So, farewell, Richie Havens, master of the one chord tune. You always seemed to me to look older than you actually were.
You opened Woodstock with 'Freedom': Jimi closed it with an apocalyptic national anthem. It seems mildly ironic now that a 3 day festival dedicated to the musical plagiarism of black delta blues by middle class, white, high school drop outs should be bookended by two such iconic representatives of the very people whose inheritance they were ripping off.
"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, a long way from my home," that was your catchphrase.
Postscript:
In case any of you are too young to remember Dick Holler's 'Abraham, Martin and John' to which the title of today's blog makes reference to (Max is Max Yasgur on whose Bethel farm Woodstock was staged), the lyric is here. The Marvin Gaye version is undoubtedly the best but I have a soft spot for the original by Dion DiMucci (who co-wrote 'Runaround Sue' and 'The Wanderer').
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