Freedom

As the opening act at Woodstock, Richie Havens was supposed to perform for only 40 minutes. But when an unexpected traffic jam delayed the other performers, organizers asked him to keep playing. Three hours into it, Havens had run out of songs, so he started to make one up to the melody of "Motherless Child," a spiritual he'd sung as a kid. "I think the word 'freedom' came out of my mouth because I saw it in front of me," he said. "I saw the freedom that we were looking for. And every person was sharing it, and so that word came out."