Richie Havens

Known for his heavily rhythmic style of playing guitar, folk singer Richie Havens set himself apart within New York’s ’60s songwriter scene en route to becoming a hippie icon and, later, a disco hero. Born in Brooklyn in 1941, Havens moved to Greenwich Village in 1961, immersing himself in the neighbourhood’s vibrant music scene. His breakthrough—1967’s Something Else Again—featured rollicking poetry (“No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed”) and a fiery condemnation (“The Klan”), which established him as a dynamic, socially conscious voice. His 1969 Woodstock appearance boosted his reach and led to his greatest chart success with 1971’s Alarm Clock and its freewheeling cover of The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun”. In the subsequent decades, Havens kept busy, expanding his sound to include soul (1980’s crate-digger classic “Going Back to My Roots”) and R&B (1991’s “That’s the Way I See You”). He mellowed out slightly for 2008’s Nobody Left To Crown before passing away in 2013.