R I P Richie Havens

[Prospero]

So the great singer Richie Havens died aged 72. A heart attack. Havens was probably best known for his appearance at Woodstock but he recoded a fine body of work - good cover versions and his own material.
RIP Richie.
Richie Havens - Freedom - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ0I0SRW9_U)

[GroobySteven]

Wow!
I didn't think he was that old ... even so too young. RIP.

[TSBootyLondon]

An AMAZING guitarist... Do you know turned professional at just 14! He always knew he wanted to perform and perform he did!
He was also the inspiration behind Noel Gallaghers band 'High Flying Birds'

RIP... xx

[robertlouis]

He was a good friend of a friend in the biz, so I met him once after a gig when we shared a few drinks, some songs and a good long chat. Lovely, soft, warm man, with the biggest hands I've ever seen. He could do things on a fretboard with his left thumb that would be physically impossible for almost any other guitarist. Sleep safe and long, big man. RIP.

[giovanni_hotel]

Richie Havens - Here Comes The Sun (live 1971) HQ - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBbXKsKXyNU)

Very sad news. Miss him much.

[Prospero]

Some elderly friends of mine used to live in the same building as Richie in Greenwich Village - and one day riding the elevator he boarded it. They were a little frightened at this large guy with dreadlocks (which he wore for a time) until i told them he was actually a very famous singer. They later chatted to him regularly. A nice guy and a great singer.

[Prospero]

Not his best song... but fitting I think.

Richie Haven - Still Looking For A Way To Say Goodbye - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAjNKOiK2u4)

[Bobzz]

Had the pleasure of seeing him perform several times and eventually meeting him after at a small venue. Several of us chatted with Richie for about an hour and I continued to see him when he performed in NYC. He was a wonderfully engaging guy and many of his songs are the veritable sound track to my youth and adult life. R.I.P. Richie Havens, you'll be missed but we have your songs to remind us of what you meant to us.

[Ecstatic]

I had the pleasure of meeting Richie several times. He was always the most gracious and unassuming of people, a brilliant performer and a great soul for the era, the very embodiment of Beat and 60s spirit. As Robert Lewis mentioned, he could cover the fretboard with his left thumb alone and created rhythmic patterns of exquisite beauty. RIP, sorely missed.

[Merkurie]

When I first watched the Woodstock film, it was Richie Havens who made the deepest impression on me.
Rest in Peace and Be Free.

[my my my!]

Isn't he the guy that sang La Bamba? I thought he died in the 50's.

RIP La bamba dude

[giovanni_hotel]

Isn't he the guy that sang La Bamba? I thought he died in the 50's.

RIP La bamba dude


LOL. You serious???

That's Ritchie VALENS, not Havens.

[luvs2lick1385]

I met Richie Havens at the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park in the summer of 1968. I was always hanging out down there with the rest of the hippies. We smoked a few joints with him and he played his guitar and sang a few songs

[TSBootyLondon]

WOW! :-) I love to hear tales of personal encounters such as this one!



He was a good friend of a friend in the biz, so I met him once after a gig when we shared a few drinks, some songs and a good long chat. Lovely, soft, warm man, with the biggest hands I've ever seen. He could do things on a fretboard with his left thumb that would be physically impossible for almost any other guitarist. Sleep safe and long, big man. RIP.

[Stavros]

I saw Richie Havens at a free concert in Hyde Park in 1969 -the one which was headlined by Blind Faith, and which also featured Donovan -some contrast there! I had been a fan of Havens at the time, and I recall that one of his drummers lost his headgear, can't recall if it was a cap or a beret -the man was distraught and Havens issued an appeal for someone to return it. Other than the execrable Donovan and the tepid Blind Faith, it was a beautiful day, but too many people turned up and the free concerts weren't as much fun as they were when they started.

In fact this Wikipedia list is misleading -I was at the first concert in 1968 which featured Junior's Eyes, who are not credited, Roy Harper and Pink Floyd, possibly Jethro Tull or maybe they were in the next one -they were a crap band from the start and Ian Anderson a notorious shit in the industry; (Jethro Tull), Traffic and The Nice were in another concert that summer; I think there were three acts in each concert, I didn't go to all of them. Attendance at the first concert was about 3,000.
List of concerts in Hyde Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concerts_in_Hyde_Park)

[Prospero]

Bit off the point - but I agree that Blind Faith never achieved their potential. A band combining Eric Clapton and Stevie Winwood should have been terrific. A few good tracks but somehow it was a bird which never flew.

[robertlouis]

Bit off the point - but I agree that Blind Faith never achieved their potential. A band combining Eric Clapton and Stevie Winwood should have been terrific. A few good tracks but somehow it was a bird which never flew.

Perhaps a case of too many and conflicting talents. Traffic was an infinitely superior band. Winwood should have stuck with them.

[Prospero]

Traffic got better but their first album had way too much silly psychedelic whimsy
Give me the spencer davis group anytime

[Stavros]

Perhaps a case of too many and conflicting talents. Traffic was an infinitely superior band. Winwood should have stuck with them.

Traffic may have been better than Blind Faith, but produced an antiseptic, arid sound void of spontaneity and excitement. The pseudo-musical varnish they played stood in radical contrast to Mick Farren and the Deviants, or the Edgar Broughton Band. I think the best live band of that kind in that era was Chicken Shack.

[LovinThaTSLadiez]

Wow, he was one of my favorites. R.I.P.

[Prospero]

I take it from your post then Stavros that you preferred the more abrasive sort of act from that era. Mick Farren while a pretty vivid presence in the London Underground scene never really produced anything of musical worth whatsoever. Edgar Broughton were something of a one trick pony and I agree, Chicken Shack were good - though essentially a blues band without any of the counter cultural trappings of any of the other acts mentioned.

None were as good or enduring as Havens.

[Stavros]

I would not rate either Mick Farren and the Deviants or Edgar Broughton, musically, which is the point when compared to Traffic. In other words, if they were better to listen to than Traffic, where does that leave that over-hyped combo of smoothies? Hence the status of Chicken Shack, and I was excepting most of the other bands like the Mothers, Pink Floyd etc. But then I seem to remember you liked Donovan...? Taste were a raw energetic band when they started at the Marquee around 67-68, so many bands came and went in those years. I don't recall Badfinger but there was an article on them in today's Independent. But you are right in the context of Havens and this thread.

[Prospero]

No I liked maybe four or five songs by Donovan. Most were unutterably twee.