Richie Havens (1941 – 2013)
Folk singer Richie Havens, the opening act at the 1969 Woodstock music festival, died Monday of a sudden heart attack, his publicist said. He was 72.
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Richie Havens didn’t have the career of a Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills & Nash or any of his more commercially successful contemporaries, but he was just as vital and just as important.
Through it all, Richie Havens was there.
He was there on the streets of his native Brooklyn organizing and perform doo-wop, a key strand in rock n roll’s DNA.
He was there with the Beats in performing poetry and drawing portraits.
He was there when folk music exploded out of Greenwich Village and he performed with the likes of Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Dave Van Ronk and all of the rising stars from that scene.
He was there when Louis Gossett, Jr, then an up and coming actor, needed a verse for the powerful anti-war song, ‘Handsome Johnny’.
He was there when legendary rock station WNEW-FM launched in October 1967. He was the first artist ever played on the station and the first one that was openly championed on the air.
He was there to openly advocate for then-new artists Jimi Hendrix, The Chambers Brothers and a skinny kid from Jersey named Springsteen.
He was there on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. Johnny Carson was so impressed with his performance, that he asked him to come back on the next night.
He was there on screen playing Othello, sharing screen time with Richard Pryor and singing ‘Tombstone Blues’ in Todd Haynes surreal Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There.
He was there as the soothing voice behind successful ad campaigns for Maxwell House Coffee, Amtrak and for the cotton industry.
He was there at Madison Square Garden in October 1991 holding 20,000 rapt as he sang ‘Just Like A Woman’ as part of an all-star salute to Bob Dylan.
He was there for countless benefit concerts, marches and protests that called for peace, justice, education and a cleaner planet.
Universally revered, Richie Havens’ spirit lives in anyone who loves music and the power that it carries.
Richie Havens may be gone in body, but Richie Havens is here. He’ll always be here.
Rest in power Richie…
