Richard Farina was born to an Irish mother and a Cuban father. He grew
up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, where his neighbors
included Ramblin' Ramblin' Jack Elliott. He also briefly lived in Cuba. He traveled
throughout his childhood, a habit that later became a central
occupation in his restless life.
Farina attended Cornell University, where he wrote stories and poems,
and befriended classmates Peter Yarrow and Thomas Pynchon. In his junior year,
Farina participated in a student protest against repressive campus
regulations. He was suspended, and the incident became a Cornell
legend. He returned to campus, but dropped out at the end of his senior
year in 1959.
Moving back to New York City, where he wrote and mixed with the
bohemians at the White Horse Tavern, the legendary Greenwich Village
haunt frequented by poets, artists, folksingers and wayfarers, where he
befriended Tommy Makem. It was there that he met Carolyn Hester, a successful
folksinger. After a whirlwind courtship, they married. Farina had no
income and wiggled himself into Carolyn's career, appointing himself
her agent. They traveled across the U.S., Europe and Africa as Farina
worked on his novel and Carolyn performed her gigs. Farina was present
when Carolyn recorded her third album at Columbia studios in September
1961, where a then-unknown Bob Dylan played harmonica on several tracks.
Though Farina barely played any instruments, he appeared on-stage with
Carolyn at the Edinburgh Folk Festival in 1962 and made a BBC
television appearance with her. Carolyn began to resent this intrusion
into her career.
While they were living in Europe in the spring of 1962, Farina attended
a bucolic folkie picnic in the French countryside, where he met
Mimi Fariña, the teenage sister of Joan Baez. Farina began writing to Mimi
shortly afterwards, and they met again at the Edinburgh Folk Festival.
Carolyn left him in the fall of 1962 to return to the U.S. to record
her fourth album, and filed for divorce. Richard and Mimi were married
secretly in Paris in 1963. That fall, they moved to Carmel, California
to live in a one-room cabin, and had a second wedding in August for the
Baez family. In their tiny cabin, they began playing and developing
their unique guitar-dulcimer duets. They debuted at the Big Sur Folk
Festival in 1964 and soon won a recording contract with Vanguard,
Joan's label. They recorded their first album that fall with the help
of Bruce Langhorne, who later played for Dylan. The album was released in April
1965, and they appeared on the eclectic, vibrant, and increasingly
competitive Cambridge folk scene of 1964-65. They befriended Eric Andersen,
Judy Collins, Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur and many others. Their reputation seemed to
grow with each performance and, by the time they headlined the
Newcomers Concert, they were superstars.
Farina also finished his novel, which was based largely on the
experiences of his college years and travels. He completed "Been Down
So Long It Looks Like Up To Me" with such agonizing effort that his
hand became paralyzed. He recorded a second LP with Mimi, performed at
the San Francisco Folk Festival, and was scheduled to appear at the
Newport festival in the summer of 1966.
Richard and Mimi attended a book-signing on April 30, 1966, at
Thunderbird Bookstore in Carmel, then went to a party for Mimi's 21st
birthday. At this party, a friend pulled up on a Harley. Richard went
for a ride on the bike on the rolling hills of Carmel, and they wiped
out, throwing Richard from the bike. He was killed instantly. The
timing of Farina's death coincided with the intersection of folk music
and rock. David Hajdu's "group portrait" of Dylan, Farina, Joan & Mimi in
his 2001 book "Positively 4th Street" affectionately conveyed Richard's
unique, fascinating and colorful character.
