Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan helped usher in the trippy and mesmerizing musicality of the psychedelic era. His album, Sunshine Superman, receives major props for its efforts in that space. While there might be bigger psychedelic albums as far as the general population is concerned, it’s Donovan who can be credited as the spark of inspiration behind them.
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Most rock fans will know Donovan’s atmospheric “Season of the Witch,” but if that’s where your knowledge stops, check out four more of his essential tracks, below.
1. “Mellow Yellow”
If there is a hallmark of psychedelia (arguably the genre of drug culture), it’s finding time to lay back and relax. Donovan relays that message in our first entry on this list, “Mellow Yellow.” They call me Mellow Yellow / Quite rightly, he sings in the chorus. While there is a natural nod to drugs, there is also an edgier onus behind the title.
“[John] Lennon and I used to look in the back of newspapers and pull out funny things and they’d end up in songs,” Donovan once explained. “So it’s about being cool, laid-back, and also the electrical bananas that were appearing on the scene – which were ladies vibrators.”
2. “Hurdy Gurdy Man”
Many purveyors of psychedelia opted to create out-of-this-world characters in their songs–it’s the hallucinogens at work. In “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” Donovan centers his lyrics around the eponymous character and another called Roly Poly Man. Both are shrouded in mystery.
It is then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man / Comes singing songs of love / Then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man / Comes singing songs of love, he sings in the chorus, not shying away from the weirder sides of musicality.
3. “Catch the Wind”
“Catch the Wind” is the track that made Donovan’s name. It was not only his breakthrough song, but it was also one of the first songs he ever wrote. That fact makes this effort all the more impressive.
“As a first song, and it was my first single, it is very well-crafted,” Donovan once explained. “It is about a relationship that one can’t have. Lost love, love unrequited. It is not naive in any way; it is very knowing.”
4. “Sunshine Superman”
Other than “Season of the Witch,” “Sunshine Superman” is likely Donovan’s signature song. It is the very core of psychedelia and makes it very plain why so many artists were inspired by him. Moreover, it featured John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, making it a supergroup effort.
‘Cause I made my mind up / You’re goin’ to be mine / I’ll tell you right now / Any trick in the book and now baby / All that I can find, Donovan sings in the chorus of this unparalleled tune.
(Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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