TGIF. We head into the weekend with music. Except today, when the musician, the late Ritchie Havens, delivers the spoken word at a favorite Georgetown undergrad hang for the Wrongologist, The Cellar Door.
If you ever saw him live, Ritchie Havens was a force of nature. This is from the Wrongologist’s eulogy:
Havens took his teeth out to sing. Apparently he cared more about how he sounded than how he looked. If you have that much talent, you don’t need teeth. He just sat there with his guitar and sang his songs. He didn’t have a persona, he had no guile.
Havens was also political. Often at concerts, he told the story of being an avid
follower of comic book superheroes, especially, Superman, who fought for
“Truth, Justice, and the American Way.” Here he is explaining just how incongruous the concept (was) is:
