Richie Havens, 1941–2013

Richie Havens was originally booked to appear fifth at the 1969 Woodstock festival, but all the earlier acts were stuck on the New York Thruway, so the organizers pleaded with him to start singing. “I felt like, ‘They’re going to kill me up there if I go up on stage first. Give me a break,’” he later said. But the crowd loved him. “From the side of the stage they go, ‘Richie, four more songs?’ I went back and did that, then it was, ‘Four more songs…’ and that kept happening till two hours and 45 minutes later I had sung every song I know.”

Havens didn’t play quite that long, but his impact on Woodstock and the generation it defined was incontestable, said the Los Angeles Times. His last song, a made-for-the-moment improvisation called “Freedom,” felt “like an opening argument—and served as a reminder of the African rhythms that helped birth much of the music that would follow over the next 72 hours.” Havens performed with “a level of intensity that made Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sound like the Kingston Trio.”

Born in Brooklyn, Havens “started out singing doo-wop and gospel,” said Billboard.com. His search for a new sound led him to Greenwich Village, where he developed a unique style and repertoire “drawing on folk, blues, rock, jazz, funk, and even elements of country and bluegrass.” His singular guitar technique and expressive voice caught the ear of Albert Grossman, Bob Dylan’s manager, who landed him the record deal that led to his successful 1967 album, Mixed Bag.

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On that record and later ones, said RollingStone.com, Havens showed his songwriting chops, particularly in the anti-war protest song “Handsome Johnny,” which he co-wrote with the actor Lou Gossett Jr. But Havens “made his name covering and rearranging songs” by Bob Dylan and the Beatles; his version of “Here Comes the Sun” was a hit in 1971. Havens did some acting after Woodstock, and “though his record sales dimmed, his passion for politics and music didn’t.” Music, he once said, “is the major form of communication. It’s the commonest vibration, the people’s news broadcast.”