Richie Havens - Freedom (Woodstock 1969) **With Lyrics**

[Stringyheads]

Great song always loved it

[MsNikita64]

peace and love

[cottonmouthization]

I WANT THE ACID HE IS ON

[G3Ld0f]

JE L'Ai VU EN CONCERT !!!!!

C'EST GENiAL !!!!

[Smokeherbs718215]

i was born in the wrong era man.

[41rukahscaput]

Could you imagine playing in front of over 100,000 people. And then your guitar string breaks.

[ScottBrenner1]

There are some days when the 'hope' and 'inspiration' bubbles get popped; that's when I'll pull up this clip and watch it (at least a couple of times) until they get filled again. My thanks for keeping this posted.

[HumbleBoy69]

The guy at 1:36 looks a lot like Big Boi from Outkast (!)

[purplprinces333]

TOTALLY INSPIRED!!!! I first saw this clip over 15 yrs. ago.....was completely blown away by this performance and watched it over and over AND OVER....It still blows me away!!! BRILLIANT!!!

BLESSINGS...

[LaErretv]

GODLIKE

[manyowls]

Thanks for this great video. Peace my child.

[julescicle]

So raw, so unrefined and so beautiful. This is only part of what good humanity is capable of. If only people could see through the boundaries and enjoy life for a short while like this music allows me and all of you to. I see the day soon arriving. These turbulent times will make people join together one can only hope.

[heeeythatsmybike]

Oh my God, this man is amazing. Every time I heard him singing, I immediately stop whatever I'm doing so I can listen. Incredible talent.

[SirDoomTheGreat]

I watched this last night on vh1's rock and roll picture show. As I sat in my bed watching this performance I thought to myself that this guy has to be in his 50's, not teeth?! But I discovered from wikipedia that at the time that he performed at woodstock he was only 28 years old, wow. I don't know any 28 year old's that look 50, drugs are bad mmmkay.

[SmileyGarrish]

@SirDoomTheGreat perhaps you overlook widespread malnutrition and lack of dental and medical care for the poor and dispossessed in the land of the not so free, home of the Fascist Republic? Not everyone has a chauffeur for the ride to the dentist in Hartford ....maybe you are confused by the legal liquid drug alcohol which does so many good things for people and society in general? Praise Jah Ras Tafari Haile Sellassie I

[5150jango5150]

i would be there in a second

[95m26]

Excellent!!

[samdeleon]

So many little coincidences and so many unforeseen circumstances made this festival an American treasure that will NEVER be duplicated.

[legalboi09]

incredible song

[governorgilf]

This is the best performance in the history of performances. To me, Richie is the Godfather of Soul!

[nanabexhoeft]

A good man, our Richie. Thank you for all you've given to us over the years.

[jaybo4321]

i was here a few weeks ago

[averylea]

I'm on my way, yalla let's go ....

[ShuffleBassT]

HAPPY 71st BIRTHDAY TO THE GREATEST MAN ALIVE ! 42 years ago he sat there in front of more than 400 thousand people and sang into the microphone FREEDOM FREEDOM YEAH ! he will be forever one of my biggest idols ! and once again freedom all over the world and peace ♥ : )

[metalforlife989]

x-mas* aha

[metalforlife989]

Got this dvd for x-mad. love it!

[bearmanmr]

Awesome

[13jam100]

thanks for posting this great clear video ,great peace of rock history thank you

[parabola2012]

F R E E D OM

[dalgroves10]

This is one of the best performances I have seen, I never get bored of this and his passion. Woodstock was incredible, I mean, they made that gig free in the end!!!! Its all about the music and the message!

[theofficialshepherd]

@dalgroves10 good comment, this is a time when music meant something.....and it is coming back!

[DhangoMicheli]

Excelent, great performance. He's got not teeth at the moment of Woodstock but boy, what a talent, and that rispy, touching, commanding voice. Excelent, a truly fantastic performance.

[RikuVsRoxas]

His back is sweating. I have just witnessed a True Musician preform.

[LaMaisondeCasaHouse]

nice to look back on a time before pop culture was just another commodity...

[theofficialshepherd]

my idol!

[727408cherry]

one of the few meanings of life is exemplified right here

[wurzelaus9]

dear god - one wish - when I reincarnate let me be his guitar ..

[ox092]

Richie is a great acoustic rhythmic guitar player. Over the years I've learned that its not so much about making the music technical its the rhythm that always brings me to his music and others music.

[joostvanberkom]

The wonderfull Richie Havens Peace

[skacaface59]

1:35 Big Boi from outkast!

[FREDANDERSON77]

AWESOME VIDEO QUALITY, AWESOME VIDEO AWESOME RICHIE!! BRUTALLL!! REGARDS FROM VENEZUELA!!!

[lorioftheforest]

Its so beautiful...

[LovelyRitaHere]

LOVE IT! Glad I lived in my generation!

[ivannagutina]

beautiful, beautiful and timeless, so raw, so free, so pure

[cj150000118]

I am moved but at the same time still and one.

Fantastic Description and video xx

[jjamo5]

Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!

[2000everett4]

Listen to Richie sing this song and a shift occurs.

[elPYROreal]

q fiesta q fue woodstockl!!! cada artista era una cosa e loco!!!

[shitchops]

I love seeing anything from 69 woodstock :D

[russtacean]

i was there... about 40 feet from center stage for three days

and am humbled by the memory.

thanks for posting this.

[elizabethannshapiro]

god incarnate

[MsTapenade]

@elizabethannshapiro

God? No, sorry. He's more similar to what a REAL man should be.

[reddmudd777]

the man

[spikedylacid]

Watched this last night, had to watch it again.  One of the best performances I've ever seen.

[crankyfrankification]

he wrote this song as he played it...pretty awesome

[immigrant74]

funny thing this song was made minutes before the performance. really I feel ashamed of myself and of today's generation. really we suck, big time

[cheezer57]

@immigrant74 Don't be ashamed. I blame things like MTV. When it came out, we all thought it was great. But what it did was make it easy for "Artist" to sell their songs easily. No more touring. Back in the day, those artist learned their craft by playing concerts. Honing and perfecting it. In essence artists got lazy. Big money was not made from concerts, anymore. Only the Beatles didn't have to tour; which is even more unbelievable to me, considering what they were able to accomplish.

[Smokeherbs718215]

@immigrant74 me too bro.

[marlinkpalmbeach]

AWESOME

[fredfallo999]

Grazie mille

[earlfishbigwater]

Today at 11-11-11;Freedom is felt again and again and again..........R.I.P.

[DjRoach313]

3 terrorists dislike this video.

[SuperJuancarlosrojas]

la cago este tata,esta es musica hueones reguetoneros,se te paran los pelos de sentir la pasion con que toca y canta

[ShuffleBassT]

time machine is ready ! who else would come with me back in time to see this excellent unique performance live ? freedom all over the world ! peace ♥

[earlfishbigwater]

@ShuffleBassT ....Peace Brother................

[dachecker79]

@ShuffleBassT ...we should look forward, and make this happen again!!! we can´t turn back time.......every time i listen to this, have tears in my eyes..... (sry for bad english) ....peace...

[ShuffleBassT]

@dachecker79

that's it man everyone here want to make this happen agan ! but in our time nowadays i never heard anyone who has a voice like richie havens or joe cocker or john fogerty or i dont know ! it's all about fame and money now you know ? every singer nowadays have his autotune computer voice everything is made with computers and i don't know why people are so in love with this unreal music nowadays ! hope you understand what i mean and sorry for my bad english haha peace !

[2011nomorelies]

@ShuffleBassT It's pretty much all boring, formulaic, soulless, ego-driven shit these days. The hippy's were the WE generation, now we've got the selfish and (mainly) talentless ME generation of greedy gold collectors with their gangsta bullshit. Sing about something positive for fucks sake, instead of this one-dimensional robotic crap!!!

[sageonica]

@ShuffleBassT I sure would!!! What a time! Love it!!!!!

[ShuffleBassT]

@sageonica

peace brother : )

[polletkevin]

@ShuffleBassT I'd come with you in a heartbeat. Nostalgia to a beautiful time :).

[CoolKwstas123]

@ShuffleBassT im comin'!! I bring the weed!

[dlh322]

one of the five most powerful live performances of all time....

[Pllm30]

who are the other two men with Richie, anyone?

[paparazzi323]

i love it when he got up still jamming his guitar you can see how hard he strum that the front top of the guitar turn white and he kept jamming. until he could'nt any more, that my friends is a true musican;]

[janofaco]

GREAT!....

[xzzytv]

3:44 i would have fitted in sooo much in that crowd. The 1960s were the best era for music by far, all the Psychedelic & folk music that came out of it was nothing short of epic. I sometimes wonder, why was i born in the wrong generation. This generation today is so blinded by the shit that is Pop Music that if they listened to this, they wouldn't even recognize this is more than just music, THIS IS ART !

[luvsbnl]

Having run out of tunes, he improvised a song based on the old spiritual "Motherless Child" that became "Freedom".

This was after playing for 3 hours while waiting for other artists to arrive to Woodstock. The man is nothing short of amazing..

[MrMusicevolution]

Stringing his guitar while engaging the crowd...Unbelievable pressure.

[MontyPython80]

Epic the new word for Groovy funny how shit works out.

[ibanezmk1]

@MontyPython80

[blueregmine]

This song describes the core of our souls!

[happyhereandnow]

this was one of the first songs I learnt to play on guitar... I sang it all through my teens...

[wwfundertakerfan1]

i was born 24 years after this and i still love this song, this was the best decade for music

[BEJUCAL]

sent a copy of this to cuba ..lets see?

[djCsyck]

That is weird, If you look, the guys @ 1:34 and 1:36 look exactly like andre 3000, and big boi. from outkast. Just saying, thats weird man.

[venyogo2]

Wich guitar is this? 1:28

[Pllm30]

He is 28 here! He must be an old soul.

[Quzma3]

BRAVO ČOVEČE, FREEDOM FOR SERBIA!

pozz NebSerb

[dougvdzz]

Frankie Valley is in the R&R Hall of Fame and not Ritchie Havens? That can't be true.

[1985mike1985]

well done dude :)

[SuperBaburu]

This video has just one dislike and 700+ likes! no wonder Richie havens is awesome!

[andywestside5060]

Richie Havens was a mellow voice in a time like now,the country pulling itself apart!!!I can't hear this song too much!!

[WindHarps]

In honor of the "Occupiers" ~^~

[Praxedes65]

uuuuooo! BKN!

[dhwasted]

For whoever did the 1 dislike I feel sorry for you.....

[shamannofthedead]

his snot at the begining ahahahahahahah ewwwww

[bredacsi]

@shamannofthedead Its sweat, he was playing for hours, he was pumping sweat

[Flegman7]

I accidentaly found this song and simply fell in love with her.Thank you Richie for this masterpiece!

[kniki3]

when he is talking in the begining he sounds like a little boy who hasnt reached puberty yet....but once he starts singing, i feel like i am in the presents of a LION ROARING OUT INTO THE WILD....crazy shit...love it

[PlanTonto]

Thanks for the upload!

[johnsydjimi]

nice story :)

[dougdunigan]

Love it

[SomeMetryGuy]

awesome

[jasonscottable]

lol, just sing louder sir!

[jimmy6p]

It is a great video. I saw the movie of this at a theatre that had, at the time, a pretty good sound system. Have the DVD now. I saw him in a 200 seat venue in North Vancouver B.C. in about 1977. Sat less than 40 feet from the stage. Never forget that one. He had me so captive that by the end of the first half of the show I still had half of my first beer! That's never happened before, or since, that night :-)

[bronsonhd913]

What a performance! What a song! We must celebrate Freedom everyday!

[Taylorvision745]

Richie Havens is hell on the guitar hands down

[SerfsUpBrah]

richie reaches from some deep down place that makes you feel like he's singing in representation for all who listen. all the respect in the world for mr havens.

[hswatnik]

the apex of the sixties capyured well by Mr. Havens-

[buulMusic]

I love how almost all of this song besides the motherless child line is all improvised. what a heart this man holds still to this day.

[scottphegley]

Hands down-the most passionate and moving live musical performance I've even seen.

[bredacsi]

A perfect example of getting lost in the music....nothing more real than that, my friends

[MeticulousMr]

@ 3:09 Richie takes it to whole nother level.

[MJSportHorses]

thank you so much xanxiuz.

[5996699]

LOVE ONLY L O V E

[hankbat5149]

I am another one who does not like pigeon-hole version videos. It's claimed that you see more but all I know is a big black border above and one below.

[Haakona93]

This is the first video i see with only likes.. What a freedom!

[emmaaum22]

I was stuck in Manhattan even though we had tickets. The amazing thing with this is what Havens said later. The stage system wasn't ready for amps etc. and They rushed him on. When you see him go offstage, he was telling the festival people he was out of material. They begged him to keep going and this performance was pretty much made up on the spot. He used to sing "Motherless child" in the Village coffeehouses, but the rest of this was off the top of his head and out of his heart.

[Trund27]

I wish I could have been at Woodstock. Born too late

[Elitesheet]

Hard to find artists with such genuine passion and authenticity as this today. Its like our soul as a civilization has been amputated.

I'm so glad this exists.

[Tuttle28]

I met him on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock at Bethel, he was such a nice person, he signed my original Time Life Magazine from 1969 despite all attempts the staff at Bethel Woods tried to stop, so glad I persisted and he accepted.........thanks Richie, it was a pleasure meeting you : )

[SysteSan]

in those days were the people ready to fight against the war with music!! And Today? :(

[shepherdwolfe]

Pure Magic!

The audience experiences the joy and energy of the moment Havens channels in this powerful work of art. What a awe inspiring spiritual moment captured on tape.

[ImperXVIII]

This is the way any music should be born!

[maximolb]

NEL CUORE! SEMPRE!!!!

[MEMORYMOTELmusic]

Epic. I heard he was just looking at the crowd and singing what came to mind. "Freedom" "Clap your hands"

What a great moment for music. Best unfinished song ever

[LutherRayable]

Thanks again for your beautiful Soul, Ritchie!

You never fail to lift me up and remind me every time i return here.

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

it's priceless

[375GTB]

Freedom FROM The Teabaggers !!

NO DEFAULT ON THE BACKS OFF THE POOR..!!

J.C.

[artistray621]

@neacapatoiu , thanks for the little history lesson. I always thought, that he gets up to walk to the back of the stage because of a broken string. It is always nice to learn something that you thought you knew.

I caught Richie on Local Los Angeles TV, don't remember what it was he was promoting, but He did a very cool acoustic version of Jackson Browne's 'Lives in the Balance'

[cromerist]

i'm crying like a motherless child.

[LizzieCornish]

You know, Richie was inspired to change the way he wrote protest songs after listening to a young singer called Bruce Murdoch. Bruce was known as Canada's Dylan. A musical phenonemon, Bruce brought the house down with just one song at 17, 'the house' being Carnegie Hall. Richie mentions him several times in his brilliant autobiography 'They Can't Hide Us Anymore'. He speaks of Woodstock, what happend that day, Superb book. And Bruce? Still around, check out his new CD . Google him.

[DELLmark14]

soul

[CadyFinlayson]

Great to see this clip, thanks for posting!

[artistray621]

if you enjoyed this you should look for the follow up, 'Handsome Johnny' he broke a string at the end of this song and starts Handsome Johnny fixing the broken string.

You won't see the on stage prima donnas do that now, without being torn apart by Harvey Levin and his paparazzi army.... this was back when it was about the music... before the lawyers figured out that 500,000, is a lot of money if you charge people $6 for an album....

Handsome Johnny by Richie Havens 'anti war song'

[neacapatoiu]

@artistray621 "Freedom" was the last song in the set. And it was totally improvised, because Richie managed to sing all the songs he knew by then, and the people would still call him back for more. So, for the last encore he improvised "Freedom". Handsome Johnny was played earlier in the show. If you watch the Woodstock documentary, it appears like it was the first one. And he was just tuning his guitar, not fixing any broken string.

[soccer87s]

this has changed me

[leftyteacher]

Great clip! Thanks so much. It's amazing that he made this song up on the spot, as a filler because no other bands had arrived yet, and they kept sending him out there until he'd run out of all his songs...and this is what happened next! Such a great talent and such a gentle soul

!

[SapphicTwist]

The emotional highlight of Woodstock also happens to be the political highlight. I think a performance like this lives on because it calls us to come together politically in non-trivial ways, in ways that mean changing the world significantly for the better, a politics that turns away from the media hype, and towards our neighbors. Check out "Red Bologna" (Max Jaggi) to see what I'm talking about.

Seisachtheia.

[ksknieser]

When Everyone Stands Up.... That is what it is about!!!

[ggman3000]

this song buzzs in my head so much - pure raw talent by all

[TheCannonFist]

Anyone who works in the music biz, TV, film, media, radio, etc, etc, should watch this footage. Just so they can put their ego into perspective.

[Kurtiz76]

Thanks for posting this. Very significant.

[labtech2010]

Love this song!!!!

[herculescrunch]

What is awesome, is you can see where his pick has worn away at the guitar. So fucking rad.

[420BOYStv]

great upload man thanks a whole lot

[VegassTrades]

Cheers mate, loving the description section as well. Us night owls need to stick together. All the best..

[Motosportnut]

@iliketojumplargeobje yeah, I think they were on a lot of LSD

[Motosportnut]

transcendental *chill bumps* I'm fairly certain if there is a higher power it was flowing directly through Richie during this performance, he's channeling the most high I think

[iliketojumplargeobje]

@Motosportnut i rekon we can ll channel that energy man, just gotta find out how!

[jenniferspacetime]

Thank you oh thank you so very much!

[LuckeySurrender]

Palabra!

[goonerballs]

Haha I love how he gets so sucked into the song, that he wanders off still playing and singing but clearly oblivious to the fact that no one can hear him anymore.. Legend!

[crazycutz]

thank you for an incredible good quality video.. :)

[Ma3gnas]

Congratulations on the great video quality. It shows u put a lot of effort in this. Thank you.

[calmaccer]

0 people are idiot :)

[jhiggvideo]

Who cares what the name of the song is? This is beautiful.

[jayrockwell33]

one fucking love - if only i could see this level of heart out my window. in th emind is fine, but OUT THE WINDOW, fuck, wow . . inspiration since 2004 . .

[jayrockwell33]

FREEDOM and love to us all, our governments are cunts and there's TOO MUCH LOVE that WILL be unleashed upon this world for us now, and for future incarnations upon a cleaner, more loving and altruistic planet XXX

[jhiggvideo]

inspiration. 

[selfdeprecate]

Just saw on Wikipedia that he improvised this because he ran out of songs for his encore.

[XanxiuZ]

@diedahero Yeah, no it's not. He uses some of the lyrics from Motherless Child, but, the song he sings, here is called Freedom.

[XanxiuZ]

@diedahero Do me a favor and whip out your copy of the Woodstock soundtrack. What does it say the name of the Richie Havens song in question is? Freedom, not Motherless Child. He took lyrics from Motherless Child, bits from blues and gospel songs and improvised the rest.

[VistaBoner]

@diedahero

dude, you're wrong, so stop embarrassing yourself.