Donovan - 61 Yesterday
Hey, Donovan has joined the rest of us forerunners who, due to circumstances beyond our control, live in the Sixties. Welcome, man.Don't Look Back, the great Pennebaker doc about Bob Dylan's 1965 English tour is finally out on DVD and I read a review of it the other day. A commenter, desiring to demonstrate Bobbie's big dog status in 1965, chose to describe the filmed meeting between the two, where Donovan played his soon-to-be-hit, Catch The Wind, and Dylan supposedly destroyed him by following with his It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
I'm sorry, but this is all wrong. The truth is everyone, with the possible exception of John Lennon, was blown off the stage by Dylan in the mid-Sixties. So what? Donovan was and remains an authentic voice in his own right. Dylan himself recognized it. That's why Donovan was sitting in the inner sanctum trading songs with the man.
To me, Donovan most perfectly captures the flower children aspect of the Sixties. No one else of the era could have written a line like this one (from his 1967 album Wear Your Love Like Heaven),
"Have you found the secret door
to let you down to the earth's deep core
you'll be back in time for tea
with a diamond to show me."
to let you down to the earth's deep core
you'll be back in time for tea
with a diamond to show me."
A spiritual journey with no suffering, no pain. And probably with Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy along for the adventure. It's what we all wanted, wasn't it? Oh, I forgot for a minute. You weren't born yet. Well, it was. And Donovan's music captured the moment surpassingly well. Besides, I want my tea too.
Hail, Atlantis!
Here's a penny for the old guy.
posted by Christopher Newton at 5:20 PM
4 Comments:
I have a book of Donovan's poetry cxalled "Dry Songs". It is quite good. I get lost in some of the word imagery without the benefit of chemicals, always a good thing. Kinda like reading "Finnegan's Wake"
I saw Donovan in 1974 when he opened for "Yes". While he wasn't the drawing card, the place was packed and everyone was in their seats. It was around the time of the "Cosmic Wheels" album. He played 2 sets and got pulled back twice. It was the time of his musing over how astronauts could relieve themselves in space, hence the song "Intergalactic Laxitive".
"The intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to there,
For cosmic constipation
There's none that can compare.
If shitting is your problem
When you're out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
The intergalactic laxative,
The intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to Mars."
http://www.sing365.com/music/Lyric.nsf/The-Intergalactic-Laxative-lyrics-Donovan-Leitch/9E7A0435E70D0E0448256D97000DAF06
Beatniks are out to make it rich,
Oh no, must be the season of the witch,
Must be the season of the witch, yeah,
Must be the season of the witch.
You've got to pick up every stitch,
The rabbits running in the ditch,
You guys are funny. But by 1974 I was strictly listening to The Captain and Tenille. And please - no cracks about beatniks out to make it rich. I've been trying for years!
You could change your name to 'Dizzy'.
I quite like 'fat-frying fricasse of eternity'. Pretty good work for a hick farm cat from upstate New York.
Post a Comment
<< Home