– Richie Havens – In Concert – BBC Studios – 1974 – BBC Radio 1 –
The legendary Richie Havens this mornng, in concert from London tonight. Recorded for the BBC in 1974, this 70 minute set captures Havens at his most memorable. A stirring voice with powerful message, Havens was one of the major figures in the late 1960s.
From the beginning, when he played Village folk clubs in the mid-Sixties, Havens stood out due to more than just his imposing height (he was six-and-a-half feet tall) and his ethnicity (African-American in a largely white folk scene). He played his acoustic guitar with an open tuning and in a fervent, rhythmic style, and he sang in a sonorous, gravel-road voice that connected folk, blues and gospel.
Like many of his peers, Havens was a songwriter (he co-wrote one of his best-known songs, “Handsome Johnny,” with actor Lou Gossett Jr.). But Havens also knew a great contemporary song when he heard it, and made his name covering and rearranging songs by Bob Dylan (“Just Like a Woman,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”) and the Beatles (“With a Little Help from My Friends,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Here Comes the Sun”). “Music is the major form of communication,” he told Rolling Stone in 1968. “It’s the commonest vibration, the people’s news broadcast, especially for kids.”
Here’s a reminder of what it was all about – if you aren’t familiar, here’s a sample of what made the 60s different to a lot of people.
And now a little Prodding and hounding:
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