It's been a bad week in a lot of ways. On Monday, April 22, Richie Havens died of a heart attack. He was 72.His career as a folk singer and guitarist spanned five decades. He started performing in Greenwich Village in New York City during the folk revival of the 1960s. His debut album was released in 1967 and over 40 years and 24 albums later came his last, in 2008. He stopped touring in 2012 because of failing health after earlier kidney surgery.
Stephen Stills described him as “one of the nicest most generous and pure individuals I have ever met."
The event that really made his career, the event with which most people who know of him likely still associate him, was Woodstock. The original Woodstock, the real Woodstock, in 1969. He was scheduled to go on stage fifth, but the immense traffic jams caused by people trying to get to the site resulted in other acts being hours late.
So he went on first - and wound up performing for three hours. So long that he ran out of songs - and wound up ad-libbing a variation on an old folk song called "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," a variation that became known as "Freedom."
RIP, Richie Havens.
Sources:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/folk-icon-richie-havens-dead-72-article-1.1324488
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/woodstock-performer-richie-havens-dies-of-heart-attack-at-72/2013/04/22/c317c1ee-ab8f-11e2-9493-2ff3bf26c4b4_story.html
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