Richie Havens abrió Woodstock
y cantó cerca de tres horas. “¿Puedes cantar cuatro canciones más?”, y así fue
que terminé cantando 2. 45 horas. Havens dice algunas cosas interesantes: “Los
chicos nacen para ayudar” “El día después de la inauguración de Obama los
pájaros no estaban” La entrevista es amena y las palabras que usa son sencillas,
aunque es algo difícil ubicarse en el contexto general pues parece que lee las
preguntas del periodista. Para saber: City Island in The
Bronx
As the
festival's first performer, he held the crowd for nearly three hours. In part, Havens was told to continue playing
because many artists scheduled to perform after him were delayed in reaching
the festival location with highways at a virtual standstill. 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 two weeks later at the Isle of Wight Festival (in late August
1969).
Memorable
television appearances included performances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. On the latter program, the audience
reacted with such enthusiasm that when the applause continued even after the
commercial break, Carson asked Havens to return the following night.
