From Music Blossoms Change
Donovan is a folk singer who has racked up many Top-40 hits. Some include “Mellow Yellow,” “Sunshine Superman,” “Epistle to Dippy,” “There is a Mountain,” “Wear Your Love Like Heaven,” “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” Jennifer Juniper, “Lalea,” “Atlantis” and “Riki Tiki Tavi.” He also worked in collaboration to write “Yellow Submarine” with The Beatles.
Donovan’s musical style has spread to many other musicians including John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page, and Brian Jones. Although most of Donovan’s fame came during the 1960’s, he has recently released a new album called “Beat Caf”, a boxed set called “Try for the Sun: The Journey of Donovan”, and a book called “The Autobiography of Donovan: The Hurdy Gurdy Man”.
Musical passion started early in Donovan’s life. Donovan was born in Scotland in 1946. His father had a passion for poetry that was very atypical for fathers in that time and place. Long before Donovan was able to understand the words his father spoke, he fell in love with the rhythmic dance that poetry played when rolling off his father’s tongue.
As he grew, Donovan’s love of poetry blossomed into music and art as well. To Donovan, music and poetry are, and will always be, sisters. In each, sounds created produce a movement of air that is in rhythmic balance and harmonizes the tribes of the world. When read aloud, even the worst poetry has more flow than the best prose.
At age 15, Donovan set out hitchhiking with Gypsy Dave to play music anywhere they could. They played in clubs, fields, and on beaches. After 2 years on the road, Donovan returned home and was asked to record demos at Tin Pan Alley in London. Finally, his chance for change! He knew this was his ticket to protest and sing about civil rights.
Donovan’s life isn’t entirely caught up in the music scene. In 1968, he traveled to India for the first time to learn about Transcendental Meditation techniques along with The Beatles, Mike Love, and Mia Farrow. It’s something that stuck with him, because today, he’s leading the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace’s musical wing.
Donovan started down the path of religion at an early age just as he did with music. As a teenager, he read “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac. Reading about Buddhism and Zen led him to other people and religions including Alan Watts, Christmas Humphries, Suzuki, Taoism, Hinduism, Vedas, and Celtic Mythology. Poetry, art, music, and spirituality have always, and will always rule Donovan’s life.
Donovan’s successes came after a long line of obstacles. Even as a child, he was teased because he was a shy book-lover and because he had a limp from polio. Later in life he faced lawsuits, a drug arrest, and broken hearts, but none kept him from his passion to change the world through song.
