The great folk singer Richie Havens has died at the age of 72. He recorded more than two dozen albums over multiple decades and was renowned for his passionate guitar stylings and powerful anthems of racial justice, peace and freedom. In 1969, his opening performance at Woodstock Music Festival became legendary when he improvised his song “Freedom” with the old spiritual “Motherless Child.”

Richie Haven: “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, a long way from my home. Yeah, yeah, Lord. Singing, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom.”

Richie Havens died of a heart attack at his home in New Jersey on Monday.