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Richie Havens Compares Obama Election to Woodstock

Posted on Nov 6th 2008 5:00PM by Benjy Eisen

At 5:07 PM on August 15, 1969, folk hero Richie Havens walked onto a stage at a farm in Bethel, NY, and played the first notes of music for a crowd nearly half-a-million strong. Woodstock, as it was called, became a generation-defining event. And Havens' medley of 'Freedom/Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child' (captured in the documentary film) became a political rallying cry for change, heard by every generation since.

As Havens, now 67, watched President Elect Barack Obama's acceptance speech Tuesday night -- in front of a crowd estimated to be about half the size he played for at Woodstock -- he was reminded of that life-changing afternoon in New York.

"I felt what I felt onstage at Woodstock almost 40 years ago," Havens tells Spinner. "This is our collective voice, our time and our right. We will be heard."

Of course, in light of this election (which, Havens says, he was "thrilled to witness"), he may now wish to retract the title of his latest disc -- 'Nobody Left to Crown.' On the other hand, he did have the foresight to include a cover of the Who's 'Won't Get Fooled Again.'