In 1999, Richie Havens wrote a book that I recently stumbled upon at the Providence library: They Can't Hide Us Anymore.
If you've come to our Richie Havens shows, you'll find the tone familiar. Like Richie presents himself in concert (and is the same off-stage as well), it's positive, gently humorous, a touch "hippy dippy" and a lot of fun. I urge you to read it, particularly because it details what was going on in The Village in the early '60s, when you'd easily bump into personalities as varied as Bob Dylan, Joan Rivers, Jimi Hendrix, the Kinks, and Rodney Dangerfield.
Here are Richie's "takes" on some famous people:
--Odetta (who, by the way, will be featured with The Holmes Brothers in March. Visit our music page for info): "'The Queen of Folk Music,'" Odetta became a lifelong friend and personal influence whose powerful, luxurious voice sang out on behalf of solo women performers when that was not the most popular thing to be."
--Fred Neil: "...Fred Neil's influence on my music and so many others was enormous..."
-- Jimi Hendrix: "Jimi might have been totally unknown to the general public at that time, but he played to packed Village crowds of teenagers night after night and some of the most famous rock 'n' roll guitarists in the world went through major changes whenever they stopped to see him play...(members of the Yardbirds and the Kinks)...came away so visibly shaken and depressed from Jimi's awesome, powerful performance that you could tell he had made these skilled musicians see that he was in another league...'I'll never play guitar again,' (Mike) Bloomfield said. 'I just saw the best string bender I've ever seen in my life.'"
The books also talks about he got to know John Lennon and Paul McCartney, why he fired legendary folk manager Albert Grossman, and, getting back to John Lennon, why he has refused to listen to Lennon's "Double Fantasy" album in its entirety to this day.
Written by Steve the Emcee
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