Donovan
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Category: Other music related lounges
Forum Name: General Music Discussions
Forum Description: Discuss and create polls about all types of music
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=104122
Printed Date: November 25 2024 at 23:49
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Topic: Donovan
Posted By: aglasshouse
Subject: Donovan
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 15:30
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Just recently discovered Donovan, been listening to a little to him and I'm kind of unsure on my opinion. It seems like standard folk but at times there seems like there's something more. What do you think?
------------- http://fryingpanmedia.com |
Replies:
Posted By: gloriousgoldfish
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 15:34
| Discovered him last year when I stumbled upon Season of the Witch. I thought it was psychedelic rock at first but when I heard Atlantis my opinion changed a bit. He's definitely folk I'd say, especially that song. |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 15:42
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donovan
Been a fan since the late 60's but then I'm an old guy.....I was lucky enough to have seen him and got his autograph about 15 years ago when he played a local folk venue in my area. Try Barabajagal and an earlier one called From A Flower To A Garden.  ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: TeleStrat
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 15:50
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Barabajabal (with Jeff Beck), Hurdy Gurdy Man, Season Of The Witch, Sunshine Superman are some of my favorites. I remember Catch The Wind was his breakout hit and some people called him the British Bob Dylan.
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Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 16:10
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^Yes indeed. He was a real Dylan clone before finding his feet in British psych rock, and is the undisputed king of that genre, IMHO. |
Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 16:57
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The intergalactic laxative will get you from here to Mars.... Ummm...I've always liked Donovan. "Jennifer Juniper", "Hurdy Gurdy Man", "Catch the Wind" and the epic "Atlantis". Good mellow stuff. Mellow yellow even. ------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
Posted By: emigre80
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 17:07
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Catch the Wind, oh yeah. I also love Wear Your Love Like Heaven. Lord, kiss me once more
Fill me with song Allah, kiss me once more That I may, that I may Wear my love like heaven (Wear my love like) Wear my love like heaven (Wear my love) |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 17:35
------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
The Dark Elf wrote:Posted By: LearsFool
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 17:37
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Welcome to the phenomenon of Donovan! More than just a great musician, his songwriting was amazing and gave the world some great songs, both as performed by him, and as fodder for covers. Really like Sunshine and Barabajagal. -------------  
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Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 17:43
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How cool it must be to 'recently discover' someone like Donavon! It's very hard for me to get my aged mind around that! ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: t d wombat
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 19:46
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Been a lonnnnnngggg time since I listened to any Donovan. While his early stuff was fun for the day I'm afraid he was never really in Dylan's league. Maybe he could have been but he just seemed to get totally caught up in all that faux mystic psycho babble cow patty gumph that was somewhat typical of the era. Perhaps a revisit to the world of Donovan might be a good idea ? ------------- Andrew B “Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” ― Julius Henry Marx |
Posted By: emigre80
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 20:14
If you listen to him without thinking of him in the context of Dylan his work is very enjoyable - and really does conjure up an era. It sure takes you back.
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Posted By: t d wombat
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 22:25
Indeed it does. Me, I didn't ever think of him in the context of Dylan and yes back then I did find him quite enjoyable but to be frank it didn't keep me enthralled especially once he went into that Atlantis nonsense. Nonetheless some of his work is undeniably worthwhile. ------------- Andrew B “Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” ― Julius Henry Marx |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: September 21 2015 at 23:39
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I mean, I like saffron, but c'mon; it's too strong, costs more than gold, and I always use more than I should've. Mad about it I am not. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: KingCrInuYasha
Date Posted: September 22 2015 at 00:12
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I remember getting Barabajagal on CD and being blown away by the bonus tracks. Not that the rest of his 1965 - 1970 golden age wasn't just as good, but the man was on a creative roll during the sessions for that album. ------------- He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball! |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 22 2015 at 09:33
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Posted By: TeleStrat
Date Posted: September 22 2015 at 09:38
| ^ Totally agree |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: September 22 2015 at 10:58
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Donovan originally wrote Catch The Wind in 1964 when he was an impressionable 18 year old just starting to make a name for himself in the UK folk scene (Dylan would have been 23 and releasing his 4th studio album at that time). The 1965 meeting of the two documented in Dont Look Back is now the stuff of legends (especially the exchange between them over "My Darling Tangerine Eyes"/"Mr Tambourine Man" that never made the final cut of the film), and no doubt resulted in the change of direction that Donovan undertook soon after.
I suspect that had circumstances been different the relationship between Dylan and Donovan would have been a fair bit warmer but the press taunting of Dylan over this new upstart seemed to get under his skin - though quite how Donovan's lightweight songs could ever be perceived as a threat is anyone's guess, perhaps he feared that Donovan's accessibility would dilute what he was doing. Anyway, by the time Donovan released his second album Fairytale in late 1965, he was writing very un-Dylanesque little corkers like this gem: ------------- What? |
Posted By: emigre80
Date Posted: September 22 2015 at 11:55
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I recall seeing somewhere (don't know where) that Donovan toured as a supporting act for Yes. Edited, found it here: http://forgotten-yesterdays.com/dates.asp?ftype=1&qdec=1970&qdateid=1263" rel="nofollow - http://forgotten-yesterdays.com/dates.asp?ftype=1&qdec=1970&qdateid=1263
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Posted By: silverpot
Date Posted: September 22 2015 at 14:29
Lovely. It suddenly struck me that Nick Drake must have been a Donovan fan. |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 22 2015 at 16:03
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Posted By: emigre80
Date Posted: September 22 2015 at 18:08
Judy Collins did a great cover of that song. (I was a folkie long before I became a proghead)
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Posted By: t d wombat
Date Posted: September 22 2015 at 18:41
 ------------- Andrew B “Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” ― Julius Henry Marx |
Posted By: Intruder
Date Posted: September 23 2015 at 09:31
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The whole Dylan clone idea is preposterous - Dylan was a Seeger/Guthrie clone and Seeger/Guthrie were clones of other, more traditional folk singers. Much as I dig Dylan, Donovan wrote better melodies, utilized more diverse musical modes, and was overall just more hummable than Dylan. It's surprising how many heavies in the rock and jazz field have picked up on Donovan's melodies, everyone from Hubert Laws to the Allman Brothers. Yeah, his hippy-dippy lyrics are sometimes goofy, but the music....oooh la la. ------------- I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there..... |
Posted By: TeleStrat
Date Posted: September 23 2015 at 09:50
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I agree that "Dylan clone" is an unfair comparison. Personally I think the whole idea came from the similar song titles (Catch The Wind - Blowin' In The Wind) more than anything else. I think people that continued to follow Donovan's music quickly put that whole Dylan thing behind them.
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Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 23 2015 at 09:51
As was stated many times, Donavon was never chastised about copping Dylan on Catch The Wind, and was tagged 'The British Dylan' by Billboard magazine and the tag was meant to be a compliment, not a putdown. The list of groups who admitted to Dylan's lyrical influencing aside from the Beatles also included the Stones with songs like Satisfaction and As Tears Go By, as well as many others. I think members are reading too much into the one off Dylan clone tag which, as I stated, only referred to his hit Catch The Wind and not to Colours and other charting songs that immediately followed.
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Posted By: Intruder
Date Posted: September 25 2015 at 10:16
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The Dylan clone thing was a pretty heavy topic at the time, especially for Donovan and the others who were being put into that category. Remember the "Don't Look Back" movie where Dylan and Donovan meet and Donovan is given the cold shoulder....pretty shoddy treatment 'cause Donovan was considered a mere copycat. The tag has been given to most successful young songwriters of the time from Gordon Lightfoot and Loudon Wainwright to Paul Simon and Tim Buckley. None of these singers had much to do with Dylan outside of the fact that they sang acoustic folk music and often used electric accompaniment. Dylan's Self Portrait album was, at the time, panned mainly 'cause Dylan was trying to play copycat to those who he considered to have stolen from him. Critics and fans alike agreed that Dylan had put a sh*tty album out on spite just to show that his competitors wrote songs that just didn't stack up to his own. Dylan's blues were mainly talking blues at first, then he hitched onto more electric blues, probably influenced by bands like the Blues Project and Butterfield Blues Band. His "own" voice had its influences and they're pretty straightforward. Dylan didn't kick down any doors when he went electric, he simply found a new way to put his ideas to music. ------------- I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there..... |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 25 2015 at 13:46
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^You're correct. Dylan did not kick open any doors, but he did legitimize the Byrds' cover of Mr. Tambourine Man and helped to shake the pop sticker off that song. He did firmly close a door, however, on the early sixties American folk revival and the result was Lightfoot, Don McLean and others went to a folk rock format, forsaking the solo acoustic guitar wielding 'folk singer' as an ideal. Forever more.
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Posted By: Rando
Date Posted: September 26 2015 at 21:29
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I'm also one of the older guys in this place and all kinds of things come to mind with Donovan -I was a teenager living in the Bay area during the height of those glorious 'Psychedelic 60's" - There was just so much happening on the musical landscape with other greats like The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Mamas & Papas, Hendrix, Buffalo Springfield, the British Invasion, and of course The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper & Magical Mystery Tour. But Donovan was one in particular caught my attention-"Catch the Wind" was the first of his songs I heard over the radio airwaves - Looking back or in retrospect, (And as already been mentioned), I agree it was more the music press & critics that made the Dylan comparison - At the time I really didn't hear it and besides I really didn't care much for Dylan - Donovan's rather blissful & surreal style (and at times nonsensical lyrics) was perfect for the time that added to the magic of that era. And I'm happy that his music is still sparking interest, revivals, and discovery. Other songs besides Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow my other favorites are Lalena, Epistle to Dippy, Jennifer-Juniper, There is a Mountain, and Atlantis -  ------------- - Music is Life, that's why our hearts have beats - |
Posted By: emigre80
Date Posted: September 26 2015 at 21:45
I remember all those songs, and still enjoy them.
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Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 28 2015 at 16:03
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