Alas, the man who opened Woodstock in electrifying acoustic is no more. Richie Havens could sing from the innards like no other. And who can forget that camera angle that revealed that he had no upper teeth?

In the movie I’M NOT THERE, Mr. Havens has a wonderful cameo, on a front porch, jamming Dylan with two buddies. It’s a great part of that great movie.

Here are the words to the triple acrostic:

Roused the crowd at Woodstock: aah
In fine, graveled voice–voila
Chords acoustic–delta-V
Helped deliver Soul-Ohs FREE
Interp-cepting Geo [Harrison] & [Bob] Dylan
Easily dispatched Love’s villains

Delta-V is mathspeak for “change of velocity.”

Here’s hoping Mr. Haven’s Heaven includes a Choir Invisible that is vocal as all get-out.