Richie Havens - Mixed Bag (1966)

The debut album by Richie Havens and still considered his best work by the majority of fans. Features his distinctive thumb-chorded and open E tuned guitar playing, according to Wiki.

High Flyin' Bird

I Can't Make It Anymore
Morning, Morning
Adam
Follow
Three Day Eternity
Sandy
Handsome Johnny
San Francisco Bay Blues
Just Like a Woman
Eleanor Rigby

Cecily's Notes

Personal Background: Not a lot to speak of here. I saw him on the Woodstock film and wasn't that impressed until the DVD was finished and I realized he and Arlo Guthrie were two of the strongest parts of the whole show. I listened to clips of this CD and bought it from Amazon, listened to it, enjoyed it, kinda forgot about it.

Resonance: Richie Havens is a lot like Neil Young - he's very sympathetic and relatable when singing songs of life and love but the second he starts in on prophecying and Dylanizing about the woes of his generation he loses me completely. What the heck am I supposed to make of 'Follow?' Elsewhere, the effect of his gravelly voice on the sweetly arranged sad pop songs he covers is very similar to that of Nico on her Chelsea Girl album. Power is invested in some fairly cliched material by this method and I enjoy it. However, nothing really stands up to the frankly chilling opening track, 'High Flying Bird,' which is a devastating lament that nothing else on Mixed Bag even comes close to for immediacy and impact. 4/5

Design: I think it would have helped if all the sermons had been broken up a little, instead of being lumped in together near the start. I also don't think ending it with two high profile covers helps Richie Havens make a statement about his own arrival on the music scene. Otherwise the album flows quite well and would have appealed to the "bright young things" of the era - thoughtful, idealistic, educated material cheek-by-jowl with mellow folk-pop. Perfect for coffee with the roommates. 4/5

Utility: I don't listen to this record very often. It's simply not that well-suited to anything outside of introspective listening. 1/5

Best: High Flyin' Bird; San Francisco Bay Blues.

Worst: Follow.

Conclusion: Coming up with an actual rating for this album was kind of difficult. It gets 9/15, which is weak, but its a fairly strong record and definitely doesn't sound like anything else in my collection - I just don't find myself in the mood to play it that much and I don't see the future holding much difference in that regard. Maybe I just always get 'Morning, Morning' stuck in my head for days after listening and it subconsciously puts me off wanting to go through that again.

Ticharu's Notes

Personal Background: I would frequently run across Richie Havens albums when I worked at The Wax. Spin them for people in the store. I'd always find a song I liked sort of like an Iggy Pop album in that way. There's always a really good song in amongst the less memorable stuff. If you're a fan, it's the voice you're a fan of more than anything. I'm a fan of Haven's voice but the albums are a mixed bag (sorry) but it's true in many ways. His albums are a mix of styles, covers and subject matter. Interesting but maybe not completely satisfying. I would have loved to see him live and I'd also like to find the song I thought so much of back in the day, can't remember the name of the song or which record it was on. Thought it was on this one.

My notes deviate from form in that I've just rated the songs. High Flyin' Bird is a strong start. Classic Haves and 5 stars. An album of material in this style and this quality would have been amazing. I Can't Take it Anymore is a nice mid 60s pop song I almost wouldn't mind hearing again at some point. 2 stars. Morning Morning has a mid 60s pop country feel and it's a stronger piece of music. 4 stars. Adam sounds like a song composed after an LSD adventure with Gabor Szabo. I'm not sure Gabor was into that and I highly doubt he's playing on this album but that's what it sounds like to me. Great track, probably best they kept it short. 5 stars. Unlike Follow. At first I thought 'nothing wrong with this song, what's Cecily on about?' But it does go on a bit. At the halfway point I just forwarded to the next track. 1 star. I think that was side one...

Three Day Eternity is another rather strong track. Easy to like. 5 stars. Sandy changes style again and makes me think there were several producers and different musicians involved so I'm going to have to consult Wiki... where I too learned this album is considered his best work... don't you hate that? You're an artist and you've spent your whole life playing and recording and they say the first thing you did is the best thing you did... why bother? I'm guilty as anyone, well I liked their first album... anyway, Sandy is OK, 3 stars. Handsome Johnny is cited as one of the stronger songs on the album but in the pantheon of anti-war songs there are more powerful statements, Machine Gun by Hendrix for one but I like the fact that folk singers could sing songs like Handsome Johnny and be remembered for it. The sentiment is right but I don't know how to rate it. It's preachy. San Francisco Bay Blues is more of that mid 60s pop production that seems to follow every other track on the album. I like this one or almost like this one. 3 stars.

I skipped the last two tracks... what can I say? The joke is that people covering Dylan normally do a better version, so even a better version of Just Like a Woman isn't something I want to sit through. And nobody does a better version of a Beatles track, ever, anywhere, that I've ever heard but then I've never heard this version so I guess I'll never know.

So there you have it. I've given 5 stars to the "best" and not bothered listening to the "worst". My conclusion is... it's a mixed bag :)