Richie Havens Biography

Richard Pierce Havens was born on 21 January, 1941, in the ghetto area of Bedford-Stuyvesant, a district of Brooklyn, New York. He was he oldest of nine children. Although his father was a pianist and so music was a part of his early life, he also had a talent for painting. This led him to Greenwich Village, where, for a couple of years, he made money from tourists through portrait painting in the street. A regular in the folk clubs of that area, Richie was something of a rarity in that he was black in a field that was predominantly white.

Gospel singing had been a significant influence – he had been involved in several groups, including the McCrea Gospel Singers, when he was fourteen – and this contributed to the style of singing he developed. This was at a time when a folk revival was at its peak, with Peter, Paul & Mary appealing to a wide audience and Bob Dylan capturing the hearts of the younger generation. By tuning his guitar to an open D chord (see Questions) and developing a fast strumming action, Richie produced a distinctive style that set him apart from the rest.

A recording contract with Douglas (Transatlantic in UK) followed and Richie laid down a number of demo tracks. Interestingly this is a company known as a folk label, with artists such as Pentangle and Gerry Rafferty in his early days. With Albert Grossman as his manager, a move to Verve resulted in the release of the outstanding Mixed Bag. Something Else Again appeared a year later. In between, Douglas got some session musicians in to add backing tracks to the demos and the "first" two albums were issued.

Then came Woodstock and a sudden rise to fame. There were problems getting the performers and the rock group PA equipment into the stage area because the roads were all blocked by the onslaught of fans heading towards Max Yasgur’s farm. As a result, Richie ended up on stage for much longer than planned. He performed an outstanding set that raised the atmosphere of the whole concert and set the standard for other artists to follow. Most famous, was his performance of Freedom, interpolating and extemporising on the traditional spiritual, Motherless Child, to produce a folk-rock classic. Sadly, that may also have been his undoing, as it is a song that has hounded him ever since, with fans expecting it to be performed at every concert. (You may guess that it’s not my all-time favourite – see the Top Ten section.)

The Woodstock festival was not Richie's first involvement in huge concerts. He had previously played the Newport Folk Festival in 1966, the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1967 and the Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert in Carnegie Hall in 1968. He also preceded Woodstock with a performance at the Isle of Wight Festival in Great Britain in 1969.

A series of albums followed and Richie became best known for his interpretations of other performers’ work – notably The Beatles and Bob Dylan. His own songwriting lacked the critical appreciation it deserved. One single – a version of George Harrison’s Here Comes the Sun – made it into the top twenty in the States, but made no impression on the UK charts.

Richie Havens as artist - the American version of Portfolio had a gatefold sleeve and contained prints of ten sketches.

1972 saw him in the stage version of Tommy, as the preacher (the part played by Clapton in the movie) and he also sang the part in the London Symphony Orchestra version of the rock opera – an outstanding interpretation of the Who’s song, Eyesight to the Blind.

Now with his own record label, Stormy Forest, Richie continued to produce albums, although they became less frequent as his fan base dwindled. He honed and refined his range of talents, so that as well as being a singer, producing occasional albums and making regular personal appearances throughout the world, he is now recognised as an actor, a well-respected painter, a sculptor and a writer.

The environment has always been one of Richie's major interests and in the mid-70s he helped to form the Northwinds Undersea Institute, a museum of oceanography based in the Bronx. He then founded the Natural Guard in 1990 as a way of helping young people to learn about the environment and help to shape it.

Concert performances, although not at the demanding level of a chart-topping singer, have been a feature of Richie's life in recent years. His appearance at the Bob Dylan 30 year celebration concert was spectacular and in 1993, he performed at the Earth Ball to celebrate Bill Clinton's inauguration. There is hardly a weekend goes by that he isn't performing somewhere and it is suggested that he makes around 250 performances a year.

His (speaking) voice can be heard over a number of adverts on American tv - McDonalds, Budweiser & Kodak - and his version of Dylan’s The Times They Are A-changing was used as the background to an advert for the accountancy firm, Coopers Lybrand some years ago. Thirty five years on and the spirit of Woodstock had certainly embraced the reality of a mixed economy. Incidentally, this was the first time that a Dylan song had ever been used for an advert. Interestingly, in the tv series The West Wing, after Bartlett makes his speech following his re-election, it is Richie's version of this song that swells up to bring in the closing titles.

For a full version of Richie's life and lots more, try to get hold of his excellent autobiography, available at gigs or at better booksellers.