I had fifth-row tickets when Donovan played at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., on the night before Thanksgiving 1974. (I think it was Nov. 26.) The place wasn't sold out, and I've heard it seats something like 8,000, so I'd estimate a crowd of about 6,000.

Donovan had just released "7-Tease" and was promoting the album heavily. However, this was not any kind of rock theater show. Several sources (including the "Troubador" booklet) say he turned this album into a big show, but that must have been on a second leg of the tour, or something like that. This show WAS supposed to follow a thin story line, which Donovan explained during some breaks between songs, but it was unnecessary, as far as I could see.

Here's what he played, as well as I can remember. From "7-Tease": Rock and Roll Souljer, Your Broken Heart, Ride-a-Mile, The Ordinary Family, The Voice of Protest, Salvation Stomp, How Silly and Love of My Life. Old favorites: Catch the Wind, Colours, Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Atlantis, Lalena, Season of the Witch, Happiness Runs and maybe Jennifer Juniper.

There were also a few other songs from the '70s: Intergalactic Laxative, Slow Down World, California Kiddies -- the latter two weren't released until a couple years later. There were two other unreleased songs, I believe -- one of them a poor ecological "statement" sung by the Earth, the chorus of which was "I am being raped, raped, raped," etc.

I think there were a couple other songs thrown in there too. At one time I had a tape of the show, but without it I can't be more specific.

Anyway, Donovan had a full band backing him: second guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. On Salvation Stomp and How Silly, unfortunately, he chose to sing over a tape of the record, like karaoke. Sure, those songs have horns and things on "7-Tease," but Mellow Yellow has horns too, and the band managed to play that one. On How Silly, in fact, he messed up the first line, stopped, and told someone in the control booth to roll back the tape! That was one of the show's three low points, along with "I am being raped" and, to my dismay, Hurdy Gurdy Man. Though it might be my favorite Donovan song, he ruined it with a grating falsetto voice on the chorus. Yecch!

Otherwise, though, it was a good show. The songs from "7-Tease" came off well, and so did most of the oldies -- especially Colours, which was closer to the arrangement on the "Greatest Hits" album than the original version with the banjo. He played Catch the Wind, Lalena and Intergalactic Laxative solo, using that half-moon acoustic guitar on the cover of "Cosmic Wheels." By the way, it was surprising that "Laxative" was the only song from that album, which had come out just a year and a half earlier and sold quite well. The lack of any songs from "Essence to Essence" was less surprising, since it was his first failure on the album charts. ("7-Tease" was destined to become the second, despite the fact that it's one of my four favorite Donovan albums.)

Two of the not-yet-released songs, Slow Down World and California Kiddies, came off quite well, especially the former. It had a much simpler arrangement than the one on the album of the same name -- and, to my ears, it worked better that way. To a lesser extent, the same applies to Kiddies.

So there you have it -- the story of my "encounter" with Donovan. I wish I knew what happened to that tape...

Since my adopted state of New Mexico is hardly a hotbed of concerts and other live performances, imagine my surprise this past Friday [16 June 1995] when I heard a radio ad mentioning Donovan at "Peace Prayer Day" in northern New Mexico. On Saturday, I finally decided to go, half-expecting an event attended mostly by tie-dyed neo-hippies with nothing else to do.

I was wrong. It turned out that "Peace Prayer Day" is an annual event held by Khalsa Sikhs at their retreat near Espanola, New Mexico. The $10 admission got me a vegetarian meal and a chance to hear and meet Donovan, who also autographed my copy of "Dry Songs and Scribbles." Donovan was apparently flown in from Ireland especially for this event by Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan, the apparent leader of this particular groups of Sikhs and the founder of the Peace Prayer Day event. Everyone, Donovan included, simply called him Yogi Bhajan (which they pronounced "budgin").

He played ten songs, five new ones (or unknown to me!) which may either appear on the new Rick Rubin-produced album or which may have been performed solely for this spiritual event. I'm mostly guessing at the titles of the new songs, but here's what he played:

Universal Soldier
"Out of Nothing"
Isle of Islay
"One Day the Universe Will Shine"
"From the Window of My Heart/Tidal Waves of Bliss"
"Will the Gentle Yogi Ever Talk"
Colours
Happiness Runs
"Satanama (The Time is Now is the Time)"
Mellow Yellow

He described "Happiness Runs" as something of a Sikh anthem, and it was apparent that most of the devotees there were quite familiar with the lyrics, even the children.

Although his set was rather short by today's standards, his performance was only one part of the "Peace Prayer Day" which included Native American performers, poetry, a "Music and Dance for Peace," and a healing walk. Everyone was very gracious and friendly, but as the day's shadows grew longer and with a two-hour drive ahead of me, I headed home.

All in all though, I was happy to have the opportunity to visit this remote retreat, and also to finally see and meet one of my fave performers.

I've just returned to the endless chilly snows of Pennsylvania after a much needed re-energizing break in my sunswept homeland of California. One of the tremendous things about a visit to Calif is a plunge into the music scene. And, one of the highlights this time about was Donovan's performance at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz.

I attended the show with my older brother Tom, a life-long Donovan fan (it was listening to my bro's copy of Fairytale as a little kid that turned me on to the Donovan sound.) We both enjoyed the show immensely.

The Catalyst is Santa Cruz's oldest music club (situated in a converted bowling alley) and has a garden restaurant, a pool hall, and an excellent bar featuring fine micro-brew beers. It usually has general admission standing-room only concerts with a crowded dancefloor. (For example, the night before Donovan's show was a raucous beer-soaked concert by George Thoroughgood and the Deleware Destroyers). Donovan, however, was presented as a sit-down show with folks seated around round tables situated about the floor, a much mellower scene than the norm.

After several opening acts of local (Michael McNevine - Santa Cruz) and somewhat local (I don't remember her name - Los Angeles) singer songwriters, Donovan took the stage. He sat upon a chair dressed in white with incense burning and played quite a fine show, mixing old favorites with some new material. Toward the end of the show, around the beginning of Sunshine Superman, the audience could bare the seats no longer and burst into a frenzy of good old Santa Cruz style anything-goes hippie dancing. Donovan looked a bit astounded at first, but then I think quite pleased as he realized that he still could rock the house down.

The set-list follows:

DONOVAN -- 14 December 1995

The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, California

Catch the Wind
Ballad of a Tin Soldier
Colours
Please Don't Bend*
Josie
Sunny Goodge Street
Eldorado*
Wear Your Love Like Heaven
The Promise*
Lalen~a
Universal Soldier
The Olive Tree*
Jennifer Juniper
?? ("Be mine and I will be thine")*
Sunshine Superman
Season of the Witch
Barabajagal
Hurdy Gurdy Man

Encore:

Mellow Yellow
Atlantis

(* - Indicates a new song)

Note: As he did the last time I saw him at the Catalyst (1991), Donovan paused during Hurdy Gurdy Man to tell the story of a visit with the Beatles to the Maharishi in India. He recounted the anecdote of John Lennon breaking an uncomfortable silence by patting the Maharishi on the head and saying "There's a good little Guru". Donovan then proceeded to sing a verse to Hurdy Gurdy Man that George Harrison made up while they were jamming one night:

"When the truth gets very deep,
beneath the thousand years of sleep,
tiny minds are turned around,
and once again the truth is found."

I just remembered the name of the young woman from Los Angeles who opened for Donovan: Twig

I attended Donovan's show at the Fillmore last night (Dec 15)!!! It was beautiful, flawless, unforgettable. I can't say enough about how impressed I was. His voice was clear and pure just a I remember it from his albums which I listened to as a teenager almost 28 years ago.

There was an opening act called "Twig" which was just one woman with a guitar and harmonica. She played for about 1/2 hour starting at 9pm. Then there was a 1/2 hour intermission, then Donovan came on stage.

It was just him solo with a few acoustic guitars and a harmonica. One of the guitars had the sound hole carved in the shape of a moon and was inlaid with stars. Very beautiful. I can't recall the exact set list, but he opened with Catch the Wind and during the course of the next 1 1/2 hours managed to play all of the songs off his Greatest Hits album (Mellow Yellow, Sunshine Superman, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Epistle to Dippy, Wear Your Love Like Heaven, Jennifer Juniper, Colours, Catch the Wind, There is a Mountain, Season of the Witch, Lalena). Also, he played about 3 new original compositions, I Love My Shirt, Buffy St. Marie's "Universal Soldier", some song about the usefulness of marijuana (this song and Universal Soldier were performed with a seemingly heartfelt conviction).

On some of the songs (Mellow Yellow, Wear Your Love Like Heaven, There is a Mountain) he encouraged the audience to sing along which we did in a rather breathy shy manner which really made for a unique effect.

Donovan smiled easily at the end of each song as we applauded him. Throughout the performance, he had every now and then an amusing leadin to some of the songs.

We were right up in the very front of the hall and so were able to see him up close and actually hear his voice even when he wasn't singing directly into the microphone.

The audience gave him a standing ovation when he left and he did come out and do one encore -- "Atlantis"!

Thought I'd drop you at least a set list from last night's Fillmore show. In no particular order:

Catch the Wind
The Little Tin Soldier
Josie
Colours
The Universal Soldier
There Is A Mountain
Isle of Islay
Hurdy Gurdy Man
Eldorado (words by Edgar Allen Poe)
Lalena
Sunshine Superman
a Garcia Lorca poem Don set to music (didn't catch the name)
Wear Your Love Like Heaven
Jennifer Juniper
Season of the Witch
Barabajagal
a little ditty about hemp
Mellow Yellow
I Love My Shirt
3 or 4 songs from the new album,
1 new song that may or may not appear on the new album
and
Atlantis (for an encore).

He told the "There's a Good Little Guru" story in the middle of "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and sung that verse George Harrison contributed, to the song: