note: `slithers' should be `slivers' - the reviewer made a mistake

typed in by Ivan Kocmarek

Donovan quavers, la-la-las and gurgles his way through this irritating sea of twee which Peter Frampton, Steve Marriott and Carole King somehow managed to get mixed up in. Believe it or not, this disc was produced by the man who discovered the Rolling Stones. Does Donovan really have to imitate Peter Sellers imitating a Pakistani to sound mystic on “Yellow Star”? And who can really argue with such profoundly philosophic lines as “There have been so many words, and just as many turds”?

Record Collector magazine; Issue 236 - April 1999, p. 224

7-TEASE
Donovan
Epic PE 33245

  Donovan once preferred to owe his career to Bob Dylan, instead he owed it to the culture that produced and served Dylan. When Dylan renounced and withdrew, Donovan was cast adrift as a shaken and lonely second, assuming caricatured poses as a pitiable yet still-suffering troubador and songwriter. Self-parody turned into sour when, in 1967, accompanying the merger of flower power's political impotence with the nihilism of psychedelia — “Mellow Yellow,” Andy Warhol consuming an 'e-lectrical ba-na-na' — one unforgettable episode of Mod Squad cast Noel Harrison in the role of a thoroughly debauched, pill-crazed, charismatic rocker named Quinn, the name an accessible bridge between songwriting-Dylan and Donovan's single praenonmen (like Liberace, or Moondog). Harrison himself had adopted the songs of Dylan as his creed, even saw a flash of Top 40 action with Leonard Cohen's own “Suzanne” at the same time of the year that Pete, Julie and Linc were trying to free the Commissioner's drugged-out, burned-up daughter from the clutches of this Quinn chap, a larcenous creep who would marry the helpless wench in spite of her daze, just to get the fuzz off his back. For authenticity — there were Quinn albums displayed prominently on Julie's turnable, and Harrison, qua Quinn, heaved up his limiest limey accent on a couple of tunes — Harrison/Quinn imitating Donovan imitating Dylan. Luckily, and just in the nick of time, in a bit of pre-Mansoneque coldbloodedness, one of Quinn's demonically crazed groupies guns down the singer and a roomful of his entourage, leaving Linc to save the Comm's daughter from an amphetaminized third story suicide attempt.
  As for Harrison, who never quite understood if he wanted to be Donovan or Dylan or Leonard Cohen or John Lennon in the first place, he turned up in 1968 for the last time with a single known as “Leitch on the Beach” that went nowhere, and one after it, “The Great Electric Experiment Is Over,” that didn't even go that far. Now Donovan has finally written a song, called “The Ordinary Family,” that Quinn would've relished in his flower powered prime. First lines: “My father cut his toe off in a rotary lawn mower...” then, “When I was just a virgin lad my mother faked a suicide/because she saw the tell-tale sign of puberty upon my sheets,” this is the one that asks the question — am I going to be as natty with my children as my parents were with me, “or will I be their equal friend?” Now that generation gaps are a dime a dozen, where's Noel Harrison when we need him?
  The essence of this schizoid caricature of Donovan, the “long-haired, loose-hipped...rock 'n roll flower powerful dreamer” vs Donovan, the “Rock 'n Roll Souljer” is the anticlimax to the re-emergence that began two years ago on Cosmic Wheels — it's been said before (it'll be said again), we got Donovan product with Cosmic Wheels, but it took awhile longer to get Donovan music. There are no less than eight gratifying tracks on 7-TEASE, fully realized in Nashville for a change, where Donovan and producer/bassist Norbert Putnam wringed Quad's Studios, guitarist Reggie Young, Buttrey the drummer, Briggs on keyboards and `strings,' Delta horns (the best kind, on “How Silly the Politician Looks” and “Salvation Stomp”), flanked by the pipes of Buffy Ste-Marie, Flo Warner, and Ginger and Mary Holladay. Had Donovan's songwriting muse not been up to the task though, even Nashville's best couldn't have saved this Lp from the dismissable fate of Cosmic Wheels or Essence to Essence, of one year ago.
  The key lies in Donovan's transformation from Quinn-like saviour image to that of partial observer of the human condition. The commentary in “How Silly” is purely journalese: “How silly the Queen of England looks, sipping her royalty/the essence of noncommittalness, in the Grand Democracy/it's the Hanoverian Strain, Erin's Isle is not the same/for the poet's rhyme she gives us wine, we hope for better things from Charles,” which does not necessarily rhyme either, but the song is delivered in the most crass, cocktail lounge Mel Torme suavete that Doovan can muster up, the horns are strictly Lawrence Welk on Sesame Street, and whatever naive notions of political cause and effect that are dregged up in the lyric — they remain, in the Zappaesque sense, purely conversational. Donovan, unlike Quinn, shows on 7-TEASE that more attention can be drawn to a songwriter's gestures when they are cloaked in the garb of accessibility. Where the production values of both Cosmic Wheels and Essence to Essence emphasized the ethereal, mystical-spiritual levels of Donovan's attainment since 1970's Open Road — on 7-TEASE he is presented in the very first cut as the invincible “Rock 'n Roll Souljer,” and this cut is pure anthem, the most believable item since Dobie Gray's “Drift Away,” with all the kineticism to obliterate any traces of “Rock Me Gently”-type plasticized anthemizing that's been getting in the way of the real thing lately.
  Neil Young (or Diamond) would never have put in those synthesized strings to pine away underneath “Your Broken Heart,” but here is the blend of 12-string acoustic with Reggie Young that the Byrds, you may know by now, did not simply pick up from out of the blue, so the strings merely add a dimension of sadness to a tune that otherwise shines with the same lumpthroated aura as the he ain't heavy, he's m'brother scene at the end of Men of Boy's Town, a broken-hearted film in its own right. Canyon-based Donovan is not above above self-examination, either, drawing these villainesque analogies: “Sequined cowboy in the canyon/four-wheeled-driving stallion/country music in his fingers, another girl within his heart...Only you know what to do with your broken heart.”
  Donovan isn't the ideal cosmic cowboy yet, no matter what Norbert of Reggie must've told him already, but “Ride-A-Mile” and “The Great Song of the Sky” find Donovan carreening his way across them same cosmos, like some other “automobile gypsy,” trying to keep in rhythm and harmony away from dismal, domestic earthly tugs, “sleepin under the Milky Way” — who'd have believed Nashville was up to this?
  Still and all, it's “The Voice of Protest” that's the cut worth coming back to time and time again on this record. While “Sadness” (an Abbey Road-derived lullaby), “Love of My Life” and “The Quest” (new age sonnets) have a charm that is unavoidable on most Donovan albums (they tend to stick out like soring thumbs on 7-TEASE), and while “Moon Rok” may be the first and last time that the spirit of Marc Bolan inhabits Nashville's Quadrafonic Studios — nevertheless, “The Voice of Protest” is an immediately pantheonic readymade: Jealously, rage, paranoiac raving greed and mistrust find Donovan's own old Spaceship Earth “lurching all on her giddy/starry way,” and what's the result? “...Round and round and round we go, the seeds of misery we sow/round and round and down we go, our leaders are lost and they don't know,” then yeeeoooow! A harp blast that is straight out of Dylan, 1966, under Buffy and Flo, and it's enough to make your head spin in chilly circles, a harp blast that is not only worth the entire inflated price of this vinyl, but a harp blast worth walking a mile for, the harp blast that waiting for it ain't gonna make it come any sooner, because if this was the only good song on 7-TEASE it still might (might) be worth it all, anyhow.
  But is there any reason to hope that this is all gonna happen again, or that anybody has room for old Donovan Leitch in their 1975 cosmology? Arabs are cool, he urges in his own liner notes, always been the friend of the Freak in this century he says, “the Oil Crisis will do us all a favor,” he proposes. And that all may be going a bit farther than even the staunchest student of world shenanigans is willing to let on — no oil, no PVC; no PVC, no vinyl; no vinyl, no more Donovan Lps, come to think of it. Donovan makes a deep impression with all he says and does on this record, and while he is destined either never to duplicate its impact or to become his own Quinn and succumb to the very forces he manages to exorcise here — at least it's done, and at least the “Voice of Protest” got in his last licks before the fire. Donovan sez: “Hail the Long-haired, Loose-hipped, Flower-powerful, Dreaming Decade.”

submitted by Randy Reeves

How long has it been, glitter children, since you thought about Donovan; bought one of his albums; talked about him with your friends; wondered what he'd do next? What, not since 1968? If so, you're not the only one. It's been a long time since Donovan inspired that kind of interest, and not entirely by his own fault. Though his peak years were from 1965, when he brought the image of a gentle, wandering minstrel to the pop charts, to 1967 when he came to symbolize for many the ultimate model of the innocent flower child, and though he continued to release hit singles for a couple of years subsequently, by all appearances he had begun to slip after the summer of 1968, and seemed to be clutching at straws when he called on Jeff Back to add his talents to "Barabajagal," following which he resurfaced strongly with "Atlantis" in early '69, then sank without a trace beneath the billowing waves of an era that could no longer succor an artist of his sensitivity.

Also noteworthy on this first effort is Donovan's very distinctive method of Travis picking, but more on that later in the story. Incidentally, it recalls an early Dylan song, "If I Had To Do It All Over Again, Babe, I'd Do It All Over You." The 'A' side of this record was "Josie." Herein was established the archetypal Donovan song--lots of earthy, flowery, flowing images and a tale of love, sometimes requited, sometimes not. I got my copy in Tampa, Florida--I don't have to tell you that it was totally unavailable in New York. Somehow Hickory was impressed with this record's sales and gave him another shot. That's all that was needed. This time out he got his first monster single hit, an oft-recurring pattern of Donovan's career.

I think he has handled a delicate subject extraordinarily well.

donovan is on the front cover. The caption on the cover picture says: Donovan in the Seventies
Inside there is another picture - the caption says: Donovan in the bullrushes...
Bobby Abrams (the author of this piece) has dodgy grounds for calling himself a serious music journalist. The factual errors in this article are amazing and I have no idea where he gets his chronology from

submitted by Randy Reeves

AFTER A four year gap, Donovan has once again teamed up with the man with whom he had a stream of hit records during the Sixties and early-Seventies — Mickie Most. The result is a new album for Rak Records called Donovan Rising, and which the Scottish singer-songwriter describes as `the paving stones' for his planned 1978 full-scale comeback.
  In fact little has been heard of Donovan in recent years. There was a period when his records were hardly out of the Top Ten — Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Jennifer Juniper, and First There Is A Mountain were just some — but then he apparently slipped out of the limelight. In the US he signed with Columbia Records and had several albums issued on the Epic label, including Cosmic Wheels and 7-Tease. He virtually disappeared from the live performance scene however and now that he is firmly domiciled in California — partly for tax reasons — his visits to Britain have become more and more spasmodic.
  Donovan's latest visit to the UK is part of his plan to re-establish himself here. For the first time in his life he has actually gone out on tour with a rock band backing him, as support attraction to Yes, with whom he shares the same management. By mid-December Donovan will have completed more than 90 dates including some 25 in Britain alone.
  The idea for Donovan to team up with Mickie Most followed a chance meeting between the two men. “We just decided that maybe we could do an LP together, but the difference this time was I worked with session musicians in the studio which was something I had never done before,” Donovan says. “In fact it was an experience quite new for us both — neither of us are used to working with live bands. I'm quite happy with the results although the album does seem to be going down better in Europe than in the US where it was issued a few weeks ago.”
  Donovan is looking to 1978 as being his `year of development.' He says that his career in Britain as a recording artist and a performer is as important to him as his career in the US. He adds however: “The British can be very strange towards their pop stars when they go to the US. I think that basically they like to see their prodigal son return, but only if he has dne really well across the Atlantic. If someone returns to the UK, and he is not particularly `hot' in the States, then the British don't always want to know.”
  He admits that the British music scene has changed a lot since his own early days, when he arrived in London from Scotland as an 18-year-old teenager playing his guitar. “Britain is undergoing so many social changes at the moment and the music is reflecting it; in addition, pop music is much more of a business and industry nowadays.”
  In the US, Donovan had a long association with CBS from 1966 to 1975 — he was one of the first signings to the Epic label, and was one of the artists who grew with it. Towards the end of his association however, he admits he became tired — “I have never wanted to work in a factory, and I began to realise that I was employed by a massive corporation. I much prefer my present situation with Arista in the US.”
  In fact it was due to Clive Davis, former head of CBS in the US and now top man at Arista, that Donovan decided to re-launch his recording career. “Brian Lane, my manager, had read Davis' book which included a couple of chapters about me. He had written something about, `Donovan is a sleeping star and to wake him up he needs encouragement.' In fact, it is very easy for solo artists, particularly those without a band of their own, to slip into an extremely low profile, and it was Clive Davis who said that he could raise me up again. Brian Lane went to him and said that I was trying to record again — the next thing was that I had signed to Arista.”
  He continues: “My contract with Arista specifies six albums and Donovan Rising is the preliminary one. Although the songs have been written over a period of two years, we actually did the album in France in a very short time. We did the basic tracks in a week and the overdubs in about four weeks, using the Rak mobile recording studio. It was the first time I had worked with Mickie Most since Cosmic Wheels about four years ago.
  “I think that the next album will benefit from this one. Already I have a few songs written, and the theme of the LP will probably be, Donovan Rocks. Throughout 1976 I have been mainly playing on rock bills. The dates I have done with Yes in Britain were quite interesting because although the audiences had obviously come to see them, they did remember my songs and seemed to appreciate what I was doing.
  “I still consider live performances more important than records in the long run, and I've always felt that I could turn people on by playing live. At the moment there are so many hit recording acts around who just can't perform live at all.”
  Donovan plans to return to Britain in spring of next year and consolidate the success he has been having this time around. “So far as my band is concerned, I think the potential is wide open,” he says. “This tour and album have been paving the way for what we plan to do in 1978. Our music has to keep changing because the people are changing all of the time.”

I fist met Donovan when he was fifteen and we hit the road in 1961 hitch-hiking and sleeping rough in derelicts, curled up under bushes and finding shelter in the small beach huts along the Devon and Cornwall coastline.
It was during these days that Donovan came into contact with the folk songs of the camp fire and he swopped his only good pair of boots for a battered old guitar which he eventually inscribed with the message "This machine kills."
Donovan was born in one of the poorer areas of Glasgow and caught popio at the age of threee from which he became seriously ill and barely escaped with his life. His family moved down to the countryside of Hertfordshire to escape the city and Donovan became greatly moved by the new surroundings which profoundly influenced his understanding of beauty and nature -- themes which later ran through his early songs and influenced millions of young people all over the world.
It was from the early experiences of listening to sea shanties and old ballads that Donovan formed his early musical style.
Donovan's first managers Geof Stephens and Peter Eden caught him playing in a small club on the Souuth Coast and persuaded him to try and record some of his own compositions. They introduced him to one of the controllers of the "Ready, Steady, Go" TV series, and booking him for three consecutive shows. As a result of this a bewildered eighteen year old suddenly found himself at number 3 in the English charts with his very first record "Catch the Wind", in March 1965.
Off on the roller coaster of success, Donovan followed his initial success with further top ten hits lie "Dolours", "Universal Soldier", Turqoise" and his first album "What's Been Did and What's Been Hid", all of which raced up the charts.
While England was in the grip of the "Scramage" and frenzied audiences were tearing halls up to the volume of rock and roll of emergent supergroups lie the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, this lone fugure with his denim cap and guitar was a sensational contrast as he controlled huge Festival crowds with his simple songs -- cutting through the excitement and hysteria but never severing the roots of enthusiasm. Albums like "Fairytale' were already spreading his reputation throughout Europe, and the BBC TV acknoledged his escalating fame with the accolade of TV documentary with "A Boy Called Donovan" which is till regarded as a master cameo of the time.
We were watching a strange new musical concept being born in contrast to the noisy sexual exuberance of rock and roll as Donovan built on a basis of harmony and tranquility through his lyrics and music. Vietnam was growing like a cancer out of control and the nuclear deterrent was levelled at every young head. In an uninhibited moment during a huge concert in Los Angeles, Donovan threw flowers out into the audience, and a journalist reviewing the show coined the words "Flower Power" for the first time.
While the media were busy categorising and labelling Donovan as "Prince of Flower Power" and the musical high priest of the peace movement, Donovan was moving on as a song writer and in collaboration with producer Mickie Most His songs were taking an exuberant up-tempo feeling with songs like "Sunshine Superman". Almost single-handedly the two were responsible for the coining of yet another musical category "Folk Rock".
Donovan's next major single success was "Mellow Yellow" in February 1967, and after this he took to the hills of Greece for a time and lived in a small farmhouse on the island of Paros, situated by the side of a mountain. While under the influence of the natural beauty of the area and the glorious sunshine he wrote two more classic songs "There is A Mountain" and "Writer in the Sun".
On his return to England, Donovan took up residence in Wimbledon, close to the Common and produced the collection of beautiful songs which became one of the best loved double albums, "A Gift From A Flower to A Garden", conatianing some of his most well known childrens songs. He also acquired property on the Isle of Skye and from that relaxed atmosphere poured songs like "Isle of Islay", "Lullaby of Spring", "The Magpie", and "Widow With A Shawl".
In America Donovan's popularity was now assuming super-star proportions, and with a backing group of jazz-musicians he dilled the legendary Madison Square Gardesn to the point where there were massive traffic jams, and so many people outside that a local eminent politiciaan making an electoral pitch from an open car mistakenly thought they had come to see him and began "Fellow Americans ..." before being told in no mistaken terms whom they had come to see.
Around this period when so many young people were looking for more spiritual help in an over-developd materialistic society, Donovan was itnroduced to the Maharishi by George Harrison, and for a short time fell under his influence along with the other Beatles, the Beach Boys and Mia Farrow. There was a genuine desire on all their parts to try and do something which would benefit a world already under so much threat of violence and injustice. they went with high hopes and returned with the knowledge that looking inside yourself was not enough if you forget to look out for others.
A highly productive period followed this for Donovan on record, and the immensly successful single "Hurdy Gurdy Man" in 1968 and "Atlantis" were further indications that he had lost none of the optimism and visions of hope and love expressed through his music. A collaboration with Jeff Beck's band in 1969 produced the highly acclaimed "Barabajagal" hit and for a short time Donovan toured with a highly talented band of musicians put together under the name "Open Road", who worked with him on tours of Europe and Japan.
There was a quiet, collective period for Donovan in the Seventies and albums like "Seventease", "Slow Down World", and "Donovan" were well received by his fans. It was the album he produced and wrote in England in 1972 titled "Cosmic Wheels" and produced by his old friend Mickie Most, which earned him another gold record and put him back in the Top Twenty.
After a few relfective years living quietly on the edge of the desert in California, Donovan is back to live in Britain with his wife Linda and his three children, because he believes that new starts are best made from home. It has already been apparent from his enthusiastic reception which brought encore after encore on his guest appearance at the Cambridge Folk Festival, and seen on BBC TV in August that he still commands a huge following. Now with his first tour of England for several years this Octover 1981, and a new album and single record, Donovan is back to prove that real talent never fades away, and for a songwriter of genuine compassion and humour there is a real need NOW.

note: the programme is from the Love is Only Feeling tour. Gypsy Mills is more commonly known as Gypsy Dave, probably Donovan's oldest friend

typed in by Ivan Kocmarek

BY JOHN LINDLEY

To many people, Donovan is merely a figure from the past – locked firmly in the summer of '67 like a flower that will not die. It's an understandable myth, for the mood of that period clearly paralleled his own; and despite scorn from the music press he has stubbornly refused to drop the themes of `peace and love' from his songs simply because they are no longer fashionable. Unfortunately, his `flower power' trappings have discouraged many people from bothering to look beneath the image at his vast, if sometimes inconsisent, performing and writing talents. It's a pity that so many less talented singer/songwriters have been so much more succesful and acceptable in recent years simply by looking the part.
    Following his discovery in 1964 in a Southend club by Jeff Stephens and Peter Eden, Donovan Leitch began laying down tracks in a small Denmark Street studio previously used by the Stones. After appearing on “Ready Steady Go” three weeks running he hit the charts with “Catch The Wind” and embarked on a career of fluctuating – though always fascinating – albums for Pye Records.
    The first, “What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid”, combined six of his own compositions with six others, and had a rough and tumble rawness typical of debut folk albums. Recorded simply with acoustic guitar and harmonica, and with Brian Locking on bass, Skip Alan on drums and Donovan's legendary friend Gypsy Dave on kazoo, the LP is notable for a different version of “Catch The Wind” and for the inclusion of “Tangerine Puppet”, his only instrumental recording to this day. The back cover contained a short poem and the lyrics to “Catch The Wind”.
    That same year produced “Fairytale”, the definitive album of Donovan's pre-pop period, and together with the first the source of the ill-founded accusations that he was just a carbon copy of Bob Dylan. All but three of the songs on the LP were originals, beginning with the hit “Colours” and moving through his first foray into jazz (“Sunny Goodge Street”) to such exquisite songs as “Summer Day Reflection Song” and “Jersey Thursday”. Shawn Phillips is mysteriously credited on the sleeve with electric guitar on “Song With Your Name”, although no title is listed under that heading. This raises the possibility of either a change of title or perhaps a separate song missing from the final pressing.
    Both 1965 albums were later reissued on the budget Marble Arch label: “Car Car” and “Donna Donna” were left off “What's Bin Did” in the process, and “Colours” and “The Little Tin Soldier” off “Fairytale”. Neither the originals nor the reissues are now easy to find.

    Also scarce now is the “Universal Soldier” EP, which contained the title track, “Ballad Of A Crystal Man”, “Do You Hear Me Now” and “The War Drags On”. A Marble Arch album with the same title was released in 1967, based on these four songs and padded out with singles, B-sides and album tracks. This too has been deleted. A number of compilation albums have since been released covering this early period. These include “The Donovan File” (probably the most comprehensive), “The World Of Donovan”, “Spotlight On Donovan” and two budget albums on the Hallmark label, “Colours” and “Catch The Wind”.
    After completing his first two albums Donovan left Eden and Stephens and teamed up with Mickie Most, the man who has since claimed credit for his transformation from denim cap and jeans to more varied clothes, and the musical change from harmonica to more varied backings. The acoustic guitar was retained on future releases, but Donovan embarked on a musical journey that took in exotic Indian rhythms, calypso, jazz, pop, folk and rock.

    Two enormously successful singles, “Sunshine Superman” and “Mellow Yellow”, elevated Donovan to pop-star status in Britain and the States. His American distributors, Epic, took advantage of this with two albums named after the singles. “Sunshine Superman” (BN 26217), released in November 1966, had ten original compositions and contained a prose poem on the back cover that acted as a precis of the songs. “Mellow Yellow” (BN 26239) followed two months later and matched the excellence of the previous release. Credit here was due to the marvellously inventive blues piano and harpischord arrangements of John Cameron. These two albums heralded the tremulous vocals that became Donovan's trademark, and also introduced the late great Harold McNair, a flautist whose accompanyments were synonymous with the Donovan sound.
    The British album release of “Sunshine Superman” in 1967 represented a creaming off of twelve of the best tracks from the two U.S. albums, repackaged in an attractive sleeve that included a short poem on the back. The result was arguably Donovan's finest album, essential for any serious collector of Sixties pop music. The U.S. releases are equally important, however, for the songs that got away. Of these, only two were available to U.K. buyers: “The Trip” (the flip of “Sunshine Superman”) and “Mellow Yellow” (the B-side of which, “Preachin' Love”, is unavailable elsewhere). Tracks released only in the U.S. were “Ferris Wheel”, “The Fat Angel”, “Bleak City Woman”, “Museum”, “Sunny South Kensington” and “House of Jansch”.
    Donovan's next British offering was a boxed set entitled “A Gift From A Flower To A Garden”, which contained two records and two complete sets of lyrics (the second set in a loose leaf folder illustrated by Mick Taylor and Sheena McCall, who had done the artwork for both the “Mellow Yellow” and U.K. ”Sunshine Superman” sleeves). Both the photos of Donovan, resplendent in a robe in front of an artificially-coloured landscape and holding hands with the Maharishi, and the over-precious (though sincere) liner notes have led writers to ridicule this album. However, with one or two exceptions the songs and performances have worn well, displaying a charm, humour and finely-controlled lyricism that reviewers often neglect to acknowledge. Although the two LPs were defined as one for “my age group” and one for “little ones” there are obvious crossover songs on both discs and a clearer definition would be to see one as pop and the other as more acoutic material. The two albums were actually issued separately in the States as “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” (BN 26349) and “For Ltitle Ones” (BN 26350).

    A live LP recorded at the Anaheim Convention Centre, L.A. and called “Donovan In Concert” was issued here in 1968. Accompanied by Harold McNair (flutes/sax), Tony Carr (drums) and Candy John Carr (bongos) Donovan ran through a number of familiar songs, often with new arrangements. Three were new to British fans: “The Fat Angel” (which the recorded audience recognise straight from the opening riff), the delightful “Pebble And The Man” and the knockabout “Rules and Regulations” – still otherwise unreleased.
    British fans were again sorely neglected with the release of two more albums in the States only. First was the highly enjoyable “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (BN 26420), which contains only two tracks released here, the title track (a single whose flipside is unavailable elsewhere) and “Jennifer Juniper” (to which the same comments apply). The remaining tracks are “Peregrine”, “The Entertaining Of A Shy Girl”, “As I Recall It”, “Get Thy Bearings”, “Hi, It's Been A Long Time”, “West Indian Lady”, “The River Song”, “Tangier”, “A Sunny Day”, “The Sun Is A Very Magic Fellow” and “Teas”.
    Some of the beautifully-packaged “Barabajagal” (BN-S-26481) has been released here on singles: an alternative mix of the title track and its B-side, “Bed With Me” (which appears coyly titled as “Trudi” on the album), both recorded with the Jeff Beck Group; and both sides of the “Atlantis” single. The elusive tracks are “Superlungs My Supergirl”, “Where Is She”, “Happiness Runs” (alias “Pebble And The Man”), “The Love Song”, “To Susan On The West Coast Waiting” and “Pamelo Jo”. The LP was recorded both in London's Olympic Studios in May 1968 and at the American Recording Company, LA, in November 1968. Both albums are very worthwhile, the first for some excellent songs and the second for the loose and spontaneous feel that spills over from Donovan to his musicians and backing singers.

    “Donovan's Greatest Hits”, released in 1969 with a cover that opens to several pages of photos, is interesting in that five of the eleven tracks are either different from the originals or else hitherto unreleased. “Colours” and “Catch The Wind” are both totally new versions and “Sunshine Superman” is a much longer take which the single was edited down from. “Epistle To Dippy” was previously unreleased here and “Lalena”, despite being a familiar concert favourite, had also only been available as a U.S. single (backed, incidentally, by the only available version of “Aye My Love”). The album was reissued in 1973, but the bookcover original is increasingly difficult to find.
    Splitting finally from producer Mickie Most, Donovan formed a band called Open Road, consisting of John Carr (drums and vocals) and Mike Thomson (bass, vocals and guitar). With help from Mike O'Neill (piano and vocals) an album called “Open Road” was released in 1970. Containing songs like “Curry Land” and the notorious “Poke At The Pope”, Donovan's plunge into Celtic rock was viewed warily at the time, but the album has definitely improved with age and is now held in a great deal of respect by many rock fans. Despite announcing that he'd stick with the group “unless there's an earthquake”, Donovan soon left the band, as Open Road never really found their studio form on stage; and by the time of his next single, “Celia Of The Seals”, he was solo again, save for the accompaniment of double bassist Danny Thompson who gets a credit on the label.
    Also in 1970, Donovan appeared in the film “If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium” singing “Lord Of The Reedy River” and contributing the title song, and also wrote the music for Franco Zeffirelli's “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”. A soundtrack album from the latter film was issued in Europe (EMI 3C06493393). During 1971 Donovan worked on songs and music in Germany for the Jacques Demy film “The Pied Piper” in which he played the title role. Disappointed eventually that some of his specially written songs weren't used, Donovan was adamant that no album filled with soundtrack music should be released under his name.
    In 1971 a double-album of children's songs called “HMS Donovan” came out, produced by Donovan and containing a poster drawn by `Patrick', who also provides the superb artwork on the cover. The album is a return to the folk sound, and includes a delightful selection of Donovan's intrepretations of poems by Lewis Carroll, W.B.Yeats, Thora Stowell and others. Twelve of the 28 tracks are original songs, and among the best are “Little Ben”, “In An Old-Fashioned Picture Book”, “The Voyage Of The Moon” (which Mary Hopkin had sung on TV just hours before Neil Armstrong made his “one small step for mankind”) and the first available recording of “Lord Of The Reedy River”. Also included was a hopelessly-misplaced rock song called “Homesickness”, which is produced by Mickie Most and appears to be left over from an earlier album.
    Predictably, “HMS Donovan” was largely ignored by the public, and Donovan retreated to Ireland for tax purposes, formed a band which toured Ireland with Planxty and returned in 1972 to appear solo at the Bickershaw Festival. After so long without chart success he seemed to be losing direction and this period was a frustrating one for Donovan. By September 1972, however, under the management of Allen Klein and with a new record deal with CBS, he went back into the studios and reunited with Mickie Most to record “Cosmic Wheels”. Issued in 1973, the LP came with a circular poster of Donovan together with the album lyrics and featured many notable musicians, such as Chris Spedding, Cozy Powell, Rabbit Bundrick and Jim Horn. Most critics proclaimed his most exciting and successful work for years. Certainly it was a solid and entertaining album, with Donovan back to his lyrical best on many tracks and also attempting some of the most adventurous vocals of his career. The importance of his reunion with the shrewd commercial ear of Mickie Most can't be overestimated, and “Cosmic Wheels” represented Donovan's first step into the public spotlight since he had split with Most in the late Sixties. Nevertheless, their relationship became strained towards the end of the sessions and wasn't resumed for several years.

    There's a golden rule in pop music – if something succeeds, repeat it. Donovan instead chose, as always, to follow his own head, hinting even as “Cosmic Wheels” came out that the next LP would be different (one of the reasons for the rift with Most). When this proved to be the case, many reviewers did an about turn and retrospective accounts of the album often condemn it wholesale on the basis of a couple of superficial tracks.
    The follow-up, “Essence To Essence”, was an album that paraded the best and worst of Donovan's songs. Fortunately, the best are among the finest of his career. “Sailing Homeward” from “The Pied Piper” is included, with Carole King (who Donovan claims influenced the song) on piano. Later the middle eight from an unreleased song, “Natural High Is The Best High In The World”, finds its way into “There Is An Ocean”. Donovan's vocals are again first-rate, and the LP boasts a galaxy of stars, such as Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton and Nicky Hopkins. Despite the formidable line-up, Andrew Oldham's sympathetic production kept the general feel of the album fairly laid-back. Again the lyrics were included, as on all subsequent Donovan albums. In 1974, excited by David Bowie's new visual direction, Donovan staged several theatre productions in California, with four back-up musicians and a trio of dancers, and incorporating costumes, light-effects and paintings by `Patrick'. The show, “7-Tease”, spawned a studio concept album produced by Norbert Putnam, which, while lacking the peaks of its predecessor, was much more consistent.

    In Japan CBS/Sony issued “Live in Japan: Spring Tour 1973” at about this time (ECPM-25) with four of its fourteen songs unavailable elsewhere: “Tinker Tune”, “Living For The Love Light”, “The Ferryman's Daughter” and “A Working Man”. The import did not appear in Britain until 1975 and is now very difficult to obtain.
    From this point on the wheels of Donovan's career began to turn slower than ever. A rather bizarre single release of the Bowie/Peace composition “Rock'n'Roll With Me“ in 1973 passed almost unnoticed, and he and his family settled in the middle of the California desert moving only to tour Australia and New Zealand. In 1976, however, he re-emerged in the U.S. to promote his first album in two years, the self-produced “Slow Down World”. Although it is an uneven album, it still has much to recommend it. It includes his old friend Derrol Adams' song “The Mountain”, this being the first studio album (with the exception of “HMS Donovan”, of course) to feature a non-original song since “Fairytale” in 1965. The label mistakenly credits Donovan as its composer, and Adams with Donovan's “My Love Is True”.
    Another unexpected reunion with Mickie Most and a switch of labels to EMI culminated in “Donovan” in 1977. For once the magic failed to work and despite the use of “Sunshine Superman” arranger John Cameron the results were disappointing, with the best songs swamped by too many weak ones. It is worth noting that one track, “The Light”, appears to be a version of “I Am Dying”, which Donovan mentioned in 1970 as a forthcoming single. Whether any copies of this were ever pressed isn't known.
    It was another three years before Donovan surfaced again, and ironically his return to the British stage coincided with an album released elsewhere in Europe only. “Neutronica” was a self-arranged effort taken from RCA masters that featured Donovan with his tightest set of musicians for years, working through eleven songs with a sense of urgency and adventure that made its general unavailability all the more frustrating. Side One, with its high measure of protest material was the rock side, occasionally bordering on political naivete. The excellence of the second side, however, ensured that this was his best album since “7-Tease”. Kicking off with a great performance of the traditional “The Heights Of Alma”, Donovan followed it with Eric Bogle's “No Man's Land” and then moved through three self-penned songs in keeping with the strong traditional flavour of the side, the best of them the menacing “We Are One”. He was joined on one track, “Mee Mee I Love You”, by his nine-year-old daughter Astrella.

    His last album to date, “Love Is Only Feeling”, was again denied British release, despite being recorded at Utopia Studios in London. On it Donovan teamed up with his new touring band, Danny Thompson, drummer John Stephens, and Tony Roberts, who played clarinet, flutes, piccolo, oboe and tenor sax. The line-up suggested an attempt at a return to the late Sixties sounds, but the results – despite the musicians' indisputable pedigree – occasionally seemed pedestrain and uninspired. A flawed album, “Love Is Only Feeling” nevertheless boasted some superbly crafted songs and only the inclusion of such turkeys as the sloppily-written single (“Lay Down Lassie”) and the redundant title track (which again featured Astrella and was a retitled attempt at “Someone's Singing” from “A Gift From A Flower To A Garden”) prevented it from being his best collection for some time. The talent evident on some of the other tracks – “She”, “Lover O Lover” and the unfortunately-titled “Marjorie Marjorine” point to a significant resurgence of his writing skills. His voice too, with its extraordinary play on pronunciation still very much in evidence, is as flexible as ever.
    In the last seventeen years Donovan has produced a wealth of highly collectable material, and if at times the lulls between albums have been too frequent, they have only served to whet the appetite of his fans. Few singer/songwriters in Britain today are better equipped to mix modern and traditional approaches than Donovan, and if he keeps tighter rein on his erratic talent he should ensure that there is still a place for a performer of skill, sensitivity and integrity in a music scene that is fast becoming low on creativity and high on technology.

Source: Record Collector magazine; Issue 44 - April 1983, p. 13-20

THE HUGELY-POPULAR and all-too shortlived `Ready Steady Go!', which brought so many groups and artists to the attention of British television viewers in the mid Sixties, attempted to recreate a live, club atmosphere. In keeping with this aim, it was decided to accord certain acts the status of resident performers, providing these combos or individuals with almost unprecendented public exposure. The first such to be chosen was a (for the time) quite outrageously scruffy young expatriate Scot with a snub nose, a birdsnest of curly black locks, a Dylan cap and a breathy, reedy voice tinged with an affected Celtic lilt and laced with a curious but entirely natural vibrato.
  Donovan suddenly popped up in millions of households during the early months of 1965 singing an insistently catchy, self-penned folkie ballad called `Catch The Wind' to his own solo accompaniment of a battered and weatherbeaten acoustic guitar prominently emblazoned `This Machine Kills', a bowdlerisation of Woody Guthrie's more pointed original `This Machine Kills Fascists'. Donovan's guitar didn't actually kill anyone, but he succeeded in stunning the masses.

The caption on the pictures on this page say: Right: Donovan's early image was modelled closely on Dylan, and for a while he sat on the fence between protest-folk and flower-power whismy. Below: Launching his career on `Ready Steady Go!'

Sunshine Superman
Donovan Leitch was born on 10 May 1946 in Glasgow, but the Leitch household quit Scotland while he was still a child and settled in the ancient and picturesque Hertfordshire market town of St Albans. There Donovan whiled away his teens dreaming of unfettered horizons and hanging out with other local disaffected post-Beat poets, pre-hippie types like his close friend Gypsy Dave and future songwriter Mick Softley. Legend has it that they were a talented crew but rather lacking in motivation and only Donovan could bestir himself enough to make the 30-mile excursion to London to seek his fortune.
  For a while the Dylan parallel was enough to sustain the young singer, who stuck to his mysterious hobo persona through 1965. Donovan had been snapped up by Pye Records in the wake of his `Ready Steady Go!' appearances; `Catch The Wind' was his first release on the label. The single reached Number 4 in the UK charts in April. `Colours', the similar-sounding follow-up, hit the Top Thirty two months later, eventually achieving the same position as its predecessor. The year also saw two hastily assembled albums What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid and Fairytale, both of which were all-acoustic pot-pourris of sub-Zimmerman satiric protest, Woody Guthrie songs, folk-club standards and engaging originals that exposed the fertile, if hopelessly romantic imagination of a questing, questioning visionary.
  Dylan himself was now evolving from a starcrossed folkie into the original rock 'n'roll intellectual poet, on his Bringing It All Back Home LP in 1965 he employed electric instruments on one of its sides and Donovan, keeping tabs on his hero (and never much of a loyalist folkie anyway), was delighted. With vague desires towards setting sail for uncharted electric possibilities he ran into pop producer Mickie Most, who had proved his commercial acumen in 1964 by producing the Animals' `House Of The Rising Sun'. Most succeeded in luring Donovan out of his Dylan impersonation and into the guise with which he has stuck to this day since it mirrors Mr Leitch's character so exactly, that of the psychedelic mystic and eternal child.
  The growing hippie scene in San Francisco had brought on an age of euphoria and optimism and the Most/Donovan camp set out to supply some psychedelic candy-floss. A string of inimitable classic singles followed, beginning with the hazy drone of the influential `Sunshine Superman'/`The Trip' — a UK Number 3 and US chart-topper — and continuing through the paisley whimsies of `Mellow Yellow' (a UK Number 8 and US Number 2) and `There Is A Mountain', another UK Number 8 which reached Number 11 in the US. But whereas Dylan had emerged as a serious, driven subversive, an icon for the alternative society, Donovan, always less in touch with real life, instead went for the immediate and enormous commercial rewards yielded by flower power.
  Donovan's first Mickie Most-produced album, Sunshine Superman, seemed to encapsulate the whole hippie/flower child vision while the singer's statements, often quoted in the press, were equally in step with the hopeful, celebratory times: `Pop is the perfect religious vehicle,' he told Queen magazine in 1967, `It's as if God had come down to earth and seen all the ugliness that was being created and chosen pop to be the great force for love and beauty.'

Celtic Dreams
But with the winter of 1967 came the first signs of hippie disillusionment. While others, such as Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe and the Fish, turned their attentions to more active anti-establishment musical forms, Donovan retained his kaftan and his vague dreams of spiritual bliss. A Gift From A Flower To A Garden, an expensive double album released in 1968, came in a classical music-type box adorned with the image of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Eastern guru. It contained two vividly constrasting records, one a round-up of two excessively twee flower power songs, the other a captivating collection of all-acoustic material that exuded spiritual power and Celtic mystery. `Isle Of Islay' was proof of Donovan's sincere commitment to his muse and fascination with his ancestral homeland, but — unfortunately — the depth of feeling and clarity of the second disc was largely ignored in favour of the quaint imagery of the first, with numbers like `Wear Your Love Like Heaven'; in a way, Donovan's fate was thereby sealed.
  However Donovan, with Most still producing, still managed to turn out hits in 1968 with the bubbly `Jennifer Juniper', a UK Number 5 and US Number 26, the churning `Hurdy Gurdy Man' (Numbers 4 and 5 respectively), the ethereal `Atlantis' (Numbers 23 and 7) and the skip-beat tongue-twister `Barabajagal', a Number 12 UK hit in 1969 on which the singer was backed by the Jeff Beck Group. The two further 1968 albums, Hurdy Gurdy Man and Barabajagal, ran the gamut from light cocktail jazz to string-drenched meditations and buzzsaw rock, from the lascivious strut of `Superlungs My Supergirl' (later superbly covered by Terry Reid) to such infantile idiocy as `I Love My Shirt'. Strangely, Pye declined to release either LP in the UK where Donovan's popularity was on the decline. In the States, however, where the records were released on Epic, Donovan remained as popular as ever.

Along the open road
His next release in his home country was Donovan In Concert which featured some very spare, jazz-flecked readings of audience favourites performed by the late Harold McNair (flute), Danny Thompson (acoustic bass) and Tony Carr (drums). The album showed that Donovan was attempting to leave rock behind in order to emulate the success of the much hipper Incredible String Band.
  Donovan now became obsessed with the idea of a mutant strain of music he called Celtic Rock, and in order to realise it (and perhaps incidentally in order to revive a flagging career) he formed a group known as Open Road with John Carr and Mike Thompson, a democratic unit in which the whole group sang and composed. Following a brief interlude on the Leitch estate near Dunvegan in the Isle of Skye to soak up the timeless atmosphere and sling a set together, almost apologetically unleashed an LP Open Road on Pye's new `progressive' Dawn label.
  Artistically Open Road was a success, a direct and honest bootleg-style production by Don himself who flew directly in the face of the 1970 trend of over-elaborate and baroque `progressive' values by recording the group as if they had just set up in the listener's living room. He supplied a dozen of his most varied, heartfelt and committed songs for the occasion, from the irresistible minor US hit `Riki Tiki Tavi' to the scathing `Poke At The Pope' and the icy beauty of `Roots Of Oak'. Unfortunately it was a resounding commercial failure.
  Donovan had still not managed to shake of his hippie/flower child image and thus seemed a natural choice to play the Pied Piper of Hamlyn in David Puttnam's 1971 film The Pied Piper. The disappointing fantasy featured Donovan flitting across the pastures in garish robes, blowing down a recorder and contributing little dialogue.
  The film made a negligible impact and, perhaps because of his increasingly low profile, Donovan's next album — his last for Dawn — leaked out rather like a guilty secret with little or no publicity. HMS Donovan saw Leitch revisiting both his roots and the mists of childhood. A two-record, almost totally solo set comprised of quiet, self-penned vignettes and lullabyes peppered with Don's musical settings of poems by the likes of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear and the occasional masterpiece like his luminously lovely reading of Yeats' `Song Of The Wandering Aengus' and the traditional shanty `Henry Martin', HMS Donovan was effectively the swan-song of a unique artist. Arresting and intimate, it sold virtually no copies, although it did sire a US hit single in its one electric track, `Celia Of The Seals'.
  Nothing more was heard until late 1972 when the Most-produced Cosmic Wheels appeared on the UK Epic label amid much media gabble about a Donovan revival. The LP had its moments (particularly the stirring title cut) but mainly seemed to underline Don's reputation as a spent force, difficult to deny in the face of the puerile jokes of `The Intergalactic Laxative', a song concerning the lavatorial activities of astronauts. An endless parade of ever more redundant product followed in a steady stream throughout the Seventies as Donovan flitted from one producer and set of session men to another.
  Albums like 1973's Andrew Loog Oldham-produced Essence To Essence and Donovan's 1976 offering, Slow Down World came and went in a welter of clumsy production, lacklustre performances and dangerously thin material. An exception was 1974's 7-Tease, an ambitious `concept' album cut in Nashville under producer Norbert Putnam which was chiefly notable for its portrayal of the artist haplessly adrift outside his own era and bewildered by the cynicism of the modern world and its cruel rejection of his homilies which it once seemed so ready and eager to embrace. But it was product like 7-Tease — which took a year to record and cost enormous sums of Epic money — that finally led the label to drop Donovan in the late Seventies. He vanished into obscurity, living in America with his wife Linda on the edge of the Mojave desert and, in his own words, `raising babies in the sun'.
  Donovan weathered the late Seventies new wave by remaining determinedly invisible but in 1981 he showed signs of stirring from the torpor he had sunk into, with an acoustic album released only in Europe called Neutronica and with an increased willingness to perform in public.
  By the end of the year, Donovan Leitch had settled in Windsor, Berkshire and was displaying a marked desire to continue to perform and record. As an artist, he had had more revivals than anyone is really entitled to but a talent such as his can never be spent or written off completely. Conceivably the mood of the times may one day change and the man who signed himself `Thy humble minstrel' may once more play the Pied Piper for a whole new generation.
STEVE BURGESS

the captions on the pictures on this page say: Donovan's castles in the air (inset top) were given substance by his link-up with producer Mickie Most. The astute Most helped transform Donovan from just another folkie (right) to gold disc status (inset right, Most holding record).

submitted by Ivan Kocmarek

introduction to Donovan from Pat Hehir?

Don't know when you first heard him? But I'm sure that somewhere in just about everyone's musical memory lies a Donovan song or two that will spark off a few warm recollections of a particular time or place. Maybe those memories go all the way back to the beginning of Donovan's career in 1965? Young Donovan down from Scotland, the Dylan cap, the harmonica, the acoustic guitar with 'This Machine Kills', (a phrase borrowed from Woody Guthrie). Lots of T.V. appearances from England's 'Ready, Steady, Go' to America's 'Shindig'. Lots of now classic songs like 'Catch the Wind', 'Colours' and 'Try for the Sun'. It was committed, meaningful and intelligent music at a time when the music business has little interest in intelligence, meaning or commitment. Needless to say, the public knew better.

But then, maybe you picked up on him a bit later on, once his music had really begun to grow, with people like Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jeff Beck helping out. Donovan's hit singles started arriving one after another, 'Sunshine Superman', 'Mellow Yellow', 'Jennifer Juniper', 'Atlantis', 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' etc. All unique, all reflecting the spirit of a new era, psychodelic. Listen to the radio, those records still hold up, they still play them.

On the other hand, maybe it was Donovan's softer side that first caught your ear? The love songs, the child ballads, and the tales of the sea. Or was it the beads and the incense? Flower power? Could be, if you wanted it to be at the time. That's always been Donovan's speciality,through variation and songs, you could take on several different levels, or no particular level at all.

Then the 70's suddenly brought a whole new crop of changes for most of us. Often drastic ones too, and if things weren't quite as rosy and innocent as they were before, that realisation was echoed in Donovan's music. He took a much lower profile, even disappearing for a while from the concert stage. Though albums like 'Cosmic Wheels', 'Essence to Essence', '7 Tease' still bore the mark of the romantic, the dreamer, and the troubadour, (as the 60's press often liked to describe him), they were the products of a harder, more realistic outlook, as hopeful and as musical as ever, but not quite so head in the clouds.

That's pretty much where Donovan's at today. As a matter of fact, still something of the wandering minstrel, but definitely keyed into the realities of the 80's, as his latest album, 'Lady of the Stars' shows. His contribution to the 60's, 70's and now the 80's remains that of a mirror reflecting the mood of what goes on around him with sensitivity and quiet humour. Stopping just long enough to record the scene and make his point before moving on to something new. Not that he has forgotten what has gone before. From then until now, Donovan sees it all as being part of the same uninterupted flow. Sort of a continuing story with still quite a few chapters left to go.

But it doesn't really matter whether you first heard about him in 65, 67, 70, 76, last year, or five minutes ago, you are in that story now and you are part of that flow too. We all are, and it is the most natural thing in the world.

I first met Donovan when he was fifteen and we hit the road in 1961 hitch-hiking and sleeping rough in derelicts, curled up under bushes and finding shelter in the small beach huts along the Devon and Cornwall coastline.
It was during these days that Donovan came into contact with the folk songs of the camp fire and he swopped his only good pair of boots for a battered old guitar which he eventually inscribed with the message “This machine kills”.
Donovan was born in one of the poorer areas of Glasgow and caught polio at the age of three from which he became seriously ill and barely escaped with his life. His family moved down to the countryside of Hertfordshire to escape the city and Donovan became greatly moved by the new surroundings which profoundly influenced his understanding of beauty and nature — themes which later ran through his early songs and influenced millions of young people all over the world.
It was from the early experiences of listening to sea shanties and old ballads that Donovan formed his early musical style.
Donovan's first managers Geof Stephens and Peter Eden caught him playing in a small club on the South Coast and persuaded him to try and record some of his own compositions. They introduced him to one of the controllers of the “Ready, Steady, Go” TV series, and they took the unprecendented step of booking him for three consecutive shows. As a result of this a bewildered eighteen year old suddenly found himself at number 3 in the English charts with his very first record "Catch The Wind", in March 1965.
Off on the roller coaster of success, Donovan followed his initial success with further top ten hits like “Colours”, “Universal Soldier”, “Turqoise” and his first album “What's Been Did and What's Been Hid”, all of which raced up the charts.
While England was in the grip of the “Screamage” and frenzied audiences were tearing halls up to the volume of rock and roll of emergent super-groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, this lone figure with his denim cap and guitar was a sensational contrast as he controlled huge Festival crowds with his simple songs—cutting through the excitement and hysteria but never severing the roots of enthusiasm.
Albums like “Fairytale” were already spreading his reputation throughout Europe, and the Rediffusion TV acknowledged his escalating fame with the accolade of TV documentary with “A Boy Called Donovan” which is still regarded as a master cameo of the time.
We were watching a strange new musical concept being born in contrast to the noisy sexual exuberance of rock and roll as Donovan built on a basis of harmony and tranquility through his lyrics and music. Vietnam was growing like a cancer out of control and the nuclear deterrent was levelled at every young head. In an uninhibited moment during a huge concert in Los Angeles Donovan threw flowers out into the audience, and a journalist reviewing the show coined the words “Flower Power” for the first time.
While the media were busy catergorising and labelling Donovan as “Prince of Flower Power” and the musical high priest of the peace movement, Donovan was moving on as a song writer and in collaboration with producer Mickie Most his songs were taking an exuberant up-tempo feeling with songs like “Sunshine Superman”. Almost single-handedly the two were responsible for the coining of yet another musical category “Folk-Rock”.
Donovan's next major single success was “Mellow Yellow” in February 1967, and after this he took to the hills of Greece for a time and lived in a small farmhouse on the island of Paros, situated by the side of a mountain. While under the influence of the natural beauty of the area and the glorious sunshine he wrote two more classic songs “There Is No Mountain” and “Writer In The Sun”.
On his return to England, Donovan took up residence in Wimbledon, close to the Common and produced the collection of beautiful songs which became one of the best loved double albums, “A Gift From A Flower To A Garden”, containing some of his most well known childrens songs. He also acquired property on the Isle of Skye and from that relaxed atmosphere poured songs like “Isle of Islay”, “Lullaby of Spring”, “The Magpie”, and “Widow With A Shawl”.
In America Donovan's popularity was now assuming super-star proportions, and with a backing group of jazz-musicians he filled the legendary Madison Square Gardens to the point where there were massive traffic jams, and so many people outside that a local eminent politician making an electorial pitch from an open car mistakenly thought they had come to see him and began “Fellow Americans ...” before being told in no mistaken terms whom they had come to see.
Around this period when so many young people were looking for more spiritual help in an over developed materialistic society, Donovan was introduced to the Maharishi by George Harrison, and for a short time fell under his influence along with the other Beatles, the Beach Boys and Mia Farrow. There was a genuine desire on all their parts to try and do something which would benefit a world already under so much threat of violence and injustice. They went with high hopes and returned with the knowledge that looking inside yourself was not enough if you forget to look out for others.
A highly productive period followed this for Donovan on record, and the immensely successful single “Hurdy Gurdy Man” in 1968 and “Atlantis” were further indications that he had lost none of the optimism and visions of hope and love expressed through his music. A collaboration with Jeff Beck's band in 1969 produced the highly acclaimed “Barabajagel” hit and for a short time Donovan toured with a highly talented band of musicians put together under the name “Open Road”, who worked with him on tours of Europe and Japan.
There was a quiet, collective period for Donovan in the Seventies, and albums like “Seventease”, “Slow Down World”, and “Donovan” were well received by his fans. It was the album he produced and wrote in England in 1972 titled “Cosmic Wheels” and produced by his old friend Mickie Most, which earned him another gold record and put him back in the Top Twenty.
After a few reflective years living quietly on the edge of the desert in California, Donovan is back to live in Britain with his wife Linda and his three children, because he believes that new starts are best made from home.
It has already been apparent from his enthusiastic reception which brought encore after encore from his most recent tours of England and the Continent that he still commands a huge following. Donovan is back to prove that real talent never fades away, and for a songwriter of genuine compassion and humour there is a real need NOW.
Gypsy Mills

originally typed in by Ivan Kocmarek

It's not surprising that over the years, there have been many artists who have recorded a cover version of a Donovan Song ... but in my opinion none have matched Kate Bush for her stunning version of "The Lord of the Reedy River". Kate gave the song a new angle and her interpretation was very highly imaginative. Not a lot of people are aware of the fact that Donovan himself sings the harmony vocals on her version, so with the help and co-operation from Lisa of the Kate Bush Fan Club, I asked Kate how it all came about. As this is the only cover version she has ever put on Vinyl. "I had recorded 'Sat in your Lap' and at the time I never had anything to go on the B side and I can remember at the time seeing Donovan on the T.V. I hadn't seen him on the 'Telly' for nearly eight years, and there he was on quite a few programmes, it seemed everywhere I looked there was Donovan, it was a very strange feeling, something seemed to point me in his direction, then I started to play H.M.S. Donovan which is my all time favourite Album. It was then I decided to record 'The Lord of the Reedy River' because it's such a beautiful song. So I 'phoned Donovan up and asked him for his permission to record the song, and he was so nice about it all, that I asked him if he would like to do some harmony vocals and he said 'Yes', and of course, he did."
"I wanted to give her interpretation of the song because, as you know, Donovan gives an out-sider's point of view and I wanted to get her point of view across".
"Did you record any other numbers together?"
"No, only the one".
"What do you think of cover versions in general?"
"Overall, I don't particularly like the cover versions that I've heard, because they don't add anything to the original song, they just copy note for note the original song; and it all seems a bit pointless really - A bit of a rip-off!"
"Do you think you will ever do any more cover versions?"
"Not at this moment in time".
... thankyou Kate for all your help, all the best for the future. Unfortunately, this amazing version of "The Lord of the Reedy River" can only be found on the B side of "Sat in your Lap" Cat.No. E.M.I. 15201.

originally typed in by Wieland Willker and sent to me by William C. Colley