TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: Donovan 1966

Reaganite Republican ^ | February 18, 2011 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

Donovan (Donovan Philips Leitch 5.10.46) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music in a way that had substantial commercial appeal. 

Donovan appeared in the UK early in 1965 with a series of live performances on the pop TV show Ready Steady Go!... and his popularity quickly spread from there.

After signing with the British label Pye Records in 1965, he recorded a handful of singles and two albums in the folk music vein with leading independent record producer Mickie Most, scoring a string of international hits.

His successful records in the 1960s included the UK hits "Catch the Wind" and "Colours" in 1965, while the next year "Sunshine Superman" went all the way to top the chart at #1 in the US.

Donovan was one of the leading British recording artists as he put-out a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and 1970, and he even schooled Lennon and McCartney when he taught them his finger-picking guitar style in 1968...

Other classics from Donovan include "Atlantis", "In the Morning", "Jennifer Jupiter", and of course "Mellow Yellow".

Alas, Donovan's commercial fortunes waned after he parted ways with Mickie Most in 1969, and he left the music industry for a time. But he did continue to perform and record sporadically in the 1970s and 1980s.

But the musician enjoyed a bit of a revival in the 90s with the advent of the British 'rave' scene. He later in the decade did the '96 album Sutras with producer and long-time fan Rick Rubin and in 2004 released the all-new album Beat Cafe.

Donovan was last year nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2011... but seriously, what took them so long?

Donovan: Sunshine Superman - 1966

[Video -here-]

Donovan Official Site   Wikipedia

Previous RR Rock n Roll Oldies features -here-

[hoagy62]

Wasn’t Donovan declared “a little too happy” for normal people and shuffled off to a home for the crazed at one time?

[rahbert]

I had all his albums and the calico Nehru jacket that goes with them...

[skeeter]

Here he is on Phenobarbital.

[IronJack]

The Intergalactic Laxative will get you from here to Mars.

[radiohead]

I still play something from Donovan maybe every 2 weeks. It’s good stuff, you can work while it’s playing, and I remember the good old days when I listen to it.

[Stormdog]

“I always thought it was titled “Jenifer Juniper”. I actually liked that song...now, I don’t know, ain’t the same.
: (”

Go back to liking it. It is Jennifer Juniper.

[Condor51]

I HATED Donovan.
And 'Sunshine Superman', it made my skin crawl. The lyrics are insipid clap-trap, the music sucks and so does his voice.

And I don't know what that guitarist is supposed to be playing but I'd have suggested he play more than ONE *%$#ing NOTE.

[Reaganite Republican]

My thoughts exactly

Big Radiohead fan too... little depressing tho lol

[Reaganite Republican]

Look, there’s no need to sugar-coat it for me lol

[Reaganite Republican]

PS- it’s a song of courtship written to American actress Sue Lyon

[RegulatorCountry]

Way down below the ocean
Where I want to be
She may be.

[Reaganite Republican]

Or not, lol

[RegulatorCountry]

I've always loved that one, wacked-out and spacey paganish though it may well be. I played it at midnight on New Year's Eve for many years.

The continent of Atlantis was an island
Which lay before the great flood
In the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean

So great an area of land that from her western shores
Those beautiful sailors journeyed to the south
And the North Americas with ease
In their ships with painted sails

To them East Africa was a neighbor
Across a short strait of sea miles
The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of the Atlantian culture
The antediluvian kings colonized the world
All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas
In all legends from all lands were from far Atlantis

Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships
To all corners of the Earth, on board were the
Twelve, 'The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends'

Though Gods they were
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind
Let us rejoice and let us sing
And dance and ring in the new

Hail Atlantis!

[Tainan]

I have always like that guy and his music.

[Tainan]

I have always liked that guy and his music. Damn sticky keyboard.

[Fresh Wind]

You can almost smell the reefer when a lyrisist runs out of ideas and writes: deedee dadee da da dee dee da da dee

Maybe it's Morse code. I think it spells out L-S-D.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Radiohead just released their new album Friday;

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article_1620515.php/Radiohead-release-album-early