http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/arts/music/richie-havens-guitarist-and-singer-dies-at-72.html?_r=0

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/04/23/arts/HAVENS1-obit/HAVENS1-obit-articleLarge.jpg

Come on!! Are we too old that all of our contemporaries are passing?

RIP Richie, btw, the other day I was watching my 4-DVD set of Woodstock and later I Heard Richie playing covers of Dylan and Beatles, and a guest with Steve Hackett

RIP Richie . . .

I find the following trivia about his epic Woodstock performance of Freedom to be quite interesting.

Havens' reputation as a live performer earned him widespread notice. His Woodstock appearance proved to be a major turning point in his career.[2] As the festival's first performer, he held the crowd for nearly three hours (in part because he was told to perform a lengthy set because many artists were delayed in reaching the festival location), and he was called back for several encores. Having run out of tunes, he improvised a song based on the old spiritual "Motherless Child" that became "Freedom". The subsequent Woodstock movie release helped Havens reach a worldwide audience. He also appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival in late August 1969.

In essence, he winged it in front of 400,000 people!   :charlieperv

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie_Havens

Fabulous performance, thankfully captured for all eternity. RIP. And RIP Bert Sommer, who got screwed by Warner Brothers. You can see him performing "Jennifer" on youtube. It's for Jennifer Warren. And her reaction is in the clip. Later, it was edited as to make us believe she was reacting to Santana.

Damn, i wish i had a time machine.