Super cool real story
"
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", also "
Motherless Child", is a traditional
spiritual. It dates back to the era of
slavery in the United States.
Richie Havens was tasked with an eight-song set at Woodstock, which was a mix of his originals and covers of songs by other artists. As his set neared its end, the next performer was nowhere to be found, which forced him to do encores with Beatles hits such as
“Strawberry Fields Forever” and
“Hey Jude”.
With pressures mounting, he began to play an impromptu groove, uttering the word “freedom” as it was the first thing that came to his mind, supplementing the lyrics with a few lines from the traditional song,
“Motherless Child” .
According to him (via
Songfacts):
“When you hear me play that long intro, it’s me stalling. I was thinking, ‘What the hell am I going to sing?’ I think the word ‘freedom’ came out of my mouth because I saw it in front of me. I saw the freedom that we were looking for. And every person was sharing it, and so that word came out.”
I was working Mariposa and taking the staff bus to Barrie and Havens was on the bus so I asked WTF the lyrics meant at 3:20 "I got a telephone in my front yard and I can call it from my heart" he said the lyrics were " i got a telephone deep in my soul and i can call it from my heart"
He was making lyrics up on the spot
He performed an exact replica of his woodstock performance at Mariposa