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Woodstock legend lives on for Havens
Havens took the stage early in the festival because other artists were delayed in arriving. His high-energy, three-hour set has become the stuff of legend and helped propel him into the public consciousness.
Forty years later, Havens said people still ask him about it. "Every day," as a matter of fact. And that's OK with him - he's not like the occasional grouch you encounter who was at Woodstock and is sick of talking about it.
"Any person who would say that wasn't really there for the right reasons," Havens said last week. "They have their own reasons. You can't keep it down."
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The latter fit in with the whole end-of-the-Bush-era mood of the disc, and "added the last punch in the whole idea of what the album was about." It wasn't the first time he's done it - according to Havens, he played it live in 1970, but forgot that he had done so.
"I figured out this is the perfect song I'm looking for, and it turns out it's one I already did!"
Born in Brooklyn 69 years ago yesterday, Havens started his career in neighborhood doo-wop and gospel groups. By the early 1960s, he crossed the East River to Greenwich Village and become a fixture of its burgeoning folk scene. Albert Grossman, the manager of Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, took him on as a client, and he released his debut album, "Mixed Bag," in 1967.
Always more an album artist than a top-40 mainstay, his biggest hits were covers of Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" and the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun." His tall good looks led to some movie work, including "Catch My Soul," an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Othello," and "Greased Lightning" with Richard Pryor. More recently, he briefly appeared in the off-kilter 2007 Dylan bio-pic "I'm Not There."
"I had a really great time on that," he said. "And having been around Bob quite a bit, (director Todd Haynes) very well captured the whole idea."
Well before global warming became a topic of routine discussion, Havens developed an active interest in environmental issues. He helped launch an oceanographic children's museum in the Bronx in the 1970s and also had a hand in the creation of the group the Natural Guard, which is dedicated to helping young people study the wind, air and water in their own communities.
"They manage to keep it away from politics," he said. "They have a clean slate to begin with ... They've managed to get under the radar of politics."
When Havens appears Saturday at Carnegie Lecture Hall with British folk singer Harry Manx, the concert could turn out to be unpredictable, for both Havens and the audience. Havens pointed out that he knows what song he's going to open a show with a close a show with, but everything in between is up for grabs.
"That's another level of putting the songs out there. And it gives me the ability to crystallize the track that all these songs are following."
Who: Richie Havens
Where: Carnegie Lecture Hall, Oakland
When: Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
For information call 412-394-3353 or go online to www.proartstickets.org
