From Woodstock Wiki

Richie Havens had the honour to open the Woodstock Festival at about 5.00 pm (sources^[1] claim that it was exactly 5.07 pm).

According to an interview on TV^[2] there were originally four songs planned for him. But since the audience liked him and the organizers forced him to play longer (bands were stuck in the traffic jam) he was happy to perform more songs. He further claimed that he played every song he knew the next 2:45 hours but this is quite exaggerated since there were bands who also performed during day light on this day. Sunset occured at about 8:00 pm^[3].

Contents 1 Musicians 2 Setlist 3 Details 4 Availability 5 Footnotes

[edit] Musicians

• Richie Havens - guitar, vocals
• Daniel Ben Zebulon - percussion, conga
• Paul "Deano" Williams - guitar

[edit] Setlist

1. High Flyin' Bird
2. Unknown Song (might be "Minstrel From Gault")
3. I Can't Make It Anymore
4. Handsome Johnny
5. With A Little Help from My Friends
6. Strawberry Fields Forever
7. Hey Jude
8. Motherless Child (a.k.a Freedom)

[edit] Details

Richie Havens was told to "kill time" on stage and probably played many more songs, than the eight we know of.

The "Unknown Song" is just a fragment which might me "Minstrel From Gault".

It is believed, that Richie Havens played the Beatles songs late in his set, when he ran out of material, because he didn't seem to know the lyrics. On the other hand, he already hummed "With A Little Help from My Friends" as early as July, 1968.

[edit] Availability

Official releases:

• Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music
• Woodstock II
• Woodstock Diaries

Other sources include film outtakes.

[edit] Footnotes

1. ↑ German Wikipedia, article Woodstock-Festival
2. ↑ Richie Havens discussion at WoodstockProject mailinglist
3. ↑ Sunrisesunset.com