Richie Havens is
gifted with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music.
His fiery, poignant, always soulful, singing style has remained
unique and ageless since he first emerged from the Greenwich
Village folk scene in the early 1960’s. It’s a voice that has
inspired and electrified audiences from the Woodstock Music &
Arts Fair in 1969, to the Clinton Presidential Inauguration in
1993-coming full circle with the 30th Woodstock Anniversary
celebration, "A Day In The Garden", in 1999.
For three decades, Havens has used his music to convey messages of
brotherhood and personal freedom. With over twenty albums released
and a touring schedule that would kill many a younger man, he
continues to view his calling as a high one. As he told The Denver
Post, "I really sing songs that move me. I’m not in show
business, I’m in the communications business. That’s what
it’s about for me".
Born in Brooklyn, Richard P. Havens grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant
community, the eldest of nine children. His father was a " by
ear" piano player ("If he heard it, he could play
it," says Richie) who worked with a number of bands around
the city, and Richie took to performing like a natural. As he grew
older, Richie helped organize a series of street corner doo-wop
groups and, at 16, performed with The McCrea Gospel Singers. He
sang doo-wop until the age of 20, at which point Havens left
Bedford-Stuyvesant to seek out the artistic stimulation of
Greenwich Village. "I saw the Village as a place you could
escape to and express yourself," he recalls. "I first
went there to perform poetry in the late ‘50’s during the
beatnik days. Then I drew portraits for two years, and I’d stay
up all night listening to folk music in the clubs, but it took a
while before I thought of picking up a guitar." Nina Simone
had been a key vocal influence early on; Fred Neil and Dino
Valenti were among the folksingers who have had an impact on
Havens during this period.
Havens’ reputation as a solo performer soon spread beyond the
Village folk circles. He recorded two albums worth of demos for
Douglas International in 1965 and `66, though none of the tracks
were released until his first two albums caused a stir.
After joining forces with legendary manager Albert Grossman,
Richie landed his first deal with the Verve label, which released Mixed
Bag in 1967. This auspicious debut album featured standout
tracks like "Handsome Johnny" (cowritten by Havens with
future Oscar-winning actor Lou Gossett Jr.), Jerry Merrick’s
"Follow" (later heard on the soundtrack to the hit 1978
film Coming Home), and a striking version of Bob Dylan’s
"Just Like A Woman" that earned Havens his reputation as
a premier interpreter of Dylan’s material.
Something Else Again (1968) became Havens` first album to
hit the Billboard chart and pulled Mixed Bag onto the chart
as well. That same year, Douglas International added instrumental
tracks to his old demos and released two albums – Richie
Havens` Record and Electric Havens. Havens first
co-production, the two disc Richard P. Havens, 1983 (Verve,
1969), gave fans a taste of his exciting live sound.
In fact, it was as a live performer that Havens first earned
widespread notice. By decade’s end, he was in great demand in
colleges across the country ("I must have played every campus
in America at least three times," he says, grateful for
students’ early support), as well as on the international folk
and pop circuit. Richie played the 1966 Newport Folk Festival; the
1967 Monterey Jazz Festival; the January 1968 Woody Guthrie
Memorial Concert at Carnegie Hall; the December 1968 Miami Pop
Festival; the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, and, of course, the
1969 Woodstock festival in upstate New York.
Havens` Woodstock appearance proved to be a major turning point in
his career. As the festival’s opening act, he held the
multitudes spellbound for nearly three hours. Called back for yet
another encore, he improvised a song based on the old spiritual
"Motherless Child" that became "Freedom",
eventually reaching an audience of millions.
Meanwhile, Havens had switched labels to Stormy Forest
(distributed by MGM) and delivered his Stonehenge LP in
1970. Later that year came Alarm Clock, which yielded the
#16 single "Here Comes The Sun" (George Harrisons’
Beatles classic from Abbey Road) and became the first of his
albums to reach Billboard’s Top 30. Subsequent Stormy Forest
albums included The Great Blind Degree (1971), Richie
Havens On Stage (1972), Portfolio (1973), and Mixed
Bag II (1974).
Havens also branched out into acting during the 1970’s. He was
featured in the original 1972 stage presentation of The Who’s
Tommy, had the lead role in the 1974 film version of Catch My Soul
(based on Shakespeare’s Othello) and costarred with comedian
Richard Pryor in Greased Lightning (1977).
He also made memorable appearances on such television programs as
The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
On the latter program, the audience was so enthusiastic that
Carson asked Havens to return the following night. In the show’s
long history, the only other guest booked back to back based on
such an overwhelming audience response was Barbra Streisand.
During the 70’s and 80’s, Havens’ work included a tour of
Israel (by invitation of the Israeli Embassy), annual tours of
Europe, and a non-stop US concert schedule. He continued to
release albums as well, including The End Of The Beginning,
Mirage, Connections, Common Ground, Simple
Things and Now.
Increasingly, Havens devoted his energies to educating young
people about ecological issues. In the mid-1970’s, he co-founded
the Northwinds Undersea Institute, an oceanographic museum for
children on City Island in the Bronx. That, in turn, led to his
founding of the Natural Guard in early 1990. Havens describes the
organization as "a way of helping kids to learn that they can
play a hands-on role in affecting the environment. Children study
the land, water, and air in their own communities and see how they
can make positive changes." Based in New Haven, Connecticut,
the Natural Guard now has chapters across the Americas, from
Brooklyn to Hawaii to Belize, and continues to grow.
Throughout the 90’s Havens’ touring pace never slowed, and he
delivered a landmark Madison Square Garden performance October 16,
1992, at the Columbia Records concert saluting Bob Dylan’s 30
years of recording. Richie’s show-stopping version of "Just
Like A Woman" was hailed by many as one of the all-star
show’s finest performances.
April `93 heralded the release of Resume:The Best Of Richie
Havens (Rhino), a long overdue collection of his seminal late
`60’s and early ‘70 recordings which included such gems as
"Here Comes The Sun", "Just Like A Woman",
"The Dolphins", "Handsome Johnny," and
"Freedom". That was soon followed by another new studio
release, Cuts To The Chase (Rhino), which featured the
longtime concert staple, "Lives In The Balance".
Other highlights of the past decade included his triumphant
appearance at the Troubadours of Folk Festival at UCLA’s Drake
Stadium where a capacity audience refused to let him leave the
stage. Hollywood Reporter reviewer Darryl Morden was among those
who praised Richie for "turning in an urgently fierce
performance" at this event, which Havens later referred to as
a "Greenwich Village Class Reunion". At another LA
appearance, His Holiness The Dalai Lama requested that Richie
perform "Lives In The Balance", and "Freedom".
The summer of 1999 brought the release of They Can’t Hide Us
Anymore (Harper Collins), a personal narrative recounting
Richie’s days in Greenwich Village, reflections on the original
Woodstock Festival and subsequent reunion concerts, as well as
stories of friends and influences along the way.
Recent guest appearances have included the Peter Gabriel album, OVO,
and collaborations with Groove Armada on the 2002 releases, Goodbye
Country, Hello Nightclub and Lovebox.
March of 2002 brings the long-awaited release of Wishing Well
(Stormy Forest/Evangeline Recorded Works), which includes two
longtime concert favorites, "Paradise", and "On The
Turning Away". MOJO MAGAZINE (May 2002) calls this
album "both a revelation and a joy".
2002 & 2003 also bring the long awaited cd release of
Richie’s early Stormy Forest albums, Stonehenge, Alarm
Clock, Portfolio, The Great Blind Degree, Mixed
Bag II, and Richie Havens On Stage.
For Richie Havens, music-making is a continuous process, one that
advances a step further with each album. Through it all, his voice
has remained one of rare eloquence and integrity. "My albums
are meant to be a chronological view of the times that we’ve
come through, what we’ve thought about, and what we’ve done to
grow and change. There’s a universal point that we all respond
to, where all songs apply to everyone, and this is what I’m
still addressing today."
