Safe Havens

Richie Havens
Album: Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More
Freedom

The summer of 1967.  The Summer of Love.  A harbinger of two momentous occasions: my birth, and Woodstock.

When I was in my late teens there was a pervasive cultural nostalgia for all things 60s.  Tie-dyed shirts and paisley prints were back in style.  Movie producers were obsessed.  Many like-minded auteurs explored 60s themes; Oliver Stone, for example, wrote and directed The Doors and Platoon during this time.  Television and print media peppered their stories with references to the decade of peace, love, and hippie-dippiness.  The ubiquitous "100 Best Albums of All Time" lists were dominated by 60s icons: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young.

Woodstock, the album, was seemingly everywhere in those years.  No hipster worth his salt was without it.  And really, why not?  Woodstock was a cultural milestone, regarded by some as the defining event of its era, and the music itself is more often than not fantastic.  Or at least it can safely be said that for every dud -- YouTube "Sha Na Na" if you dare -- there is at least one gem. Like Richie Havens.

A great ranging bear of a man, Havens possesses one of the most soulful baritones in the history of popular music.  His range is limited, but he is consistently interesting within that narrow span.  Interestingly, his musicianship has improved over the years.  His voice has lost none of its defining rasp, but he has greater control over it and his phrasing is impeccable.  Shivery good at times.

Havens is perhaps best known, however, for his frenetic and quasi-improvisational guitar playing.  He plays in an open-C tuning and uses his massive thumb to create barre chords.  Sort of a Jimi Hendrix type thing, but only on rhythm guitar.

He also wrote a popular anti-war folk song, "Handsome Johnny" with the first black actor to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, Louis Gossett Jr.   Hella sexy.