In the music business since the 1950s, the legendary singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Bob Dylan has had the chance to meet many incredible artists over the decades. Constantly touring for more than 60 years, he has had numerous opportunities to watch other shows and spend time with fellow musicians.
However, there is one artist he has said he admires both as a musician and as a person.
The musician Bob Dylan said he liked as a person and musician
The musician is the late legendary American musician Richie Havens, who Dylan first met still in the 60s. Both of them were born in 1941 but Bob started his musical career in 1957, while Havens only started in 1965. Although he was also a songwriter, Havens recorded a lot of covers, including some Bob Dylan songs. One of them was “Just Like a Woman” and in an interview in 1975 with Mary Travers, Bob praised his version. He also said that he loved Havens and called him a king.
“Roberta Flack did ‘Just Like A Woman’ but she got the words wrong. She changed the words. I don’t think she changed them. I think she just got ‘em wrong. And I know Nina Simone did ‘Just Like A Woman’ as well. Yeah. I think she makes a lyric change there. Yeah.”
“Personally, I don’t understand why anybody would want to do that song, except me. Richie Havens did it. Now Richie, it made sense coming from Richie. I like Richie. I love his work. That’s an understatement, yeah. Yeah. I love his work, I love him as a human being. I love him as a musician. He’s like a king,” Bob Dylan said.
Richie Havens was active until 2012, one year before his death at the age of 72, a victim of a heart attack. He released 21 studio albums during his career and was also famous for his incredible performance at the Woodstock festival in 1969.
Dylan also learned a few tricks with Richie Havens
During the early years of that decade, Havens became one of the most praised artists of the Village folk music scene and he ended up signing with Bob Dylan’s manager. Curiously, in an interview with NPR in 2004, Dylan recalled that he learned a really good trick with Havens. It was a really good way to make more money when they were playing.
“One singer I crossed paths with a lot, Richie Havens, always had a nice-looking girl with him who passed the hat and I noticed that he always did well. Sometimes she passed two hats. If you didn’t have some kind of trick, you’d come off with an invisible presence, which wasn’t good.”
“A couple of times, I hooked up with a girl I knew from the Café Wha?. (She was) a waitress who was good to the eye. We’d go from place to place, I’d play and she’d take up collection, wear a funny little bonnet, heavy black mascara, low laced blouse — looked almost naked from the waist up under a cape like coat.”
“I’d split the money with her later, but it was too much of a hassle to do it all the time. I still made more when she was with me than when I was working on my own,” Bob Dylan said.
Other Dylan songs Havens covered were “License To Kill”, “Tombstone Blues” and “Maggie’s Farm”.