"Goo goo, goo goo Barabajagal was his name now"
I'm a huge Dylan fan. H-U-G-E !!!!
I've never gone along with the Dylan/Donovan phony war that was generated in the 60s. There was always room for both as far as I was concerned.
O.K., there may have been times when Donovan was almost a poor man's Bob, but he has his own seriously strong catalogue of work that needs no comparison to stand on it's own two feet.
His first album in 1965 "What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid" had things like Woody Guthrie's 'Car, Car' which had been done obscurely by Dylan, but there were enough original compositions as well as the stand-out 'Catch the Wind' to give Donovan his own place.
Later the same year (1965) he released 'Fairytale' and apart from 'Colours' which again was the stand-out, other tracks I personally liked were 'Epistle to Dippy', 'Sunny Goodge Street' and 'To Try For the Sun'.
After that, till the end of the 60s, as they say on the radio .. "the hits just keep on coming".
'Sunshine Superman', 'Mellow Yellow', 'There Is A Mountain', 'Jennifer Juniper', 'Hurdy Gurdy Man', 'Barabajagal'.
The album 'Barabajagal' was the last of the 60s and the first Donovan LP I bought, but by then he had made his mark, reflected in the line-up he had for this recording.
Jeff Beck and Ronnie Wood playing guitar, Madeline Bell (from Blue Mink) and Rod Stewart on backing vocals and Mickie Most, one of Englands hottest names of the time, producing the whole thing.
The other two vinyls I've carried with me for the past 50 years are both 1973 releases. 'Cosmic Wheels' was all a bit glam rock-ish reflecting what was happening at the time. T-Rex, David Bowie etc.
'Maria Magenta' came from this album, but my picks were 'I Like You' and the throw away spoof song 'The Intergalactic Laxative' - just for a laugh.
The other LP, 'Essence to Essence' is only there because I didn't have the heart to melt it down. There's not much more to say about it really.
A rare treat for Donovan fans was watching the first two series of the Sky/Amazon Prime series 'Britannia'
Series 1 in 2018 used 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' as it's theme.
Series 2 went one step further and used the more obscure but compelling track 'Season of the Witch'.
A couple of myths exist about the Donovan song 'Mellow Yellow'.
It's long been thought that Paul McCartney sang the response line "quite rightly". He was on the song, but as background. Donovan himself did the "quite rightly" bit.
Country Joe McDonald (of Fish fame) was meant to have been the one who said if you got the inside of a banana peel, dried it and smoked it you'd get a hit. He may have thought so, but it wasn't true.
'Electrical banana' referred to a vibrator !!
Enjoy Donovan Leitch. Hail Atlantis!
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