RICHIE HAVENS
''NOBODY LEFT TO CROWN''
MARCH 31 2008
53:46
1/The Key
Richie Havens/3:31
2/Say It Isn't So
Richie Havens/2:44
3/Won't Get Fooled Again
Pete Townshend/5:49
4/Standing on the Water
Andy Fairweather Low/3:03
5/Hurricane Waters
Clarence Greenwood/4:33
6/If I
Richie Havens/4:02
7/Nobody Left to Crown
Richie Havens/4:13
8/(Can't You Hear) Zeus's Anger Roar
Richie Havens/3:13
9/Lives in the Balance
Jackson Browne/5:24
10/We All Know Now
Richie Havens/3:08
11/Fates
Richie Havens / Peter Yarrow/3:54
12/The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)
Peter Yarrow/7:01
13/One More Day
Patrick Cassidy / Harry Gregson-Williams / Trevor Horn / Hugh/3:30
Keith Christopher /Guitar (Bass)
Richie Havens /Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
Walter Parks /Guitar
Shawn Pelton /Drums
Stephanie Winters /Cello
REVIEW
by Rovi
Havens became an international star in 1969, when he opened the Woodstock Festival with a set that was three hours long and culminated with "Freedom," a song he improvised on the spot based on the traditional salve song "Motherless Children." Havens has been on the road ever since, known for his unique driving acoustic guitar style, soulful gravel-throated vocals,and freewheeling set lists. He's written plenty of his own songs over the years, but is best known for his interpretations of other songwriters. On Nobody Left to Crown, his 30th album of new material, Havens interprets the Who, Peter, Paul & Mary,and Jackson Browne, but the majority of the tunes are his own, and they stand proudly alongside the covers. "The Key" opens things up with a meditation on the healing power of love. It's a gentle folk-rock tune with a hint of samba in the rhythm, and Havens' smooth timeless vocals offering solace to both his lover and the world. "Say It Isn't So" speaks about the troubles of the world with the disbelief of a child facing death for the first time. A cello adds its poignant voice to Havens' heartbreaking vocal. The title track is the kind of driving, rhythmic tune Havens is so good at, a look at the clay feet of our leaders delivered with ironic humor instead of anger. He drops a quote from "Home on the Range" into the chorus, singing "where seldom is heard an encouraging word, and our leaders do nothing all day." He rages gently against the powers that be on "Fates," a blues that likens capitalism to slavery. The song builds slowly to a moaning coda with Havens wordlessly lamenting the mess the world is in, while Henry Manx adds stinging accents on slide guitar and mohan veena. Pete Townshend's "Won't Get Fooled Again" gets slowed down, with Havens' vocal more hopeless than angry. When he sings "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" he sounds weary and defeated. Jackson Browne's "Lives in the Balance," written about the U.S. supported war in El Salvador, still sounds unhappily timely, and Havens delivers the lyric with a searing intensity. Peter Yarrow's "The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)" appears near the end of the album, another prayer for sanity in a world that seems to be going mad once again. The music here is quiet, acoustic, and downbeat, with Havens sounding cautiously optimistic as he faces life and death. The album's not an upper, but even the darkest songs are suffused with Havens' gentle soulfulness.
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.
''NOBODY LEFT TO CROWN''
MARCH 31 2008
53:46
1/The Key
Richie Havens/3:31
2/Say It Isn't So
Richie Havens/2:44
3/Won't Get Fooled Again
Pete Townshend/5:49
4/Standing on the Water
Andy Fairweather Low/3:03
5/Hurricane Waters
Clarence Greenwood/4:33
6/If I
Richie Havens/4:02
7/Nobody Left to Crown
Richie Havens/4:13
8/(Can't You Hear) Zeus's Anger Roar
Richie Havens/3:13
9/Lives in the Balance
Jackson Browne/5:24
10/We All Know Now
Richie Havens/3:08
11/Fates
Richie Havens / Peter Yarrow/3:54
12/The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)
Peter Yarrow/7:01
13/One More Day
Patrick Cassidy / Harry Gregson-Williams / Trevor Horn / Hugh/3:30
Keith Christopher /Guitar (Bass)
Richie Havens /Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
Walter Parks /Guitar
Shawn Pelton /Drums
Stephanie Winters /Cello
REVIEW
by Rovi
Havens became an international star in 1969, when he opened the Woodstock Festival with a set that was three hours long and culminated with "Freedom," a song he improvised on the spot based on the traditional salve song "Motherless Children." Havens has been on the road ever since, known for his unique driving acoustic guitar style, soulful gravel-throated vocals,and freewheeling set lists. He's written plenty of his own songs over the years, but is best known for his interpretations of other songwriters. On Nobody Left to Crown, his 30th album of new material, Havens interprets the Who, Peter, Paul & Mary,and Jackson Browne, but the majority of the tunes are his own, and they stand proudly alongside the covers. "The Key" opens things up with a meditation on the healing power of love. It's a gentle folk-rock tune with a hint of samba in the rhythm, and Havens' smooth timeless vocals offering solace to both his lover and the world. "Say It Isn't So" speaks about the troubles of the world with the disbelief of a child facing death for the first time. A cello adds its poignant voice to Havens' heartbreaking vocal. The title track is the kind of driving, rhythmic tune Havens is so good at, a look at the clay feet of our leaders delivered with ironic humor instead of anger. He drops a quote from "Home on the Range" into the chorus, singing "where seldom is heard an encouraging word, and our leaders do nothing all day." He rages gently against the powers that be on "Fates," a blues that likens capitalism to slavery. The song builds slowly to a moaning coda with Havens wordlessly lamenting the mess the world is in, while Henry Manx adds stinging accents on slide guitar and mohan veena. Pete Townshend's "Won't Get Fooled Again" gets slowed down, with Havens' vocal more hopeless than angry. When he sings "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" he sounds weary and defeated. Jackson Browne's "Lives in the Balance," written about the U.S. supported war in El Salvador, still sounds unhappily timely, and Havens delivers the lyric with a searing intensity. Peter Yarrow's "The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)" appears near the end of the album, another prayer for sanity in a world that seems to be going mad once again. The music here is quiet, acoustic, and downbeat, with Havens sounding cautiously optimistic as he faces life and death. The album's not an upper, but even the darkest songs are suffused with Havens' gentle soulfulness.
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.
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