Handsome Johnny by Richie Havens cover

Today, June 25, 2024 marks the 74th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Richie Havens lived through The Korean War and wrote this song with Louis Gosset Jr. during the time of the Vietnam War. Though he passed away in 2013 he lived through many other wars including Iraq and Afghanistan and as Uppsala University in Sweden has recorded, there have been and continues to be an average of 30-50 armed conflicts per year throughout the world. Havens was always quick to point out that he was pro peace not anti soldier. "The People who were in the war were our brothers, cousins, uncles and aunts you know". Handsome Johnny and Freedom have become iconic moments in Mr. Havens's set at Woodstock as he opened the festival with these acoustic songs. While the staff asked him to stall as they worked on technical issues, he created musical magic that was immortalized in the film Woodstock. Watching him tune his guitar while playing this song has remained one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Thank you Mr. Havens for the music.