Richie Havens Live @ Woodstock
Friday August 15th, 1969
Yasgur Farm
Bethel, NY

CDR (x) > EAC > .WAV > FLAC

1. John Morris/Richie Havens Intro Sources: Film Outtake, B&W Video
2. High Flyin' Bird Source: Film Outtake
3. Unknown song Source: B&W Video
4. I Can't Make It Anymore Source: Film Outtake
5. Strawberry Fields Forever/Hey Jude Source: Film Outtake
6. With A Little Help From My Friends Source: Film Outtake

Time: 19:38

Richie Havens - guitar, vocals
Daniel Ben Zebulon - percussion, conga
Paul "Deano" Williams - guitar and backing vocals


According to an interview on TV there were originally four songs planned for him. But since the audience liked him and the organizers forced him to play longer (bands were stuck in the traffic jam) he was happy to perform more songs. He further claimed that he played every song he knew the next 2:45 hours but this is quite exaggerated since there were bands who also performed during daylight on this day. Sunset occured around 8:00 pm.

Richie Havens has stated he was told to "kill time" on stage and has claimed (on more than one occasion) that he played a long time at Woodstock. At one point, he said that he played for three hours, and did every song he knew. This claim is impossible, given that most sources cite the start of the festival (when Richie got on stage) as around 5:00 pm. Had Havens played for three hours, that would have made it 8:00 when he left the stage. The band Sweetwater and Bert Sommer followed Richie, each playing about 45 minutes, and both playing before dark (photographic evidence shows this).

He did improvise a lot. "Freedom" for instance, was created right on stage as an encore. "Get Together" was a very popular song by Chet Powers that spawned many covers in the late 1960s (originally recorded as "Let's Get Together" in 1964).

Richie Havens played the Beatles songs late in his set, when he ran out of material, because he didn't seem to know the lyrics. On the other hand, he already hummed "With A Little Help from My Friends" as early as July, 1968.

Setlist information is based on Michael Lang's book The Road to Woodstock (except for the first song).

01 From the Prison
02 Get Together
03 From the Prison (Reprise)
04 The Minstrel from Gault
05 I'm a Stranger Here
06 High Flying Bird
07 I Can't Make It Anymore
08 With a Little Help from My Friends
09 Handsome Johnny
10 Strawberry Fields Forever > Hey Jude
11 Freedom (Motherless Child)

Handsome Johnny and Freedom are officially released.

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

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