Customer Reviews

Mixed Bag

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Richie Havens is probably most famous as being the first performer to take the stage at Woodstock '69. I think that actually, Sweetwater was supposed to have been been the ones, but there was a transportation snafu so that it didn't happen for them. Trying to pay some kind of tribute, Richie kept singing the beginning to one of their songs ["Motherless Child"] while waiting for their helicopter to arrive.

As a result of this 'big gig', his antiwar song "Handsome Johnny" has ended up being his most recognizable work, but it's by no means his greatest. One of the only solo singers from the sixties or any era who does such a great job with such a low voice, Richie was utterly magic to me when I first heard him on Lon's big speakers in the dorm, ca. '67-'68. Richie's voice at all times and in all contexts is utterly soulful and full of benign power, sounding somewhat grainy but also as smooth as melting butter. Fathom that one!

This album is mostly 'folk music', usually with a decidedly jazzy edge expressed via the arrangements and an excellent combo of backup musicians. Havens himself strums along on acoustic guitar using a type of open tuning he himself invented, and which allows some unusually tantalizing voicings and articulations.

"Three Day Eternity" was one of our dorm gang's theme songs that year. Added to songs from other diverse artists, we had a hell of a good time musically and in general. [Others included "Soul Kitchen", "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine", "2000 Light Years from Home", "A Day in the Life", "In Held Twas I", "For Emily Whenever I May Find Her" . . . and the list goes on and on].

Richie covered other songwriters' songs frequently--he is one of the few people to perform the Beatles ["Eleanor Rigby"] and Dylan ["Just Like a Woman"] well enough that you forget to compare them with the originals. He's really that good. Then he took an old song ["S. F. Bay Blues"], and, completely divesting it of its ragtime context, turned it into a powerful urban jazz-folk ballad. In concert he boasts about how much better he does it than the way it is has always been treated. Not to be disrespectful to old time tradition, but I think he's right.

But by far his best work is when he hits you with tunes, self-penned and otherwise, that hardly anyone's heard before. Especially with the slower numbers, and I don't say this lightly--you come away from listening to him feeling like your soul (and your mind as well) have been strengthened and healed.

As great as the melodies and rhythms are, the biggest strength of some of these less well-known songs are their lyrics. [It was a pity that when Lon and I saw Richie 6-7 years ago at the Ark in Ann Arbor, the soundman was so seduced by Richie's guitar playing that he forgot to turn up his voice high enough that we could hear his words.]

[Note that as good as this debut album was, his second one ('Something Else Again') was even better. It's not currently available, though some of the songs are on various compilations.]

"Mixed Bag" has been a fixture in my record collection since 1967 when I was a junior in high school. I have aged many years and travelled many miles since, and every so often, I take this album from the shelf, like a fine vintage wine. When I go to play it, I am always stunned at how good "Mixed Bag" really is. Richie's oak-sturdy baritone and his cascading open tuned guitar are unlike anything else I've listened to. It is like being reunited with an old friend every time I play it. On it's own terms, "Mixed Bag" holds up a lot better than much of the music that was regarded as "brilliant" at that time. What Havens established in "Mixed Bag", was a deep emotional bond of intimacy with the listener, that few have been able to create since. It is the perfect after-hours album, because of it is at once, melancholic and catharthic..."Mixed Bag" is the element of fire meeting ice. I don't think it's an accident that it was a masterwork. Havens was a shrewd and calculating performer and a savant at working a crowd and pacing his set. It was, after all, Havens that volunteered to step forward to open Woodstock, when other musical veterans stood gaping in slack-jawed fear of the immense size of the crowd. Whether it was a crowd of 25 at the Bitter End or 500,000 people at Bethel, Havens feared none.

After "Mixed Bag", Havens was never able to produce as dazzling a set of music. Never a prolific songwritter, Havens drew his choices from songwritters as diverse as the avant garde Fugs, to the ramshackle one man band, Jesse Fuller. The post-Woodstock Havens seemed content to retreat from the popularity, that many Woodstock performers seemed to enjoy. Havens veered from finding such strikingly original source music to perform, and instead began doing stylized covers of songs of by established performers like the Beatles or Bob Dylan. It seems to be a shame, because nothing in his latter work matches the passion of "Handsome Johnny", the introspection of "San Francisco Bay Blues", the meloncholy of "Morning, Morning" or the evocative force of "Follow." As a bonus Polydor has included two of his radio hits, "Just Like A Woman" and "Eleanor Rigby."

Anyone who wants to expand their consciousness as well as their record library should have this album. Richie Havens reaches deep into the heart and soul with this album of intensely thought provoking songs. If you want to be swept into a song, go right to the song "Follow" and feel the power of his Guild guitar overcome you. Richie Havens has the listener in the palm of his hand here. This album should not be overlooked. It is one of the true classics from the 1960's and stands up today as a great collection of songs.

Richie Havens has found a whole new audience for his intense, emotional vocal style thanks to his collaborations with the likes of Groove Armada and subsequent solo live appearances. In the seventies he owed his major popularity to his inclusion in the film of the 1969 Woodstock festival, for which he opened and had to fill for over an hour, eventually improvising what became his own anthem, Freedom. Before that he had been known to the cognoscenti from his influential Greenwich Village jazz-folk-rock interpretations of diverse material, using his unusual self-taught D-chord guitar tunings (not E-chord as is often written), and for his idiosyncratic song compositions.

Although not a prolific writer, the original songs which peppered his albums became cult items to be picked up and recorded by other artists.

Somebody at Marmalade Records in the UK must have liked him because Blossom Toes recorded the quirky Just Above My Hobby Horse's Head and Julie Driscoll covered Indian Rope Man. Bob Marley later adapted the same song as African Herbsman. The Jefferson Airplane covered High Flying Bird from this album, although written by Billy Edd Wheeler.

Mixed Bag was his third album but the first for Verve Folkways and serves as a good introduction to his work. It contains the single I Can't Make It Anymore (written by Gordon Lightfoot) and his own Handsome Johnny. He transforms Jesse Fuller's San Francisco Bay Blues by slowing it down and performing it as a jazz rather than blues standard. The lengthy centre-piece Follow has a stately dignity and was later used in the films The War and A Walk On The Moon, and there are also passionate and timeless renditions of Eleanor Rigby and Just Like A Woman performed in his own style
(review dated 17 December 2003)

I heard Richie Havens for the first time at the 30th Anniversary Concert for Bob Dylan, where he delivered a magisterial performance of Just Like A Woman. I had always loved the song for its brilliant series of chord changes and its overall maturity, but I didn't appreciate its poignancy and beauty until I heard Richie Havens perform it.

I have been a fan ever since. Havens reminds me of another personal hero, Nina Simone, in that he deconstructs a song -- be it a standard, an original composition, or an obscure gem -- and reconstructs it in a way that is breathtaking and intoxicating. He doesn't just take his listeners through a song, but takes them into it, to explore its heart and soul and real meaning. He pours every ounce of his being into each performance, and the emotional effect is staggering.

His uncanny sense of lyrical phrasing, his percussive approach to strumming, and his technical virtuosity are truly unique. He is arguably the finest acoustic guitarist in the world, and deserves to be heard by anyone with ears.

Pick a song...any song...this is indeed a mixed bag, of incredible strength, power and sense of self. Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back, rexlax...and listen...really listen...you'll be hooked on Havens...

I still vividly recall sitting in the Cafe Wha in Greenwich Village, circa 1965, mesmerized by R Haven's 12-string and his overpowering voice and persona. He epitomized everything vibrant about the folk scene of the era. His intelligence shone through his music, along with a strong dose of artistry and charisma. This album, mouch more than his grand Woodstock improve, displays the full range of his unique talent. This is an album that I probably listened to more often than any other in the late 60's to early 70's, therefore it has a special place on my list in my internal music vault. I'm happy to report that the music holds up extrememly well over time. The Vanguard production values were state-of-the-art at the time, and transcend the years without paling. For nostalgia fans, as well as those who just enjoy thoughtfully-composed, artistically scrupulous recordings. A classic, in every defenition of the term.

One day in early '65 I was strolling through the Village with my high school girlfriend and we heard this amazing sound coming from a basement cafe. The club wasn't really open but the door was so we made our way down the steps and witnessed Mr. Havens rehearsing on a stool in the center of an unlit stage. He was unaccompanied except for his own guitar, which was de-tuned so he could do his (now) signature strum using mostly his thumb. I think he was singing a Beatles tune when we arrived and we stayed put through several originals, unable to move or even whisper lest we break the spell. It was a year before the release of his first LP and I actually found out who Richie Havens was, but the spell was never broken. Richie Havens is the greatest solo folk performer of his generation and although most of his own material remains obscure, no one else has ever interpreted Beatles or Dylan songs with such energy or passion. Mixed Bag is an excellent introduction and don't pass on a chance to see the man live, because he's still out there working!

I love this album. Richie's best. I first saw him 40 years ago playing a Washington Square Park. Saw him stumping for John Lindsey for President in Florida in '71. Seeing him again this May. Special Musician. The whole album has wonderful tunes.

I was delighted when I discovered the "Mixed Bag" CD that now stands in for my old and scratchy LP. This album is so good, I'd even suffer through the LP's scratches to listen to Havens' powerful renditions. Remakes of songs made famous by other artists usually don't fare very well..... and for good reason. The musical chemistry of the original sets high expectations and only succeeds when attempted by someone who has an interpretation that reveals pleasing new dimensions and musical point of view. "Mixed Bag" does just that. Havens' raspy voice and strumming guitar combine to make music of great power and emotion. As unplausible as this may sound, Havens needed dental work and the gaps affected his voice in an interesting way!

I remember reading a review in which the writer said he bought an album if it had at least 3 great cuts. "Mixed Bag" substantially exceeds those results.