Donovan

Donovan Philips Leitch (usually known simply as Donovan) (born May 10, 1946) is a British musician. Emerging from the British folk scene in the mid-Sixties, Donovan shot to fame in the UK in early 1965 after a series of showcase TV performances. His success was initially restricted to Britain, but after signing with the American Epic label and joining forces with producer Mickie Most, he developed an eclectic but very successful style that featured a distinctive blend of folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia and world music.

Donovan quickly rose to become one of the most famous and popular British recording artists of his day, producing a string of trans-Atlantic hit albums and singles between 1966 and 1970 and also becoming a close friend of The Beatles. His commercial fortunes waned after he parted ways with Most, and although he continued to perform and record sporadically in the Seventies and Eigthies he gradually fell from favour, with his folksy musical style and 'hippie' image increasingly scorned by critics, especially after the advent of punk rock. Donovan withdrew from performing and recording several times during his long career, but he experienced a strong revival of interest in the Nineties with the emergence of the rave scene in Britain and late in the decade he recorded a successful album with noted rap producer and longtime fan Rick Rubin.

Donovan spent his early chlidhood in Glasgow, and although he contracted polio as a child he fortunately suffered no permanent injury. In 1956 the family moved to Hatfield, England. Influenced by his family's love for Scottish and English folk music, he began playing guitar at fourteen. After leaving school, Donovan and longtime friend Gypsy Dave travelled for several years around Britian, busking and playing folk songs.

He began writing original songs in the early Sixties and by late 1964 he had met his two original managers and was signed to a publishing contract. He recorded his first ten-track demo tape at the London basement studio of Peer Music in Denmark Street; this included the original recording of what was to be his first single, 'Catch The Wind', a song that showed the unmistakable influence of Bob Dylan. Although teh Dylan comparisons woudl dog him for some time to come, the tape also made it clear that he was already a performer of considerable skill and originality. He was also a very fine acoustic guitarist and self-accompanist, a talent that is often overlooked, as it so often is with his hero Bob Dylan.

It was while recording the demo that he met and became friends with Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. Soon after, he met Brian's girlfriend of the time, Linda Lawrence. She had already had a child to Jones, but when she met Donovan the relationship was breaking up and she and Donovan susequently became lovers and eventually married. Linda became Donovan's muse and was to have a profound effect on his music, inspiring songs including, 'Catch The Wind', 'Legend Of A Girl Child Linda' and 'Season Of The Witch'.

The demo tape was heard by Elkan Allen, producer of the television pop show Ready, Steady, Go! which led to the unknown musician (then only 18) being invited to appear on the show. Donovan made his TV debut on 6 February 1965. Unusually for pop programs of this time, Donovan played and sang live, and after his performance he was interviewed by host Cathy McGowan. His guitar was emblazoned with the words "This Machine Kills" -- a direct reference to his (and Dylan's) hero, Woody Guthrie, whose own guitar bore the famous slogan "This Machine Kills Fascists". Donovan's first appearance was so well-received that he was invited back for the next two weeks, and this in turn led to a recording contract with Pye Records and a meteoric career start.

Donovan's first UK single, a re-recorded version of 'Catch The Wind', was released soon after his third Ready, Steady Go appearance and it was a hugely successful debut, shooting to #4 on the UK charts and selling more than 200,000 copies. On 11 April he performed with the biggest stars of the day at the annual New Musical Express poll winners' concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley. The single was subsequently released on the small Hickory label in the USA, where it managed an impressive #30 chart placing.

Donovan's early musical style and appearance led to him being perceived and promoted as a British version of Bob Dylan and this brought with it a certain degree of criticism from folk purists, who wrongly assumed him to be a simple Dylan imitator. Not surprisingly, the meeting between the two musicians in April 1965 made headlines. However, although initially wary, Dylan was impressed by the young musician, as can be seen in D.A. Pennebaker's film of Dylan's '65 UK tour, Don't Look Back (which was released in 1967). As a result Donovan was invited to tour with Dylan and Joan Baez.

Donovan's second single 'Colours' was released in May, reaching #4, accompanied by his debut LP 'What's Been Did And What's Been Hid', which reached #3 in the UK album charts. Retitled "Catch The Wind" for the US, it reached #30 there. He made his first trip to the USA at this time, performing in New York with Pete Seeger and Reverend Gary Davis and appearing on Hullaballoo and Shindig, as well as performing to critical and audience acclaim at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in July.

His next recording was a four-track EP, "Universal Soldier", which included his classic cover of the Buffy Saint-Marie title track, along with three other overtly anti-war tracks. As Australian rock historian Glenn A. Baker has observed, this was quite a radical move for an emerging pop performer -- the Vietnam War still had majority popular support in 1965 and Donovan's pioneering pacifist stance is convenienty overlooked by his critics; nor would this be his last anti-war themed recording. Despite its contentious subject matter, it was a significant commercial success, topping the British EP chart for eight weeks and even reaching #14 on the singles chart. It was also released in Australia, where it reached #17 on the singles chart.

'Colours' was also released in the USA but it fared rather poorly, reaching #40 on the Cash Box charts but only reaching #61 on the Billboard chart. At this stage, Donovan's American success was greater in sales than in radio airplay, since American Top 40 radio tended to avoid folk recordings, preferring more highly arranged pop records. The Catch The Wind LP had also charted better in Cash Box than Billboard, reflecting the fact that Billboard's charts factored in radio airplay, whilst Cash Box did not.

A single version of "Universal Soldier" was issued in the USA in late August 1965 but it mimicked the mediocre chart performance of 'Colours', reaching only #45 in Cash Box and #53 in Billboard. Pye released Donovan's second UK album, "Fairy Tale", in October 1966, along with his next single, 'Turquoise'. These too were less successful than his previous releases, with the album only reaching #20 and the single peaking at #30. Donovan made a second US tour in November, and Hickory released the American version of Fairy Tale later that month but, as in the UK, it did charted much lower than the first LP, only reaching #85.

In late 1965 Donovan split with his original managers and signed with Ashley Kozak, who was working for Brian Epstein's NEMS Enterprises. Kozak introduced Donovan to American impresario Allen Klein (who would later take over management of The Rolling Stones) and Klein in turn introduced Donovan to producer Mickie Most, who was then riding high on the success of his chart-topping productions with The Animals and Herman's Hermits.

Mickie Most was to produce almost all of Donovan's best recordings. The tracks they cut together repesent some of the finest UK pop releases of the period, and they feature the cream of the London session scene, with contributions from Jack Bruce, Danny Thompson and future Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page. Many of the Donovan-Most recordings were backed by jazz musicians, the most regular players being Danny Thompson (from Pentangle (group)) or Spike Heatley on upright bass, Tony Carr on drums and congas, John Cameron on piano and Harold McNair on sax and flute. Carr's distinctive conga style and McNair's flute are an intrinisic feature on many of Donovan's recordings, and both players also toured the U.S with Donovan.

It has been claimed that Donovan introduced Page and Jones to each other and that this essentially created Led Zeppelin. In fact, Jones and Page had already known each other for several years -- they were among the top freelance pop musicians in London at that time, and worked on literally hundreds of well-known British recordings in that period, until Page retired from session work in 1967 to join The Yardbirds. Nevertheless, Donovan himself has stated that the 'heavier' sound of his 1967 single 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' had a definite influence on Page and Jones, although it is now generally beleived that the duo's work on the Jeff Beck single 'Beck's Bolero' (with drummer Keith Moon) was the real genesis of the Led Zeppelin style.

By 1966 Donovan had abandoned the overt Dylan/Guthrie influences to became one of the first British pop musicians to adopt a 'flower power' image. More importantly, his music was developing and changing rapidly as he immersed himself in jazz, blues, eastern music and the new generation of US West Coast bands. He was now entering his most creative and original phase as a songwriter and recording artist, working in close collaboration with Most and arranger, musician and jazz fan John Cameron.

The first fruit of their collaboration was the track 'Sunshine Superman'. One of the very first overtly psychedelic pop records, it was an innovative and eclectic blend of folk, rock, pop and jazz; the arrangement was augmented by prominent harpsichord, and set against a funky conga-driven backbeat. It also contained subtle but unmistakable references to LSD, notably the line "coulda tripped out easy, but I changed my way".

Unfortunately, it was at this point that Donovan's career progress was temporarily stalled. In December 1965 Billboard lifted the lid on the impending deal between Klein, Most and Donovan, and then followed on 18 December with another report that Donovan was about to sign with CBS Records. Despite Kozak's strenuous denials, Pye Records abruptly dropped the single from their release schedule and a lengthy contractual wrangle ensued. As a result of this dispute, Donovan's UK and US record releases, especially his LPs, difffered markedly, with most of his LP being released in different forms on either side of the Atlantic and several significant USA album tracks from the late Sixties were not issued on his UK records from many years.

The dispute dragged on into early 1966, so during the hiatus in his recording career Donovan holidayed in Greece, where he wrote one of his best songs, the wistful 'Writer In The Sun' -- inspired by the rumours that his recording career was over -- and also toured the USA, playing some sparsely attended gigs. Returning to London, he collaborated with The Beatles, contributing lyrics (and possibly backing vocals) to the song 'Yellow Submarine, which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on 26 May 1966.

By late 1966 the American contractual problems had been resolved and Donavan was freed to sign a $100,000 deal with the CBS subsidiary Epic Records. Donovan and Most then headed to CBS Studios in Los Angeles where they recorded the tracks for a new LP, much of which had been formulated and written over the preceding year. Although folk elements were still prominent, the album showed the increasing influence of rock, American west coast psychedelia and folk-rock, especially The Byrds, whose records Donovan had been listening to constantly through 1965.

The LP sessions were completed in May and the title track was released in the USA as a single in June. It was a huge success and furnished Donovan with the crucial American chart breakthrough, selling 800,000 copies in just six weeks and and eventually reaching #1. The LP followed in August, preceded by advance orders of 250,000 copies, and it reached #11 on the US album charts.

The Sunshine Superman LP is probably the best, most consistent and most durable of Donovan's albums, boasting superb songs throughout, and it remains one of the keynote records of the pschedelic era. Donovan and Cameron's restrained but imaginative chamber-style arrangements feature an eclectic range of instruments including acoustic bass, sitar, saxophone, tablas and congas, harpsichord, strings and oboe. Highlights include the swinging 'The Fat Angel', a song written for 'Mama' Cass Elliott of The Mamas And The Papas, which famously namechecked cult San Francisco acid-rock band Jefferson Airplane long before they became known internationally. Other standout tracks include 'Bert's Blues', (a tribute to British folk legend Bert Jansch), and the stately, poetic 'Guinevere'. Another notable song was 'Legend Of A Girl Child Linda' which ran for almost seven minutes, an unheard-of length for a pop recording at that time.

In contrast to the pastoral tone of the rest of the album, several tracks had a decidedly harder edge, including the title track. Another was the driving, jazzy 'The Trip' (titled after the L.A. club of the same name); featuring sitar by American folk singer Shawn Phillips, it was loaded with references to Donovan's sojourn on the West Coast and namechecked both Dylan and Baez. The third 'heavier' song, destined to became one of his most enduring recordings, was a brooding, portentious number called 'Season Of The Witch'. Recorded with a pick-up band he had met in an L.A. club, it featured Donovan's first recorded performance on electric rhythm guitar. This classic track was successfully covered by Brian Auger on his first LP in 1967; the Donovan version was used to great effect, years later, in the memorable closing sequence of the Gus Van Zant film To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman.

Because of Donovan's contractual problems, the Sunshine Superman album was not released by Pye in the UK for almost another year, and then in an altered form; it had a different track order and omitted three important tracks, 'The Fat Angel', 'The Trip' and 'Ferris Wheel', replacing them with four tracks from other Epic releases -- ' Hampstead Incident' , 'Young Girl Blues', 'Writer In The Sun' and 'Sand And Foam'.

On 24 October 1966 Epic released a new single, the rollicking, brass-laden 'Mellow Yellow', arranged by John Paul Jones and featuring Paul McCartney on uncredited backing vocals. Runours abounded at the time that the reference to the "electrical banana" in teh last verse referred to the practice of smoking banana peels to get high, but it appears that it was actually a coded reference to a vibrator, and the earlier line "I'm just mad about Fourteen" leaves little room for doubt that the primary theme of the song was sexual. Nevertheless, became his signature tune and was a huge commercial success -- it reached #2 in Billboard, #3 in Cash Box and earned Donovan his first U.S. gold record award for sales of more than one million copies.

During the first half of 1967 Donovan worked on an ambitious new studio project. In January he gave a major concert at the Royal Albert Hall which included a ballerina who danced during a twelve-minute performance of the song 'Golden Apples'. On 14 January New Musical Express reported that he was to write incidental music for a National Theatre production of 'As You Like It', but nothing came of the proposal.

Later that month Epic released a new LP, Mellow Yellow, which reached #14 in the album charts, and a new non-album single, 'Epistle To Dippy', which was a Top 20 hit in the USA. Written in the form of an open letter to an old school friend, the song had a strong pacifist subtext in spite of its florid psychedelic imagery -- 'Dippy' was at the time serving in the British Army in Malaysia. According to Brian Hogg, who wrote the liner notes for the Donovan boxed set Troubadour, Dippy heard the song, contacted Donovan and left the army as a result.

On 9 February 1967 Donovan was one of the guests invited by The Beatles to join them at Abbey Road studios for the final orchestral overdub session for the brilliant Lennon-McCartney collaboration 'A Day In The Life', the grand finale to their new opus '''Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'''. Paul McCartney and others filmed the event and Donovan can be clearly seen in the film collage compliled from that footage, which accompanies for 'A Day In The Life' on the video version of The Beatles Anothology.

However there were other events to occupy his attention during this time, most notably his highly publicised arrest for possession of marijuana, which evidently took place some time in late 1966. In Donovan's case his drug use was evidently very moderate, and seems to have been mostly restricted to pot smoking -- certainly he was not indulging on the Herculean scale of friends like John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones.

A contributing factor was the controversy over a 1966 TV documentary, which depicted the singer and/or some of his friends smoking pot. Donocan himself has blamed the girlfriend of his old friend Gypsy Dave for informing on him to the police. The bust gained a great deal of publicity -- in early 1967, Donovan found himself in the sights of the downmarket British Sunday tabloid 'News Of The World', owned by Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch. Over three weeks in late January and early February, the paper published a controversial three-part report entitled "Drugs & Pop Stars - Facts That Will Shock You".

Among the 'revelations' were claims that Donovan and many other leading pop stars -- including members of The Who, Cream (group), The Rolling Stones and The Moody Blues-- regularly smoked marijuana and used other illicit drugs, and held parties where the recently banned hallucinogen LSD was used, specifically naming The Who's Pete Townshend and Cream's Ginger Baker. The second article made sensational allegations about Mick Jagger's durg use, but on publication it immediately became obvious that (in spite of spending an entire evening with him at a London club) the hapless reporter had mistaken Brian Jones for Jagger, who immediately began legal action against the paper.

It emerged later that Murdoch's showbusiness reporters were using their access to British pop stars, their friendsand associates to gather information on their use of drugs and then pass it on to the police. In the late 1990s, an article published in The Guardian revealed that it was News Of The World reporters who had tipped off the police about the party at Keith Richard's house, 'Redlands', which was famously raided in the early hours of 12 February 1967, just after George Harrison and his girlfriend had left.

Although Donovan's bust was nowhere near as sensational as those of Jagger and Richards, it had one very unfortunate outcome -- because of the charges, he was refused a visa to enter the United States until later in the year, and so he was unable to give his scheduled performance at the epoch-making Monterey International Pop Festival in June.

In July Epic released the single 'There Is A Mountain', which went Top Ten in the U.S. and was later covered by The Allman Brothers. In September he undertook a new tour of the United States, one which was very different from his previous solo outings. This time he was backed by a small jazz group and was accompanied by his father, who introduced the show. Dressed in a flowing white robe, with the stage decked with feathers, flowers and incense, Donovan played to a packed house at the Phliharmonic Hall in New York. His performance was rapturously received and immortalised by Lillian Roxon in her Rock Encylopedia. A similarly ecstatic performance at the Hollywood Bowl was followed by a notable landmark -- Donovan was interviewed by writer John Carpenter and this featured as the first ever Rolling Stone interview in the magazine's debut issue, published on 9 November 1967. His concert at the Anaheim Convention Centre on 23 September was recorded and released as a live LP the following year.

Later in July 1967 Epic released Donovan's fourth album, an ambitious 2-disc set entitled A Gift From A Flower To A Garden, one of the first rock music boxed sets and, after Dylan's Blonde On Blonde and Zappa's Freak Out, only the third pop-rock double-album ever released. It was split thematically into two halves, the first record, subtitled "For Little Ones", was a collection of songs Donovan had written especially for chlldren; and the second, subtitled "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" was the parents' album. The session players included Cream bassist Jack Bruce.

Fearing that it might be a poor seller, Epic boss Clive Davis insisted that the albums were split and sold separately, and although it took some time, the boxed set sold steadily, peaking at #19 on the US charts and achieving gold record status in the U.S. by 1970.

The psychedelic and mystical overtones of the work were unmistakeable -- the front cover featured a heavily solarized photograph of Donovan dressed in a robe and holding flowers and peacock feathers, while the back cover photo showed him holding hands with Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. However the liner notes included an appeal from Donovan for young people to give up the use of all drugs -- a decidedly unhip stance for a rock musician at the height of the Summer Of Love. His early public disavowal of drugs was no doubt motivated in part by his drug bust, but he was and remains adamant in his opposition to hard drugs and his realisation of the damage they could cause -- a belief that was no doubt reinforced by the rapid physcial and mental decline of his friend Brian Jones.

In late 1967 Donovan branched out and, following the lead of his friend Paul McCartney, he contributed a number of fine songs to the soundtrack of the Ken Loach film Poor Cow. The title track was released as the B-side of his next single, 'Jennifer Juniper', a song he had written for model Jenny Boyd, sister of George Harrison's girlfriend, Patti Boyd, and which was another Top 40 hit in the USA.

By this time, like The Beatles themselves, Donovan's interest in eastern mysticism had grown considerably, and as is new single entered the charts, he headed to India, where he spent several months at the ashram of the Maharishi in Rishikesh. The visit gained worldwide media attention thanks to the presence of all four Beatles, Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love, actress Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence (whose presence inspired John Lennon to write 'Dear Prudence').

Donovan's next single, released in May 1968, was the swirling psychedelic nugget 'The Hurdy Gurdy Man', a recording he originally intended to give to Jimi Hendrix, with whom he had become good friends. When Mickie Most heard it, he convinced Donovan that the song was a sure-fire single and that he should record it himself. Donovan then tried to get Hendrix to play on the recording, but sadly Hendrix was on tour at the time and unavailable for the session. In his place they brought in a brilliant young British guitarist, Allan Holdsworth then a member of Blue Mink and later of Gong (group) and UK (group). Jimmy Page also definitely played on the session, and it is believed that John Paul Jones may have played bass with (possibly) John Bonham on drums. If so, this would make it the first recorded performance featuring the three future members of Led Zeppelin.

The heavier rock sound of 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' was a deliberate attempt by Most and Donovan to try and reach a wider audience in the United States, where the hard rock sounds of groups like Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience were now having a major impact. Most's commercial instincts were spot-on, and the song became one of Donovan's biggest hits, going Top 5 in both the UK and the USA and Top 10 in Australia.

The same month, he recorded an even rockier single, the snarling, funky, freakbeat classic 'Goo Goo Barabajagal', a song which gained him an avid following on the rave scene decades later. This time he was backed by the original incarnation of The Jeff Beck Group, featuring Beck on lead guitar, Ron Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano and Micky Waller on drums. Not coincidentally, they were also under contract to Most at the time and it was Most's idea to team them with Donovan, his attempt to bring a heavier sound to Donovan's work, whlie also introducing a more lyrical edge to Beck's.

In an interview, Donovan recounted that he arrived at the studio while e Micky Waller was tuning his kit while playing various rhythm patterns -- to Dononvan's amazement, Waller happened to be playing the exact beat he wanted for the song. Likewise, the redoubtable Hopkins (a session veteran) expressed no interest in learning the chords, nonchalantly opened his customary Superman comic on the music stand and perused it whlie he waited for the session to start; when the tapes rolled, he gave his usual flawless performance, with no rehearsal. When Jeff Beck finally arrrived, it turned out that he had left his guitar at his hotel, so he simply said "Get me any old Fender". Donovan: "So they got him any old Fender, But it doesn't sound like any old Fender. It sounds incredible"

However it was some time before these recordings saw the light of day. As well as the two tracks cut with the Beck Group -- ('Barabajagal' and the single's eventual B-side 'Trudi') -- Donovan recorded three others, Happiness Runs, Superlungs (My Supergirl) and Where Is She?, but all five were shelved.

In July 1968 Epic released Donovan In Concert, the album that had been recorded at the Anaheim Convention Centre during his American tour in September 1967. It featured a cover painting by Donovan himself and is notable for its strong jazzy feel and excellent sound, with Donovan again leading the pack by being one of the first major pop artists of his era to release a live LP.

During the summer of 1968 Donovan worked on a second LP of children's songs, which was subsequently released as H.M.S. Donovan. In September Epic released a new single, 'Lalena', subdued acoustic ballad which only managed to reach the low 30s in the US charts. The album "'The Hurdy Gurdy Man followed; it continued in a similar vein to the Mellow Yellow LP but it reached a creditable #20 in America, in spite of the fact that it contained several earlier hits including the title track and 'Jennifer Juniper'.

After another US tour in the autumn he again collaborated with Paul McCartney, who was producing Post Card, the debut LP by recently discovered Welsh singing sensation Mary Hopkin. Hopkin covered two Donovan songs -- 'Lord Of The Reedy River' and 'I Love My Shirt'. McCartney returned the favour by performing (uncredited) playing tabourine and singing backing vocals on Donovan's next single, the anthemic 'Atlantis', which was released in Britain (with 'I Love My Shirt' as the B-side) in late November and reached #23.

At the start of 1969 the tourist comedy If It's Tuesday It Must Be Belgium was released, featuring music by Donovan. On 20 January 1969 Epic released a single, the gentle but pointed anti-war song, 'To Susan On The West Coast Waiting', with 'Atlantis' as the B-side. The A-side was a moderate Top 40 US hit, but then DJs in America and Australia flipped the single over and began playing 'Atlantis' heavily, and in spite of its decidedly 'hippy-dippy' subject matter, the spoken introduction and its four-minute length, it became a major hit and made the Top Ten hit in both countries.

In March 1969, soon after the new single came out (but too soon to include 'Atlantis' on the album) Epic and Pye released Donovan's Greatest Hits, which included 'Epistle To Dippy' for the first time on LP, as well as the single version of 'There Is A Mountain', 'Lalena' and the early tracks 'Colours' and 'Catch The Wind', which had until then been unavailable to Epic because of Donovan's previous contractual problems. It became the most successful album of his career -- it reached #4 in the US, became a million-selling gold record and stayed on the Billboard album chart for more than a year.

In July Donovan performed at the famous Rolling Stones free concert in Hyde Park, London, which was in part a memorial to his old friend, Brian Jones, who had died only days before and whose son Julian he and Linda were now raising as their own. Also that month the long-delayed 'Barabajagal' was finally released, reaching #12 in the UK but charting less strongly in the US. The Barabajagal album followed in August, reaching #23 in America.

In 1969 he married Linda Lawrence and became the father to her daughter from her earlier relationship with Brian Jones.

In the late 1960s, seeing many of his friends and many in his audience succumb to hard drug use, Donovan went on record opposing the use of drugs.

Donovan became a student of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, embracing vegetarianism and Hindu and Buddhist philosophies.

He provided the songs for Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973), Franco Zeffirelli's film about St Francis of Assisi.

Donovan has two children who have become actors, his namesake son, Donovan Leitch, Jr., and his daughter, Ione Skye.