More Richie

Richie Havens was an enormous part of my college life; in 1970 I didn't own many albums, so it was a pleasure when mates found "new" stuff and shared. One important one was the double "Richie P Havens, 1983", and if you read about it on Wikipedia, you're reminded that Richie was not just a "covers" folkie, but a real songwriter. (And that he worked with a core group of musicians who contributed just as much to the sound as Richie's rattling guitar - Eric Oxendine on bass,  Paul "Dino" Williams on guitar, Daniel Ben Zebulon and Emile Latimer on congas and Joe Price on percussion)

One Havens' original, Handsome Johnny, was an anti-war collaboration written with actor Lou Gossett Jr, also from Brooklyn, and first recorded for the Mixed Bag album in 1967. (Diversion: Lou went on to play Fiddler in the tv series Roots - and Lamont Dozier wrote Going Back to My Roots inspired by the series. Richie recorded his version in 1980). In the film version of the Woodstrock Festival, it's edited to be the show opener.

The "universal soldier" theme was repeated in the song Minstrel From Gault, (sometimes "Gaul" on iTunes) -  the first song actually performed at the Woodstrock Festival - at 5.07pm on Friday August 15th 1969. It was co-written with Mark Roth, who also produced - and took the photos for many of Richie's album covers.  There's a studio version I like, on Stonehenge (one of the few Havens records I was "allowed" to buy first) featuring then-fashionable tubular bells. This live version is from the On Stage album, issued in 1972.

But, you cry, where and what was Gault ? Not, I think, clay. I suspect it was made up. Please let me know if you have an alternative answer.

Richie wasn't all hippy, however. I saw him once, at the Jazz Cafe in Camden, standing at the front. He had the smartest pair of brown loafers under the kaftan. He once sang a "Coke is it" jingle, but will be longer associated with Amtrak - spool to 2.41 below to enjoy....