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| Donovan in 1966 looking hip
and groovy |
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Donovan was a lucky bastard. In the
early 1960's he was an unknown folk artist, writing and singing
mundane and mediocre songs, when suddenly Bob Dylan hit America.
Britain needed an answer and the answer, fortunately for him,
was Donovan.
But what should make the curious suspicious
about Donovan, and is possibly a damning indictment of the
most damnable variety, is that Mickey Most, the Pete Waterman
of the era, produced his hits. Mickey Most was also responsible
for inflicting ,
Hermans Hermits, Mud & Suzi Quatro on the unfortunate
ears of the British public.
Donovan Leitch was born in Maryhill,
Glasgow in 1946 and moved to St Albans in 1956. He was from
solid working class roots and, in common with many of his
60's contemporaries, dropped out of art school to follow a
musical career.
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| Fab and groovy - Donovan does
a teapot impersonation |
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During 1964 he had hawked his demo recordings
round most of the major record labels and been told to fuck
off by all of them. How is not exactly clear, but in 1965
he secured a one-off slot on "Ready Steady Go",
the premium, hip, fab and groovy baby youth television programme
of the early 1960's. The rest, as they say, is history.
He was invited to reappear the following
week and by the time the programme was broadcast he had been
signed by Pye Records, then a major label, had recorded his
first single, "Catch the Wind" (produced by the
ubiquitous Mr. Most), and was the "next big thing".
Truly the 60's was a happening era.
The single went to number 4 in the charts
and the comparisons with Bob Dylan started. What Dylan thought
of this is made abundantly clear in D A Pennebakers 1965 Dylan
movie "Don't Look Back". In a wonderfully vicious
four-minute sequence, Dylan parodies Donovan accurately and
savagely.
Donovan reflected the wide-eyed optimism
of the flower-power movement and the oblique drug references
in his lyrics endeared him to hippies. His ornate songs radiated
a childlike wonder that went down well with the smashed-out-of-your-face-on-acid,
peace-and-love idealism of the time.
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| Donovan in concert, America
1968 |
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Donovan's career went stellar. He had
hit singles and albums on both sides of the Atlantic including
Mellow Yellow, HurdyGurdy Man, Sunshine Superman and Jenifer
Juniper. He did the India thing with The Beatles and Mia Farrow
and toured extensively.
He also recorded with some of the finest
session musicians of the time. John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page
who went on to form a minor band called Led Zeppelin, , later to be a founder member of Cream, and Jeff
Beck who was to have a big influence on the career of , all have credits on Donovan albums.
By the time the 1960's were coming to
an end, so was Donovan's career. Not that he did badly out
of them. After all, anyone with enough cash to buy a substantial
wee estate on Skye is worth a bob or two. But fashion had
moved on from twee plinky plonky guitarists and Donovan did
not have the substance to move with the times.
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| Donovan
in concert in the early 1980's, still looking fab
and groovy |
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He buggered off to Joshua Tree in the
California desert for much of the 70's and brought up a family.
By 1983 had stopped making records completely. He was tempted
out of retirement in 1996 to release "Sutra" which
made such an enormous impact that he has hardly been heard
from since.
Donovan had always had a mystical, spiritual
side and perhaps the following joke from the man is an appropriate
way to sign off this article:
"There was a vacuum salesman and
he knocked on the door of a Buddhist monk and tried to sell
him a vacuum cleaner.
So the Buddhist monk thought about it
for a minute and said, 'OK, I'll have one -- but no attachments."'
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