listing to a recording of him at Woodstock.
 
John Sebastian and Noel Paul Stookey both talk about playing the basket houses in Greenwich Village in the 60's; no one wanted to follow Richie Havens because people would drop all their cash in the basket for him and not have money left to tip the following musicians.
 
Richie was awesome. I got to see him at Ocean City in a room the size of a couple of public school classrooms. He was stellar. Just so much power and emotion in his voice. Cliff Eberhardt opened and he pretty good too, but Richie was kickass.
 
Loved his performance at Woodstock '69. I wasn't there, but the album let us enjoy the music of Woodstock.

 
I saw him some years ago on a bill with Big Brother and the Holding Company and Jefferson Starship.

I was offered a free ticket, which is why I went. Everybody that I saw at the show that I knew was in the same boat. I remember thinking that was odd, but whatever, I was about to see some legends. The room was about half way full and the lights were kept up during Havens opening set because they assumed more people would be showing up, which they didn't. I don't know if he was having an off day or just a combination of factors, but it was painful to watch.

A few years later I met the promoter who put that bill together. He was driving for Uber and stopped to talk to me because he saw me loading gear into my car. He tried to razzle dazzle me with who he knew, connections etc, and mentioned the fact that he put that particular show together. I told him I was there and it looked like a cluster fuck. I was kind of impressed with how many excuses he was able to rattle off to explain why it wasn't his fault.

Looking back, dealing with that guy is probably what had Havens in a mood, well that and opening for what amounted to a Janis Joplin tribute band.
 
I imagine Richie hated the nostalgia aspect of the music. He struck me as always moving forward, yet being tied to the Woodstock era and mystique. I also woul imagine his music was better in more intimate settings.
 
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