Welcome to Woodstock 1969 - 55 Years ago TODAY... August 15

Act #1 Richie Havens Friday, August 15, 1969 5:07 p.m.

Richie Havens Woodstock Setlist Live Set

My Take: The 1st Act to start the Show was planned to start at 4 P.M. and, for some reason, I cannot figure out why Lang and Company did not schedule the Helicopters better... they obviously knew about the Traffic issues and the main Roads were at a standstill, plus the State Police was about to close the Thruway. Sweetwater was supposed to open and was nowhere to be found.

For some amazing reason, the only Band on standby was Richie Valens...originally scheduled to perform 5th, he was unexpectedly called by Lang to open the festival due to the delays with other acts.

Richie Valens was just hanging out backstage waiting his turn... "Here was Michael walking slowly toward me and I knew exactly what he was going to say. I could see his smile getting larger and larger as he came closer. Then he cocked his head to one side and said, 'Richie, please help us out.'"

Richie... "When I realized he was serious this time, I could feel my heart start to freak out. And I was pleading with Michael. 'I said, Michael, I'm supposed to be number 5, not one."

Lang... "Please, man, please!!!"

"I was finally convinced," Richie said.

At 5:07, he was introduced... wearing an orange dashiki and white pants, he walked carrying his big Guild Acoustic and propped up on the stool... he said, "You know, we've finally made it! We did it this time. They'll never be able to hide us again."

Before he started, while gabbing with the attentive Audience, he made a very clear announcement that "Somebody was giving out Blue Acid... do not take it !!!... be Cool"

His set captivated the massive audience with his powerful voice and rhythmic guitar style... they were basically swaying and rolling as if they were finally relieved from all the BS they went through. I would rate the applause a polite 6 and they, totally, enjoyed it.

After his first Set was over... Lang asked him to continue... politely... He asked the Audience if it was ok to play again... Cheers erupted, mate!

As he ran out of prepared material, Havens improvised what would become his most iconic song, "Freedom," by combining the spiritual "Motherless Child" with his own lyrics. This spontaneous creation became a symbol of the Festival's Spirit and the Era's Counterculture Movement. Havens' electrifying performance, which included covers of Beatles songs and his own material, set the Tone for the entire Festival. His ability to hold the Audience's attention for such an extended period, despite the challenging circumstances, demonstrated his exceptional Skill as a performer and solidified his place in Music History.

He entranced the audience for 3 hours, being called back time and again for encores. With his repertoire exhausted, he improvised a song based on the spiritual "Motherless Child". This became "Freedom", his best-known song and an anthem for a generation. His inclusion in the subsequent film of the festival – where he can be seen strutting around the stage, pouring every ounce of emotion into the song – further enhanced his reputation. The song was included on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's 2012 slavery-era film Django Unchained.

I loved the use of the "Bongo" and his soft voice was very legible and in tune... Lang could not have picked a better opening Act... even if he tried to get Sweetwater! BTW... "Freedom" is in my Top 10.

My view of his best Song was "Handsome Johnny" which is a powerful Anti-war Anthem from his 1966 album Mixed Bag. (Bar trivia patrons, take note: It was co-written by actor Louis Gossett Jr.!)

Rock On ♪♪♪

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Music Biography

Richie Havens, who has died of a heart attack at aged 72, is best known for his opening performance at the historic 1969 Woodstock festival. He had been scheduled to go on fifth, but major traffic snarl-ups delayed many of the performers, so he was put on first and told to perform a lengthy set.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of nine children, Havens formed street corner doo-wop groups with his friends and sang with the McCrea Gospel Singers at the age of 16. Although he had already visited the artistic hotbed Greenwich Village, to read poetry, he was 20 before he moved there to live, soon learning to play the guitar and performing in the Village's folk venues, where this 6ft 6in tall African American stood out in the largely white clubs.

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His distinctive guitar playing and soulful, gruff singing style quickly marked him out as a performer to watch, and after a couple of albums on the Douglas label, Havens was signed up by Bob Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, who secured a record deal with Verve Records.

The first album with Verve, Mixed Bag (1967), included his own anti-war ballad, Handsome Johnny (co-written with the actor Louis Gossett Jr), and a handful of covers, including John Lennon and Paul McCartney's Eleanor Rigby and Dylan's Just Like a Woman. As with all his subsequent covers, he made the songs his own, with his highly rhythmic guitar accompaniment.

In 1968, he told the American folk music magazine. Sing Out!. that he wanted to put "the intonations of America" on Eleanor Rigby and other Lennon and McCartney songs. A couple more albums were released before Woodstock – Something Else Again (1968) and Richard P Havens, 1983 (1969). The latter included an apocalyptic vision of the future inspired by George Orwell and was his first album to make the US top 100 charts.

His Woodstock success encouraged Havens to found his own record label, Stormy Forest, and although the first album, Stonehenge (1970), was more subdued than his Woodstock audience expected, his next record, Alarm Clock (1971), indeed became a wake-up call: it was his highest charting album, and a single of George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun made the US top 20.

Havens went on to release several more albums through the mid-1970s, although it was his live performances that earned the greatest praise. In the same year as Woodstock, he appeared at the Isle of Wight festival, and the studio audience for his appearance on The Johnny Carson Show in the US was so enthusiastic that Carson invited him back the following evening – only the second time this had ever happened.

During the 1970s, Havens diversified into acting. He starred in the original stage performance of the Who's Tommy in 1972 and took the lead role in Catch My Soul, the 1974 film based on Othello. He co-starred with Richard Pryor in the 1977 film Greased Lightning.

Into the 1980s, Havens continued to tour and record, although he never improved on his previous chart success. His voice was heard on McDonald's adverts all over America, singing Here Comes the Sun, and he collaborated with the British electronic music duo Groove Armada – their song Hands of Time featured on the soundtrack of the Tom Cruise film Collateral (2004).

From the 1970s, Havens became concerned about educating young people about ecological issues. He co-founded a children's oceanographic museum in the Bronx, the North Wind Undersea Institute, and encouraged young people to have a hands-on role in making a positive contribution to improving the environment.

His 1993 retrospective album, Resume: The Best of Richie Havens, did much to remind a new audience of his back catalog. In the year it was released, he appeared alongside Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, and Arlo Guthrie at the Troubadours of Folk Festival in Los Angeles. A capacity audience would not let him leave the stage at the end of his concert. He later described it as a "Greenwich Village class reunion".

Havens sang at Bill Clinton's 1993 presidential inauguration and also performed several times for the Dalai Lama. He appeared at the 30th and 40th Woodstock anniversary celebrations and at Dylan's 30th anniversary concert in 1992, where he sang Just Like a Woman. His autobiography, They Can't Hide Us Anymore, was published in 1999; the title refers to his thoughts during his helicopter ride over the Woodstock crowds in 1969. His last album was Nobody Left to Crown (2008).

Havens's repertoire was always a mixture of his own compositions and covers of other songwriters. He had a special talent for interpreting other people's songs, always delivered in his soulful, fiery, and passionate vocal style with his attacking, urgent, rhythmic guitar accompaniment.

After Kidney Surgery in 2010, Havens retired from Touring. He is survived by 4 Daughters.

Note: He taught himself to play guitar to accompany the poetry he was writing, and began playing at Café Wha? and other Village clubs, often playing multiple sets at multiple clubs each night. He also made lasting friendships and connections with the other singer/songwriters and industry insiders. Richie quickly gained a reputation for his genuine, energetic performances in the Village, interpreting others’ Songs and interspersing his own Compositions.

I got to see him many times at the Café Wha? and knew this Guy had a future ahead of him... a "True Blue" Stoner.