1 Stop Pulling and Pushing Me Havens 1:48
2 For Haven's Sake Havens 7:01
3 Strawberry Fields Forever Lennon, McCartney 3:37
4 What More Can I Say John? Havens 4:38
5 I Pity the Poor Immigrant Dylan 3:09
6 Lady Madonna Lennon, McCartney 1:57
7 Priests Cohen 5:15
8 Indian Rope Man Havens, Price, Roth 3:02
9 Cautiously Hayden 4:00
10 Just Above My Hobby Horse's Head Havens, Roth 2:58
11 She's Leaving Home Lennon, McCartney 4:05
12 Putting out the Vibration, And Hoping It Comes Home Havens, Roth 2:53
13 The Parable of Ramon [live] Havens, Roth 7:56
14 With a Little Help from My Friends [live] Lennon, McCartney 5:19
15 Wear Your Love Like Heaven [live] Leitch 4:55
16 Run, Shaker Life [live] Havens 4:04
17 Do You Feel Good? [live] Havens 4:52
18 Handsome Johnny [*] Gossett, Havens 3:54
19 No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed Havens 2:58
ALBUM 1ALBUM 2 with artworkThis is one of my favorite records from Richie Havens, could have been THE favorite except for some inconsistency. I don't always agree with R.Unterburger's reviews but he has a few good points in this one. It is indeed a rare double-album that really needs to be a double-album. However this is also Havens most adventurous and risky records in a lot of ways. Released right around the time of his historical (and accidental) opening of the Woodstock festival, it's a psychedelic folk and funky folk rock thing through and through. Its true, as Mr.U says below, that there are too many Beatles' covers. I am particularly un-fond of Lady Madonna, a song I don't like that much to begin with, and Havens version makes me cringe somewhat. But I am getting ahead of myself somewhat. The record opens with the brief, incomplete-sounding (in a nice GBV kind of way) Stop Pushing and Pulling, then opens out to 'For Heavens Sake,' which is just plain gorgeously moody in a way that only Richie P. Havens seems capable of. He still captures this feeling in his performances, of which I've been lucky enough to catch two. Sad and sometimes bitter, but never cold. Then comes his version of Strawberry Fields Forever, which floored me the first time I heard it, and still does. I used to play it on my radio show often. It's so damn good, it makes up for the other extraneous Beatles tunes on the record. (She's Leaving Home, at the beginning of the second record, is also very very good.) There is a lot to love here -- his take on Cohen's 'Priests,' 'Cautiously' which opens with some trippy analog synth (if anyone knows what keyboard this is, please leave a comment) that changes once more with electric Rhodes and weepy steal guitar, Indian Rope Man with its clavinet. To my ears, the production on this record still sounds fresh and original. Richie will always have his soul in 1969, even though 1983 has come and gone, and I love him for it. His political sensibilities, and his big heart, have always guaranteed a certain eternal quality and relevance to his musical vision, no matter how its exterior may sound 'dated' to some. No shortest of vibe on this record, so give it a try!
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Review by Richie Unterberger
Havens' third Verve album was an ambitious double LP, using about a couple dozen backing musicians in various combinations on instruments ranging from conga and sitar to steel guitar and organ. Though recorded for the most part in the studio, it also included several live recordings from a July 1968 concert. As with many double albums, it perhaps could have used some pruning, although in general it was a worthy expansion of his sound as captured on record. Divided almost equally between originals and covers, the music has the moving and melancholy vibe, yet also somewhat rambling feel, typical of Havens' prime. Certainly his "What More Can I Say John?" is a subtle and admirable anti-Vietnam war song, while his interpretations of Leonard Cohen's "Priests" and Maurey Hayden's (aka Lotus Weinstock's) "Cautiously" are unusual cover choices that are imaginatively done. An Indian influence makes itself heard occasionally, as on "Just Above My Hobby Horse's Head" and "Putting Out the Vibration, and Hoping It Comes Home"; "Indian Rope Man," with Jeremy Steig on flute, is one of his better compositions. However, there's an over reliance on Beatles covers (there are four here). And the live stuff on side four, with its cutesy five-minute version of "With a Little Help From My Friends" (in which Havens wordlessly scats the lyrics), seems like an afterthought to push the set to double-LP length.
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