Q&A: (Richie Havens)

In his recent autobiography entitled "Chronicles: Volume One," legendary musician Bob Dylan writes frankly about his life as a musician spanning back to when he first arrived on the scene in New York's Greenwich Village in 1961.

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minn., in 1941, Dylan talks about his destiny to write and sing songs, and his travels to and life spent in one of the most influential cultural and musical hot spots of the 1960s.

As a folk singer, Dylan met numerous performers including singer Richie Havens whom he, "...crossed paths with a lot" and emerged as a strong talent in Greenwich's folk scene just as Dylan did.

"...Richie Havens always had a nice-looking girl with him who passed the hat and I noticed that he always did well. Sometimes she passed two hats," Dylan wrote. "If you didn't have some kind of trick, you'd come off with an invisible presence, which wasn't good."

Havens was born and raised in Brooklyn, moved to the Village in 1960 and lived there until 1969. He still has an apartment there and also resides in Jersey City, N.J., where he makes most of his music. He has played concerts as diverse as Woodstock in 1969 with musicians like Janis Joplin, The Who, The Band and Jimi Hendrix to President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration celebration.

He only discovered Manhattan at the age of 16. Havens remembered Brooklyn as a residential area without any tall buildings for miles. Many families spanning three generations all lived under one roof, and he grew up in a neighborhood with people of a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds from Spanish, Russian and Polish to German and Italian residents. Havens, who was the eldest of nine children and organized doo-wop groups in his neighborhood, moved to Greenwich when he was 20.

He was Woodstock's first performer and played to a crowd of about half a million for nearly three hours after being called back to the stage for encore after encore.

He landed a deal with the Verve Records label in the late 1960s and released his debut "Mixed Bag" in 1967. Since then, Havens established his own label, Stormy Forest, in the 1970s and has recorded 29 albums.

Havens' own influences are just as diverse as his Brooklyn neighborhood. His favorites are albums like The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds," The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" and "Sketches of Spain" by Miles Davis; songs like "Positively Fourth Street" by Bob Dylan (recorded on his 1967 greatest hits record); and works by Rage Against the Machine and Eminem.

The Beach Reporter recently sat down with Havens and talked about his new work, "Grace of the Sun," his life's work and his memories of New York City.

The Beach Reporter: You cover Joni Mitchell's 'Woodstock' on your new album. Was it somewhat easy to capture the emotion of this song since you were actually there?

Havens: What really kind of blew my mind is that I never really sang it before I recorded it. I've always enjoyed Joni's and Crosby, Stills and Nash's versions. It kept coming into my head while I was recording the album. I kept hearing Joni's version in my head and after all these years I never sang it on stage. I actually learned it a long time ago but I never performed it. There is a rule that I have that is if I learn a song today I play it tonight and if I don't play it tonight then it never gets to the stage. There is a reason for that for which I am still searching (laughs). Sometimes I've learned a song thinking I'm going to put it on the album and it just doesn't make it on it when I get to the studio maybe because I've written three other songs and I put it off to the side. But four albums later, it has become the first spoke in the umbrella. Usually, it has to do with the times that it happens in, that it means something to me now much more because of what the conditions are we are living in. That's why a song will jump up and say, 'I'm first.' It gives me that starting point. My albums come to me as a title and I actually have only three albums that actually in some way reflect the title of the album. All the rest have been conceptual titles, which I call the umbrella and the songs that fit underneath that context are the spokes.
So this new album falls into one of three works?

Well, 'Grace of the Sun' is the name of it, but I actually didn't write the song 'By the Grace of the Sun' until I was already into recording the album. So that even came afterward. It was in reverse. It became somewhat of a title song. For me, I don't sit down to write songs. I stopped doing that in 1960 when I first came to Greenwich Village. Before that, I wrote 20 songs a day because I was singing doo-wop with my friends on the street corner, you know, that rock 'n' roll thing, and I'm a rock 'n' roller by nature. All through that time I was in Greenwich Village, I realized I was no longer in show business which doo-wop music was to me.

Whom did you become when you arrived in Greenwich Village?

I had crossed over into the communications business and the songs I sang in Greenwich Village when I first started were songs that were written and sung by three or four of the guys who were already there and had changed my life. Each of those songs changed me in a real big way because I had never heard songs that were all encompassing, speaking about the conditions we all live under; speaking about things we should all be thinking about. So, those were the songs I started singing at first and I still probably sing half of those songs today or else my fans would beat me up outside (laughs).

As far as the songwriting process, what do you feel you've tried to master over the years?

It would have to be getting out of my own way and letting the song actually happen. When I write a song, the title comes to me maybe while sitting in a taxi or walking down the street and I instantaneously know what the whole song is about. I go home or grab a napkin and write it down. I've probably changed only eight words in the last 30 years in all of the songs I've written. They come out whole. Sometimes a musical idea will stick in my head and I keep playing and playing it but I refuse to sit down and write to it. I play it until the first line falls out of my mouth and when that line comes, I realize the music is telling me what to write down.

Has the process then become easier over the years?

It's never been difficult at all because when it comes I write it down for sure. I make sure I get it down. Sometimes I write a song and I look at it and think, 'Where did that come from?' Only after I get the chance to listen to the song after I've recorded it some way is when I really get the layers that it has.

In looking back, what are some of your personal favorites?

Well, there are so many. The fact that I'm singing it makes it a favorite. I can't even remember what song is on what album. For me, once I've finished an album, I actually don't listen to it again. I used to run when I heard myself coming over the radio. I still feel that way, but I don't know, I think it's a good thing.

In selecting other people's songs to sing - 'All Along the Watchtower' and 'Woodstock' - how did you pick these two songs when looking at the life's music of both Mitchell and Bob Dylan, and all of the songs they've written?

Well, I'm fortunate enough to have recorded more Dylan songs than any other person besides himself (laughs) along with Beatles songs. It's because they were part of that condition. They were part of the times that we were in. I may be recording it 10 years later but I feel right now these songs signify their prophetic nature. Through the years, 'All Along the Watchtower' is one of the most requested songs besides 'Just Like a Woman' and some of the older ones. When I play on stage I know the first and last song I'm going to play and everything else in between happens to the audience as well as me. So, 'All Along the Watchtower' has always been a good starting place for me because it has so much energy and a poetic consciousness to it. If you listen to the words you have to think about it, what could this song possibly mean? Dylan was like that; he's what I call the all-inclusive songwriter. All of the characters he wrote about we knew, so for me it was a way of carrying on something for those who have never heard the song and may get something out of it.

How do you think Greenwich Village has changed over the years?

The only difference I can see is that there is beer instead of coffee. There are still a lot of runaways down there with guitars, trying to express themselves. A lot of young talent still goes through that place.