Tag: Richie Havens

RIP Richie Havens

Richie Havens I just heard on the radio station WFUV that Richie Havens passed away today of a heart attack at the age of 72. Chimesfreedom previously wrote about Havens’s landmark opening performance at Woodstock when he sang “Freedom (Motherless Child).” Below is a 1971 performance of “Here Comes the Sun.”

Last year, Havens had announced that he was stopping touring because of health concerns. At the moment, there is not much information about his passing on the Internet, but The Roots Agency, his agent, has a statement on their webpage, where they note, “Havens used his music to convey passionate messages of brotherhood and personal freedom.” He also was one of the great interpreters of great songs. For example, in addition to his Beatles interpretation above, below he covers two other great songwriters singing Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey” and Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.”

Nobody will ever have a voice like Richie Havens. RIP.

What is your favorite Richie Havens song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Jeff Buckley’s Interactive Video for “Just Like a Woman”
  • Ruben “Hurricane” Carter “in a Land Where Justice Is a Game”
  • Bobby “Blue” Bland Was All Right With Me
  • Tony Sheridan and the Beatles
  • Got My Mind Set on George Harrison
  • One Degree of Separation Between Bob Dylan & Twilight Zone: Bonnie Beecher & “Come Wander With Me”

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Richie Havens Foresaw Cell Phones On the Woodstock Stage

    Woodstock

    This week, on August 15 in 1969, a Friday, the “Woodstock Music & Art Fair” began in Bethel, New York. Of course, today we remember the festival with simply the name “Woodstock.”

    I took the above photo in 2007 after making a pilgrimage to the site. At the time of my visit, there was not much to commemorate the site beyond the large plaque. But there also was a man who had attended the concert who came on his own to tell stories to eager tourists like me. It was cool. The owners of the site finally did build a museum though.

    Back in 1969, the musical performances started at 5:07 p.m. when Richie Havens took the stage. After he performed his set, the crowd kept calling him back for more, so that he finally had to resort to improvising a song based on the old spiritual, “Motherless Child.” Thus, he closed his set with his iconic performance of the much-improvised “Freedom (Motherless Child).” He later explained, “When you see me in the movie tuning my guitar and strumming, I was actually trying to figure out what else I could possibly play! I looked out at all of those faces in front of me and the word ‘freedom’ came to mind.”

    At one point during the song, he apparently foresaw the use of cell phones in the future when he sang, “I got a telephone in my bosom / And I can call him up from my heart.” What a great way to begin the advertised “3 Days of Peace & Music.” In this video below, Havens looks back on Woodstock forty years after the event.

    Do you wish you were at Woodstock in 1969? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Max Yasgur, the Farmer Behind Woodstock
  • “Shannon”: Henry Gross, Sha Na Na, and a Beach Boys Dog
  • RIP Richie Havens
  • Star-Spangled Banner: Francis Scott Key & Singers Who Redefined His Words

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)