clarkspicks.com

I bought Richie Havens’ first album Mixed Bag when it came out in 1967, or maybe it was my brother’s copy, I don’t quite remember. At any rate this was one album that I listened to over and over again. One of the most striking cuts on Mixed Bag was his cover of Dylan’s Just Like A Woman.

I think that it was Paul McCartney who said that for a guy who didn’t know how to play the guitar, Richie Havens could play one hell of a guitar. In this video you cans see how he uses an open tuning and some unusual fingerings to produce a unique sound. His powerful rhythmic strumming, combined with the movement up and down the neck of parallel bass and treble notes, produces a full sounding arrangement. I have seen Richie play live alone and with only a percussionist. He doesn’t need a band. Richie’s voice is so unique and his phrasing is so precise that he is immediately recognizable whenever he sings.

Cass Elliott was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1941. At the time, her mother thought her name was Ellen Naomi Cohen. Her stage name came about, first in high school, when she began calling herself “Cass,” taking the name from actress Peggy Cass. Elliott was the name of a friend, who died young. Cass transformed herself from an awkward high school kid to a show business professional by taking this new name and going out to do the job. She dropped out oh high school and went to New York to become an actress. Elliott got a part in The Music Man on Broadway, but was beat out by barbara Streisand at her next audition for the part of miss MarmelsteinI Can Get it For You Wholesale. She returned to school in 1962 and attended American University in Washington D.C. where she began singing in a trio called The Big Three.

After The Big Three broke up she sang briefly in a group called The Mugwumps which also included Denny Doherty, who went on to form The New Journeymen with John and Michelle Phillips. In 1965 Cass was vacationing in the Virgin Islands as were Doherty, John and Michelle. During that vacation Elliott was invited to become a permanent member of the group, which renamed itself The Mamas and the Papas. Trouble also started within the group at the moment of it’s renaming. Cass was in love with Denny, who had no interest in her, however Denny and Michelle began to have an affair on the night that the new group name was chosen.

The Mamas and the Papas had a great deal of commercial success, largely because of Cass Elliott’s powerful singing voice, which tended to dominate, and her charismatic personality. In 1968 the Mamas and the Papas broke up, due to the tensions caused by Denny and Michelle’s affair. Cass went on to have a solo career, which she craved.

On July 29, 1974, according to Michelle Phillips, Cass called her excitedly from her hotel room in London, where she had just done two performances at the Palladium to standing ovations each night. Cass was elated, feeling that she had reached the pinnacle of her career. That night she died in her sleep, of a heart attack.

Here is Mama Cass singing Make Your Own Kind Of Music at the Hollywood Palce. She is introduced by that night’s host, Sammy Davis, Jr.

Everyone in folk music has their Pete Seeger story. Mine is from a gathering of the People’s Music Network, in Philadelphia, some twenty odd years ago. I went in my role as a folk music disk jockey but brought my guitar along. I was in a room where an open mic, of sorts was going to happen in a little while, holding my guitar, although I had no intention of playing or singing in front of the roomful of professionals who would soon gather. Pete came in and he asked me if I was going to play. “Well, no, I really don’t have anything to play and I don’t need to do that today.” I said, or something like that. Pete said “Nonsense, you have a guitar there, you must know how to play something.” He wasn’t going to let me off the hook. Fortunately for me the schedule was already filled. I did participate in a big group song swap later in the weekend.

This clip is a trailer for the PBS special Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend sitting through all the fund raising breaks and watching the whole thing. It brought tears to my eyes. Pete Seeger, after all that he has seen in his long life, still feels that we, as a species, have a bright future ahead of us, if we listen to those early warnings. I’m many years younger, yet I’m not always that optimistic.