From the September 24, 1971 issue of LIFE
THE ROCK FAMILY AFFAIR
Photography by JOHN OLSON
RICHIE ERIKSON
Richie Havens, 30, grew up in the Bedford Styvestant ghetto of Brooklyn,
surrounded by music. His father, Richard Havens, had started out to be a
professional pianist, and after 20 years in metal plating he is still, at bottom,
a musician. "Every chance I have I get new instruments," he says. "I want to play
them all." Not surprisingly, Richie was musically inclined even as a baby. "He
always said he wanted to be a doctor, thought," his mother, Mildred Havens
remembers. "I told him I'd slave if he'd do it. but when he was 18 he made a
sudden change and went to Greenwich Village to play. He didn't come back for 2
years, and then he was already becoming well-known." "I guess the music was
hereditary," Richie says. "I never thought about it, or had any lessons, but
probably I was going to go into it."
Three years ago Richie brought his
parents this house in East Flatbush where he and his father find common ground in
music. "There are great differences in our thinking," says Richard Havens "Still
I think it's time for the young people to find out for themselves what they want
to do."
The senior Havenses have eight other children still finding
themselves. "Richie is the only one that really moved away," Mrs. Haven says. "I
can't get rid of most of them."
Click on a name below and see these rock legends with their parents back in 1971
FRANK ZAPPA ELTON JOHN ERIC CLAPTON
THE JACKSON FIVE GINGER BAKER JOE COCKER
GRACE SLICK DAVID CROSBY RICHIE HAVENS
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