Donovan bravely improvises through a song of his own in Dylan’s hotel room and is immediately upstaged by Bob’s masterful delivery of It’s all over now Baby Blue.ĭonovan however has remained something of a cult and he is always present in some form or other ( Mellow Yellow playing over the end credits of this year’s Minions for one). Looming in the shadows of The Beatles in those India photos or sitting awkwardly in the presence of his own Maharishi – Bob in D.A. No matter how hard he tried, he always seemed to be in the background. Once the pop-hits started coming with Sunshine Superman in 1966, Donovan became, to some, a light-weight curiosity appearing on Top of the Pops cross legged and barefoot, awkwardly encompassing the hippy stereotype of the day. His debut in 1965 What’s been did and what’s been hid featured a faithful cover of Guthrie’s Car Car alongside the comparatively wonderful Leitch composition, Catch The Wind. Some of his earlier, often overlooked recordings are closer to the Guthrie model than you might imagine. Living the life of a nomad, sleeping rough and busking for food, Donovan took his approach to music incredibly seriously. While for many Donovan may be seen as no more than a guilty pleasure, a Dylanwannabe whose biggest hits were of the sing-along variety ( Mellow Yellow, Jennifer Juniper) rather than the government baiting folk of his Royal Bob-ness, closer scrutiny reveals a much cooler character than we might give him credit for.īorn Donovan Philips Leach in 1946, this Scottish folk singer / songwriter had ambitions to be a British Woody Guthrie and as he recounts in his 2006 biography, he didn’t take the easy path to get there. As Donovan journeys back to Liverpool playing an autumn gig at the Philharmonic, Getintothis’s Del Pike goes to work on finding out why this most curious of 60s stars has never lost his mojo.
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