That is all Richie needed. To sing and play his music. Everyone got the message. He did not need 50 background singers.and 50 dancers looking ridiculous. He is the man. Love Your music Richie,
The BBC ighting engineer thought it looked dull so came up with the idea of dragging the light and casting a moving shadow - simple things, No-one knows his name as far as I know Inspired
You've always been that high flying bird. And now you're free. I still can't believe you're gone...you left a hole in my heart and many others. I hope you look down once in a while as you fly by. Rest in Peace, my friend. xo
H"e wanted to fly and the only way to fly was die .... die ..... die" Now Richie Havens is that "High Flying Bird". One of the most powerful and direct singers ever!
A masterpiece. He sings it as if he means it. And this kind of simple presentation is all that's needed when the music and the performer are first-class.
Its amazing how he uses his left foot as an instrument, and it plays a major part right to the the last beat, great stuff and so much more current than today's music.
On this day in 1969 {May 4th} Richie Havens performed "High Flyin' Bird*" on the CBS-TV variety program 'The Ed Sullivan Show'... The song was track one of side one from his 1966 debut album, 'Mixed Bag', the album reached #18 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart... He had one record make Billboard's Top 100 chart, "Here Comes The Sun", it peaked at #14 in 1971... Richard Pierce Havens passed away at the age of 72 on April 22nd, 2013... May he R.I.P. * "High Flyin' Bird" was composed by Billy Edd Wheeler; and he also penned two Top 10 records; "Jackson",which Johnny Cash & June Carter took to #2 in 1967 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart and "The Reverend Mr. Black", a #8 record on the Top 100 by the Kingston Trio in 1963...
Thx for those details, so RPH spanned country, jazz, folk. And rock, not to mention being the sole performer to open the show at woodstock. What a giant of a man !
i thought i was a fool learning and writing songs in an Open D tuning in high school, until I found Richie and he's been one of my favorites ever since.
I've always thought Richie sounded best, as here, without accompaniment. Too often the fills played by other guitar players just got in the way of his vocals, and the percussive style of his guitar precluded the need for more percussion.
absolutely floored by this perfomance, nothing but love for Richie and awe at his absolute power as a songwriter and musician, incredible. R.I.P Richie wish i had seen you live x
The oppressed suffer from despair because they are not free, but above all because they know that freedom is out there, out there, there is liberty. That's the kind of desperation that makes you look up and see the birds, and see the sun, while you're rooted in the earth like a tree.
You do know he actually wasn't a guitar player as he never attempted to play the guitar; everything was tuned to open D where you can almost strum anything, it's almost like drumming the guitar rather than playing it .
This is a great song, one of Richie Havens' signature songs, one that both my mother and I loved. Although covered by many artists, I had no idea util five minutes ago that Billy Ed Wheeler wrote the song.
It was actually a BBC clip show 'Sounds Of The Sixties' ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N97SAKDMmHg.html that compiled performances on a variety of things. I recorded it on VHS as a teenager and watched it obsessively. Dylan, Hardin, Cohen, Buckley - they're all on there.
