Richie Havens became the first performer to take to the stage at the Woodstock Festival. Not only was it to change his musical life but that weekend of "Love and Peace" was to be the end of the hippie idealism that had begun in 1967 at Monterey.
But for all the festivals message invoked it came shortly after an event that was more than anything else to flag the end of that 60's dream.
"Not even the Woodstock Festival staged in upstate New York a week after the Manson killings could restore the good vibes of hippie American pre-Manson; the murders managed to undo the whole notion that rock music was a positive force for change.." Waiting For The Sun. Barney Hoskins.
It wasn't quite yet fully realised but things were never going to be the same again, The Stones at Altamont were to further confirm that by December 1969. (see post).
Richie Havens had begun making music in New York's Greenwich folk circles and his reputation as a solo performer soon spread. He made several albums during the sixties with Something Else Again (1968) becoming his first album to make the Billboard chart. There wasn't a chance he would foresee what was to happen next.
The organisers of Woodstock had asked Havens to extend his set as long as possible to allow other acts to arrive at the site due to the congestion the festival had caused.
It was 5pm when Havens began his first song accompanied by Daniel Ben Zebulon, conga's and Paul "Deano" Williams on guitar. If they looked dwarfed on the open and empty stage the shear power and force of Havens personality matched their extraordinary acoustic music which was to reach to every one of the audience. Such was the reaction to his part improvised set of songs by the end of his set he'd literally played everything he knew.
When the rest of the world saw his performance in the Woodstock film the following year his name was now to become legend.
The actual song he began his set with was Billy Edd Wheeler's "High Flyin' Bird" with a chorus prophetically declaring -
"and the only way to fly is to die, die, die".
And although the audience of hippies still clung on to the message of Peace and Love the dream was in it's last days and by the end of 1970 it was gone.
The organizers of Woodstock were dazed at the end of the Festival. They didn't have time to focus on the fact that they had created the most popular music event in history, for they first had to deal with their incredible debt (over $1 million) and the 70 lawsuits that had been filed against them.
Reality had begun.
Here is Richie Havens at Woodstock with that very first song.
5pm. Friday 15th August 1969.
(top photo : Henry Diltz)
