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.
Growing up, Donovan’s love of poetry spread to music and art as well. Donovan believes music and poetry are inseparable sisters, because each uses the production of sound movement to create a rhythmic balance. This balance harmonizes all the tribes of the world, and when read aloud, even the worst poetry flows more easily 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 began walking his spiritual path almost as early as his musical one. It was the reading of “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac as a teenager that set his mind in motion. Reading about Buddhism and Zen only made him thirst for more. He then read about Alan Watts, Christmas Humphries, Suzuki, Taoism, Hinduism, Vedas, and Celtic Mythology. Poetry, art, music, and spirituality will always be centers of Donovan’s life.
Donovan had to overcome many, many obstacles to become the successful man he is today. From a shy book-loving boy with a polio limp was born the man who made it his goal to change a generation through song. Lawsuits, arrests, and broken hearts couldn’t keep him down!
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.