Last month I caught a rerun of the Peter, Paul, & Mary reunion/concert program Carry It On: A Musical Legacy on PBS. The segment I watched featured a duet of "The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)" by Peter Marrow and special guest Richie Havens, and thus this post was inspired. Below is a ridiculously large amount of biographical information on Richie Havens, followed by some mp3s and links. Enjoy!
Richie Havens (a.k.a. Richard P. Havens) is best known as the performer who opened the original Woodstock festival in 1969. But that is just one facet of his long, respected career and interesting life story. Among his many talents and tasks, Havens is a singer, musician, composer, poet, painter, traveller, and activist.
Havens was born and raised in the post-WWII era in the Brooklyn area of New York. His maternal grandparents were immigrants from the British colonies in the Carribean, while his paternal grandfather was a Blackfoot Native American who travelled the country with Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show. His father worked as a table maker, and was also a jazz pianist. His mother was a bookbinder who had five other children. The biggest influence in Richie's childhood seems to have been his maternal grandmother, who educated him on various styles of music - everything from Jewish folk songs to Irish ballads to her native Carribean island music.
Richie grew up in a culturally diverse neighborhood that exploded into gang violence in the 1950s. As a teen, he helped rival street gangs work on their vocal harmonies for their respective doo-wop groups in exchange for his own protection. Eventually, he assembled his own doo-wop group with some close friends. The group was relatively successful and were actually offered a record deal - turned down because the father of one band member was a fundamentalist minister who objected to their "devil music". The band was part of the so-called "beatnik" movement in Greenwich Village, but broke up when the lead singer developed a heroin habit.
After the group disbanded, Havens continued working on his own music and poetry. He delved into the Greenwich Village club scene that soon spawned such great performers as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Odetta, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Pete Seeger, Jimi Hendrix, Mama Cass Elliot, and Peter, Paul, & Mary.
With the encouragement of that creatively free environment, Havens soon developed his own method of guitar playing that he calls "open tuning bar chord". I thought about trying to describe it, but I barely understand it myself since I'm not a musician. It sounds cool, though! Up until that time in his solo career, Richie had only performed poetry readings on stage. His relaxed new style of playing finally gave him the courage and motivation to do a solo set on stage during a "hoote-nanny night".
After that, his music career gradually progressed as he played the clubs and coffeehouses of the Village. One night, Richie Havens brought Bob Dylan to tears with his cover of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". At the time, Havens had no idea that Dylan had written the song himself - he'd picked up the tune from another singer.
Havens names Nina Simone as his biggest vocal and musical influence, and it shows/sounds in his music. His voice has a similiarly deep, smoke-tinged timbre that makes each note resonate. He actually toured and performed with Nina in the 1960s after she requested to meet him. She was one of many of his famous fans.
Another of his fans was Elvis, one of several great performers (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, etc.) that Havens watched fall victim to what he calls "show business disease". Richie found Hendrix playing with some unknown band and pointed him to the Village scene, ultimately kickstarting Jimi's career.
Havens signed his first record deal in 1963, but the demo that followed enjoyed little success due to lack of promotion. Soon after that, he met two musicians named Deano & Nataga. The three men would form a trio that still perform together today.
His musical career was really cemented with his second studio album, Mixed Bag. The album featured a wide range of musical styles including blues, jazz, rock, and folk. After that album, he appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson several times before finally landing on the Woodstock stage.
In 1966, Havens performed in an off-off-Broadway play called Bohickee Creek with James Earl Jones. Jones wrote the forward of Havens' autobiographical book, They Can't Hide Us Anymore - the title came from Richie's opening statement at Woodstock: "We finally made it... they'll never be able to hide us again."
Richie Havens is the first name on the memorial marker that stands on the site of the original Woodstock festival. He was the first performer on that stage in '69. He performed without a setlist, playing whatever felt right to him at the moment. He began with "Minstrel From Gault" and ended three hours later with "Freedom". He composed "Freedom" on the spot on the Woodstock stage, modifying it from the spiritual "I Feel Like a Motherless Child".
During the making of his third album -- a double record titled 1983, an allusion to George Orwell's 1984 -- that same year, Havens started his own label. He named the new label Stormy Forest Records and would release most of his latter albums on it.
His 1987 foray into pop music, Simple Things, sounds like a mid-80s Peter Gabriel record. On some of the songs, I mean that as a compliment. On others, not so much. Still, Havens has the kind of voice that can overcome even the most mediocre of songs. And fortunately, the rest of the Richie Havens catalogue more than makes up for that one pop album. Most of his music shares the cross-cultural sound of the Mixed Bag album - a combination of folk, jazz, Carribean and Middle Eastern elements.
In addition to making music and art, Havens has spent the past few decades working as a peace and environmental activist. He co-runs the North Wind Undersea Institute for children.
I could go on and on with tidbits from his life, song descriptions, and general gushing about his voice and career. But instead, I'll recommend that you pick up a few of his albums and read his book, They Can't Hide Us Anymore. I really wanted to share the Havens version of "The Great Mandala", but despite much searching I couldn't find an mp3 of it. So instead I'll share a couple of other favourites. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
2 Richie Haven Mp3s (click for download page)
Richie Havens Official Site
Wikipedia Page
Buy Richie Havens Albums
Richie Havens (a.k.a. Richard P. Havens) is best known as the performer who opened the original Woodstock festival in 1969. But that is just one facet of his long, respected career and interesting life story. Among his many talents and tasks, Havens is a singer, musician, composer, poet, painter, traveller, and activist.
Havens was born and raised in the post-WWII era in the Brooklyn area of New York. His maternal grandparents were immigrants from the British colonies in the Carribean, while his paternal grandfather was a Blackfoot Native American who travelled the country with Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show. His father worked as a table maker, and was also a jazz pianist. His mother was a bookbinder who had five other children. The biggest influence in Richie's childhood seems to have been his maternal grandmother, who educated him on various styles of music - everything from Jewish folk songs to Irish ballads to her native Carribean island music.
Richie grew up in a culturally diverse neighborhood that exploded into gang violence in the 1950s. As a teen, he helped rival street gangs work on their vocal harmonies for their respective doo-wop groups in exchange for his own protection. Eventually, he assembled his own doo-wop group with some close friends. The group was relatively successful and were actually offered a record deal - turned down because the father of one band member was a fundamentalist minister who objected to their "devil music". The band was part of the so-called "beatnik" movement in Greenwich Village, but broke up when the lead singer developed a heroin habit.
After the group disbanded, Havens continued working on his own music and poetry. He delved into the Greenwich Village club scene that soon spawned such great performers as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Odetta, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Pete Seeger, Jimi Hendrix, Mama Cass Elliot, and Peter, Paul, & Mary.
With the encouragement of that creatively free environment, Havens soon developed his own method of guitar playing that he calls "open tuning bar chord". I thought about trying to describe it, but I barely understand it myself since I'm not a musician. It sounds cool, though! Up until that time in his solo career, Richie had only performed poetry readings on stage. His relaxed new style of playing finally gave him the courage and motivation to do a solo set on stage during a "hoote-nanny night".
After that, his music career gradually progressed as he played the clubs and coffeehouses of the Village. One night, Richie Havens brought Bob Dylan to tears with his cover of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". At the time, Havens had no idea that Dylan had written the song himself - he'd picked up the tune from another singer.
Havens names Nina Simone as his biggest vocal and musical influence, and it shows/sounds in his music. His voice has a similiarly deep, smoke-tinged timbre that makes each note resonate. He actually toured and performed with Nina in the 1960s after she requested to meet him. She was one of many of his famous fans.
Another of his fans was Elvis, one of several great performers (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, etc.) that Havens watched fall victim to what he calls "show business disease". Richie found Hendrix playing with some unknown band and pointed him to the Village scene, ultimately kickstarting Jimi's career.
Havens signed his first record deal in 1963, but the demo that followed enjoyed little success due to lack of promotion. Soon after that, he met two musicians named Deano & Nataga. The three men would form a trio that still perform together today.
His musical career was really cemented with his second studio album, Mixed Bag. The album featured a wide range of musical styles including blues, jazz, rock, and folk. After that album, he appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson several times before finally landing on the Woodstock stage.
In 1966, Havens performed in an off-off-Broadway play called Bohickee Creek with James Earl Jones. Jones wrote the forward of Havens' autobiographical book, They Can't Hide Us Anymore - the title came from Richie's opening statement at Woodstock: "We finally made it... they'll never be able to hide us again."
Richie Havens is the first name on the memorial marker that stands on the site of the original Woodstock festival. He was the first performer on that stage in '69. He performed without a setlist, playing whatever felt right to him at the moment. He began with "Minstrel From Gault" and ended three hours later with "Freedom". He composed "Freedom" on the spot on the Woodstock stage, modifying it from the spiritual "I Feel Like a Motherless Child".
During the making of his third album -- a double record titled 1983, an allusion to George Orwell's 1984 -- that same year, Havens started his own label. He named the new label Stormy Forest Records and would release most of his latter albums on it.
His 1987 foray into pop music, Simple Things, sounds like a mid-80s Peter Gabriel record. On some of the songs, I mean that as a compliment. On others, not so much. Still, Havens has the kind of voice that can overcome even the most mediocre of songs. And fortunately, the rest of the Richie Havens catalogue more than makes up for that one pop album. Most of his music shares the cross-cultural sound of the Mixed Bag album - a combination of folk, jazz, Carribean and Middle Eastern elements.
In addition to making music and art, Havens has spent the past few decades working as a peace and environmental activist. He co-runs the North Wind Undersea Institute for children.
I could go on and on with tidbits from his life, song descriptions, and general gushing about his voice and career. But instead, I'll recommend that you pick up a few of his albums and read his book, They Can't Hide Us Anymore. I really wanted to share the Havens version of "The Great Mandala", but despite much searching I couldn't find an mp3 of it. So instead I'll share a couple of other favourites. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
2 Richie Haven Mp3s (click for download page)
Richie Havens Official Site
Wikipedia Page
Buy Richie Havens Albums
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