Richie Havens, R.I.P.

Richie Havens at Woodstock, 1969.

Richie Havens, the bearded troubadour of Woodstock, has died at the age of 72. Born in Brooklyn, the singer is perhaps best known for his fiery “Freedom,” which he improvised onstage at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.

Havens toured and recorded for decades until complications from kidney surgery left him unable to tour after 45 years in 2012. In addition to putting out 21 studio albums and touring the world numerous times, Havens also devoted much of his time to charity. In 1991 he won the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award.

Here’s Richie performing “Freedom” at the Woodstock 40th anniversary at Bethel, N.Y. in 2009.

 

Video Du Jour: Richie Havens

It’s an important today in America: not only is it Martin Luther King Jr. Day, celebrating the life and achievements of the civil rights leader, it’s also the ceremonial inauguration of President Barack Obama.

People in this country disagree about a lot of things, including President Obama. That comes with the territory, which is freedom. Freedom to speak your mind, freedom to make the choices you want to make, freedom to disagree with just about anyone if you wish. We cherish our freedom, and we are proud of it.

Sometimes we take it too far, and use our freedom to intrude upon other people’s freedom. Today’s inauguration will just underscore what we already know: we have to keep working at it, maybe one day we’ll get this freedom thing right.

Today is also Richie Havens’ birthday, so let’s share an appropriate song that Richie played a long time ago. It’s a little short on meaningful lyrics but long on feeling.

 

Video Du Jour: Richie Havens

Celebrating the anniversary of the big Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which started 43 years ago today. One of the first acts to perform was Richie Havens, singing and strumming acoustically even while workers continued to set up the stage and sound system.

Sorry for the credits rolling toward the end – this bit is from a 1990 documentary, Woodstock: The Lost Performances, which featured performers and/or songs that didn’t make it into the Academy Award-winning movie. The Lost Performances was issued only on VHS and has long been out of print but you can maybe scratch up a used copy on Amazon.

Woodstock.com

(More Than) 40 Years Out: Celebrating Woodstock

Marker overlooking the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair grounds near Bethel, NY.

There isn’t much more to say about Woodstock that we didn’t say here, here or here … but the 43rd anniversary of the historic music festival is coming up this week (Aug. 15-17) and we thought it would be a good opportunity to look back for a few minutes.

Why should we celebrate Woodstock? Someone asked that once, then he answered his own question: it was just a weekend when a whole lot of dirty hippies gathered in one place to smoke dope, get naked with each other and bitch about all of the things they took for granted. And I said yeah, exactly! The one thing he didn’t add was that those 500,000 so-called dirty hippies gathered there because nobody stopped them from doing it.

Even in 1969, while there were riots in the streets and war protests across the country, we were still the Land of the Free. All of those people initially drawn to Woodstock went for the music, but once they got there it was something else: a festival that got out of control, a cluster fuck with a soundtrack. It was, ultimately, a peaceful happening in a time of war and personal conflict.

John Sebastian playing for the masses at Woodstock.

Woodstock was a good thing that happened in a troubled time. When assassins took the lives of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy and Malcolm X, those were bad things. When a police riot disrupted protests in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, that was also a bad thing. When American National Guardsmen shot and killed unarmed students at Kent State, that was certainly a bad thing.

Most of all, Woodstock was a celebration of freedom. People went to Woodstock to celebrate the rights that we are guaranteed as Americans, and the privileges we think we deserve as a rich, prosperous nation. Including freedom of speech – the same right used back then to protest the Vietnam War, and the same right guaranteed today to guys who own fast-food chicken restaurants as well as to people who disagree with what he says.

So maybe Woodstock should join our calendar of national celebrations, another occasion to appreciate the many great things we have here in America. Maybe you shouldn’t take the day off work, but on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of this coming week just take a moment to remember a time of peace and music – and freedom.

And you can play these as your soundtrack … they’re not all from the original Woodstock, but each one has the proper spirit.

MP3: “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell

MP3: “Freedom” (2009 version) by Richie Havens

MP3: “Kiss My Ass” by Country Joe & the Fish

MP3: “Green River” (live at Woodstock) by Creedence Clearwater Revival

MP3: “The Brown Acid Is Not Specifically Too Good” stage announcement at Woodstock, 1969

MP3: “Goin’ Up The Country” (live at Bethel Woods 2009) by Canned Heat

MP3: “Dance To The Music” (live at Woodstock) by Sly and the Family Stone

MP3: “Wooden Ships” by Crosby, Stills & Nash

MP3: “Piece Of My Heart” by Big Brother & the Holding Company

MP3: “China Cat Sunflower” (live) by The Grateful Dead

MP3: “Johnny B. Goode” (live at Woodstock) by Johnny Winter

MP3: “Volunteers/With A Little Help From My Friends” (live at Bethel Woods 2009) by Jefferson Starship

MP3: “For Those of You Who Have Partaken of the Green Acid” stage announcement at Woodstock, 1969

MP3: “Star Spangled Banner/Purple Haze” (live at Woodstock) by Jimi Hendrix

 

MP3: NBC News report on Woodstock, 1969

Celebrate Your Freedom

We are taking a few days off to celebrate our country’s birthday and if you are an astute reader, you will know this is simply last year’s July 4 post with a few different songs tossed in.

Wherever you are, take a few moments to appreciate your freedom – and remember there are still places in the world where armed thugs can kick down your door and drag you away just for reading this blog.  Celebrate freedom this weekend, and let it ring around the world.

You are welcome to enjoy the enclosed music at your summer party.  See ya!

MP3: “Star Spangled Banner/Purple Haze” (live at Woodstock) by Jimi Hendrix

MP3: “American Idiot” (live) by Green Day

MP3: “Freedom Blues” by Little Richard

MP3: “Do You Remember the Americans” (alternate track) by Manassas

MP3: “Promised Land” by Chuck Berry

MP3: “Fourth of July” by Dave Alvin

MP3: “Let’s Turn This Thing Around” by Peter Case

MP3: “Freedom” by Richie Havens (2009 version)

MP3: “Simple Song Of Freedom” by Tim Hardin (live at Woodstock)

MP3: “Every Hand In The Land” by Arlo Guthrie (live at Woodstock)

MP3: “That Ain’t My America” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

MP3: “Rednecks” by Randy Newman

MP3: “I Shall Be Free” by Bob Dylan

MP3: “Listen To Me” by Bill Miller

MP3: “Back In The U.S.A.” (live)  by Edgar Winter’s White Trash w/Rick Derringer

MP3: “Fourth of July” by Soundgarden

MP3: “American Tune” by Paul Simon

MP3: “America, Fuck Yeah”  by Team America, South Park or whatever

MP3: “Living In America” by James Brown

MP3: “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream” by Johnny Cash

Celebrate Your Freedom

We are taking a few days off to celebrate our country’s birthday and if you are an astute reader, you will know this is simply last year’s July 4 post with a few extra songs tossed in.

Wherever you are, take a few moments to appreciate your freedom – and remember there are still places in the world where armed thugs can kick down your door and drag you away just for reading this blog.  Celebrate freedom this weekend, and let it ring around the world.

You are welcome to enjoy the enclosed music at your summer party.  See ya!

MP3: “Star Spangled Banner/Purple Haze” (live at Woodstock) by Jimi Hendrix

MP3: “American Idiot” (live) by Green Day

MP3: “Do You Remember the Americans” (alternate track) by Manassas

MP3: “Red, White and Blue” (live) by Lynyrd Skynyrd

MP3: “Promised Land” by Chuck Berry

MP3: “Freedom” by Richie Havens (2009 version)

MP3: “Simple Song Of Freedom” by Tim Hardin (live at Woodstock)

MP3: “Every Hand In The Land” by Arlo Guthrie (live at Woodstock)

MP3: “I Shall Be Free” by Bob Dylan

MP3: “Back In The U.S.A.” (live)  by Edgar Winter’s White Trash w/Rick Derringer

MP3: “American Tune” by Paul Simon

MP3: “America, Fuck Yeah”  by Team America, South Park or whatever

MP3: “Living In America” by James Brown

MP3: “U. S. Blues” by the Grateful Dead

MP3: “Spirit Of America” by the Beach Boys

MP3: “Momma Miss America” by Paul McCartney

MP3: “Rockin’ In The Free World” (live) by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

MP3: “Free and Freaky (In The U.S.A.)” by the Stooges

MP3: “Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

MP3: “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream” by Johnny Cash

Woodstock Preview: Richie Havens

Richie Havens

Well, here we are in New York’s Hudson Valley just about 30 miles from Bethel, where the Woodstock 40th anniversary festival will take place on Saturday.  The event, called “The Heroes of Woodstock” because it isn’t really sanctioned by the promoters who put on the original festival (and who own the copyright on the Woodstock name), is at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts which is this fancy $100 million entertainment complex built on the grounds of the original festival.

Friday afternoon, they kicked off the weekend’s festivities with a media-only performance by Richie Havens, the performer who kicked off the original Woodstock festival.  He sang “Freedom,” the song he made up on the spot back in 1969.  You can see video of it here – but two caveats: the streaming sucks and before you get to the music you have to listen to some real self-satisified speechifying by rich guy Alan Gerry, a cable TV magnate who bought up Max Yasgur’s original dairy farm and turned it into a really slick amphitheater and museum. 

Review: “Nobody Left To Crown,” Richie Havens

Richie Havens made quite an impression when he was the first act to play the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969.  Frantically scratching at his open-tuned guitar and wailing like a man possessed, his “Freedom” (made up right on the spot) is one of the classics of the Woodstock era.

Havens has carved a niche for himself as a singer of great emotion and power, and many of his songs have a deep social conscience that comment on modern times.  However, that doesn’t necessarily make for great listening.  Nobody Left To Crown, Havens’ first album of new material in four years, is a decent collection that showcases his unique voice but tends to get a little murky in the social relevance department.

Cool Covers

    

A couple of original Woodstock acts provide today’s songs, one old and one new.  The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is one of rock’s undisputed anthems, and anyone who dares to cover this classic is treading on holy ground.  But that’s no problem for eternal iconoclast Richie Havens, who opened 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in memorable fashion (rent the movie).  Havens’ version of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is from his upcoming Nobody Left To Crown.  And because the Who’s original studio recording of this song is so familiar, we’ve enclosed a live version from the 2006 tour.

MP3: “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (live) by the Who

MP3: “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by Richie Havens