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7791 - RICHIE HAVENS - High Flyin' Bird: The Verve Forecast Years, Disc Two (2004) (REPOST)

RICHIE HAVENS
''HIGH FLYIN' BIRD: THE VERVE FORECAST YEARS, DISC TWO''
JUNE 25 2004
156:01

DISC ONE
1/High Flyin' Bird
Billy Edd Wheeler/3:37
2/I Can't Make It Anymore
Gordon Lightfoot/2:48
3/Morning Morning
Tuli Kupferberg/2:18
4/Adam
Richie Havens/3:34
5/Follow
Jerry Merrick/6:20
6/Three Day Eternity
Richie Havens/2:14
7/Sandy
Jean Pierre Cousineau/3:11
8/Handsome Johnny
Lou Gossett / Richie Havens/3:53
9/San Francisco Bay Blues
Jesse Fuller/2:30
10/Just Like a Woman
Bob Dylan/4:46
11/Eleanor Rigby
John Lennon / Paul McCartney/2:42
12/I've Gotta Go
Barry Mason / Les Reed / Noel Walker/3:04
13/No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed
John Court / Richie Havens/2:59
14/Inside of Him
Richie Havens/4:29
15/The Klan
Allan Gray/4:32
16/Sugarplums
Johnny Harris / Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky/2:53
17/Don't Listen To Me
Richie Havens/4:27
18/From the Prison
Jerry Merrick/3:37
19/Maggie's Farm
Bob Dylan/4:37
20/Somethin' Else Again
Richie Havens/7:26
21/New City
John Court / Richie Havens/2:50

DISC TWO
1/Run, Shaker Life
Richie Havens/5:45
2/Stop Pulling and Pushing Me
Richie Havens/1:48
3/For Haven's Sake
Richie Havens/7:02
4/Strawberry Fields Forever
John Lennon / Paul McCartney/3:37
5/What More Can I Say John
Richie Havens/4:37
6/I Pity the Poor Immigrant
Bob Dylan/3:09
7/Lady Madonna
John Lennon / Paul McCartney/1:56
8/Priests
Leonard Cohen/5:15
9/Indian Rope Man
Richie Havens / Joe Price / Mark Roth/3:02
10/Cautiously
James David Murray/4:01
11/Just Above My Hobby Horse's Head
Richie Havens / Mark Roth/2:57
12/She's Leaving Home
John Lennon / Paul McCartney/4:05
13/Putting Out the Vibration and Hoping It Comes Home
Richie Havens / Mark Roth/2:53
14/The Parable of Ramon
Richie Havens / Mark Roth/7:57
15/With a Little Help From My Friends [1968/Live At the Santa Monica Civic Center]/5:19
John Lennon / Paul McCartney
16/Wear Your Love Like Heaven [Live Album Version]
Donovan Leitch/4:55
17/Run, Shaker Life [Live Album Version]
Richie Havens/4:05
18/Do You Feel Good [Live Album Version]
Richie Havens/4:51

REVIEW
by Lindsay Planer
This two-disc collection gathers Richie Havens' (guitar/sitar/vocals) long-players Mixed Bag (1967), Something Else Again (1968) and Richard P. Havens, 1983 (1969), plus the single-only "I've Gotta Go," all of which hail from his brief stint with Verve\Forecast Records. Although Havens had already established himself as a formidable talent prior to participating in the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, it was undeniably his extended opening set that solidified his stature as a folk icon. In addition to providing the seminal self-penned entries "Adam," "Inside of Him" and "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed," the artist co-wrote "Handsome Johnny" -- with help from burgeoning actor Lou Gossett Jr. -- "Something Else Again" and "New City" with producer John Court. He also penned "Indian Rope Man," "Putting Out the Vibrations and Hoping It Comes Home," as well as "The Parable of Ramon" and "Just Above My Hobby Horse's Head" alongside Mark Roth. Havens likewise draws upon an eclectic blend of folk and rock covers. His Greenwich Village roots were almost certainly the source for definitive versions of Tuli Kupferberg's "Morning, Morning," Leonard Cohen's "Priests," Gordon Lightfoot's "I Can't Make It Anymore" and the Bob Dylan titles "Just Like a Woman," "Maggie's Farm" and "I Pity the Poor Immigrant." Havens' affinity for the Beatles is evident within his interpretations of the social commentaries "Lady Madonna," "She's Leaving Home," "Eleanor Rigby" and "With a Little Help From My Friends." The digital remastering is especially brilliant on the live recordings from the Santa Monica Civic Center that were first included on Richard P. Havens, 1983 -- in particular the traditional reworkings of "Run Shaker Life," "Do You Feel Good?" and Donovan's "Wear Your Love Like Heaven." The accompanying 24-page liner booklet is full of photos, reproductions of the original LP art, an historical essay from Scott Schinder, and complete personnel as well as discographical annotations.

BIOGRAPHY
by William Ruhlmann
BORN: JANUARY 21, 1941 IN BROOKLYN, NY
DIED: APRIL 22, 2013
Born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Richie Havens moved to Greenwich Village in 1961 in time to get in on the folk boom then taking place. Havens had a distinctive style as a folksinger, appearing in such clubs as the Cafe Wha? His guitar set to an opening tuning, he would strum it while barring chords with his thumb, using it essentially as percussion while singing rhythmically in a gruff voice for a mesmerizing effect. Havens was signed to Douglas Records in 1965 and recorded two albums that gained him a local following. In 1967, the Verve division of MGM Records formed a folk section (Verve Forecast) and signed Havens and other folk-based performers. The result was Havens' third album, Mixed Bag. It wasn't until 1968 and the Something Else Again album, however, that Havens began to hit the charts -- actually, Havens' fourth, third, and second albums charted that year, in that order. In 1969 came the double album Richard P. Havens 1983.
Havens' career benefited enormously from his appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and his subsequent featured role in the movie and album made from the concert in 1970. His first album after that exposure, Alarm Clock, made the Top 30 and produced a Top 20 single in "Here Comes the Sun." These recordings were Havens' commercial high watermark, but by this time he had become an international touring success. By the end of the '70s, he had abandoned recording and turned entirely to live work. Havens came back to records with a flurry of releases in 1987: a new album, Simple Things; an album of Bob Dylan and Beatles covers; and a compilation. In 1991, Havens signed his first major-label deal in 15 years when he moved to Sony Music and released Now. Nobody Left to Crown was issued by Verve Forecast in 2008.