1964–66: Rise to fame Returning to
Hatfield, Donovan spent several months playing in local clubs, absorbing the folk scene around his home in
St Albans, learning the
crosspicking guitar technique from local players such as
Mac MacLeod and
Mick Softley and writing his first songs. In 1964, he travelled to
Manchester with
Gypsy Dave, then spent the summer in
Torquay, Devon. In Torquay he stayed with Mac MacLeod and took up
busking, studying the guitar and learning
traditional folk and blues. In late 1964, Donovan was offered a management and publishing contract by
Peter Eden and
Geoff Stephens of
Pye Records in London, for which he recorded a 10-track demo tape which included the original of his first single, "
Catch the Wind" and "
Josie". The first song revealed the influence of
Woody Guthrie and
Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who had also influenced
Bob Dylan. Dylan comparisons followed for some time. In an interview with
KFOK radio in the US on 14 June 2005, MacLeod said: "The press were fond of calling Donovan a Dylan clone as they had both been influenced by the same sources: Ramblin' Jack Elliott,
Jesse Fuller, Woody Guthrie and many more." While recording the demo, Donovan befriended
Brian Jones of
the Rolling Stones, who was recording nearby. He had recently met Jones' ex-girlfriend,
Linda Lawrence, who is the mother of Jones' son, Julian Brian (Jones) Leitch. The on-off romantic relationship that developed over five years was a force in Donovan's career. She influenced Donovan's music but refused to marry him and she moved to the United States for several years in the late 1960s. They met by chance in 1970 and married soon after. Donovan had other relationships – one of which resulted in the birth of his first two children,
Donovan Leitch and
Ione Skye, both of whom became actors. , 1965
Donovan and Dylan During Bob Dylan's trip to the UK in the spring of 1965, the British music press were making comparisons of the two singer-songwriters which they presented as a rivalry. This prompted
The Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones to say, Donovan is the undercurrent In
D. A. Pennebaker's film
Dont Look Back documenting Dylan's tour. Near the start of the film, Dylan opens a newspaper and exclaims, "Donovan? Who is this Donovan?" and
Alan Price from
The Animals spurs the rivalry on by telling Dylan that Donovan is a better guitar player, but that he has only been around for three months. Throughout the film Donovan's name is seen next to Dylan's on newspaper headlines and on posters in the background, and Dylan and his friends refer to him consistently. Donovan finally appears in the second half of the film, along with
Derroll Adams, in Dylan's suite at the
Savoy Hotel despite Donovan's management refusing to allow journalists to be present, saying they do not want "any stunt on the lines of the disciple meeting the messiah". According to Pennebaker, Dylan told him not to film the encounter, and Donovan played a song that sounded just like "
Mr. Tambourine Man" but with different words. When confronted with lifting his tune, Donovan said that he thought it was an old folk song. Once the camera rolled, Donovan plays his song "To Sing For You" and then asks Dylan to play "
Baby Blue". Dylan later told
Melody Maker: "He played some songs to me. ... I like him. ... He's a nice guy."
Melody Maker noted that Dylan had mentioned Donovan in his song "
Talking World War Three Blues" and that the crowd had jeered, to which Dylan had responded backstage: "I didn't mean to put the guy down in my songs. I just did it for a joke, that's all." In an interview for the BBC in 2001 to mark Dylan's 60th birthday, Donovan acknowledged Dylan as an influence early in his career while distancing himself from "Dylan clone" allegations:
Collaboration with Mickie Most In late 1965, Donovan split with his original management and signed with
Ashley Kozak, who was working for
Brian Epstein's
NEMS Enterprises. Kozak introduced Donovan to American businessman
Allen Klein (later manager of the Rolling Stones and, in their final months,
the Beatles). Klein in turn introduced Donovan to producer
Mickie Most, who had chart-topping productions with
the Animals,
Lulu and
Herman's Hermits. Most produced all Donovan's recordings during this period, although Donovan said in his autobiography that some recordings were self-produced, with little input from Most. Their collaboration produced successful singles and albums, recorded with London session players including
Big Jim Sullivan,
Jack Bruce,
Danny Thompson, and future
Led Zeppelin members
John Paul Jones and
Jimmy Page. Many of Donovan's late 1960s recordings featured musicians including his key musical collaborator
John Cameron on piano, Danny Thompson (from
Pentangle) or
Spike Heatley on upright bass, Tony Carr on drums and
congas and
Harold McNair on saxophone and flute. Carr's conga style and McNair's flute playing are a feature of many recordings. Cameron, McNair and Carr also accompanied Donovan on several concert tours and can be heard on his 1968 live album
Donovan in Concert.
Sunshine Superman 's television program
Ohimennen in June 1966. By 1966, Donovan had shed the Dylan/Guthrie influences and become one of the first British pop musicians to adopt
flower power. He immersed himself in jazz,
blues,
Eastern music and the new generation of
counterculture-era
US West Coast bands such as
Jefferson Airplane and
the Grateful Dead. He was entering his most creative phase as a songwriter and recording artist, working with Mickie Most and with arranger, musician and jazz fan
John Cameron. Their first collaboration was
Sunshine Superman, one of the first
psychedelic pop records. inspired by rumours that his recording career was over. He toured the US and appeared on episode 23 of
Pete Seeger's television show
Rainbow Quest in 1966 with
Shawn Phillips and
Rev. Gary Davis. After his return to London, he developed his friendship with
Paul McCartney and contributed the line "sky of blue and sea of green" to "
Yellow Submarine". By spring 1966, the American contract problems had been resolved and Donovan signed a $100,000 deal with Epic Records. Donovan and Most went to
CBS Studios in Los Angeles, where they recorded tracks for an LP, much composed during the preceding year. Although folk elements were prominent, the album showed increasing influence of
jazz, American west coast
psychedelia and
folk rock – especially
the Byrds. The LP sessions were completed in May and "
Sunshine Superman" was released in the US as a single in June. It was a success, selling 800,000 in six weeks and reaching No. 1. It went on to sell over one million and was awarded a
gold disc. The LP followed in August, preceded by orders of 250,000 copies, reached No. 11 on the US
album chart and sold over half a million. The album also features the sitar, which was played by American folk-rock singer
Shawn Phillips. Donovan met Phillips in London in 1965 and he became a friend and early collaborator, playing acoustic guitar and sitar on recordings including
Sunshine Superman as well as accompanying Donovan at concerts and on Pete Seeger's TV show. Creatively, Phillips served as a silent partner in the gestation of many of Donovan's songs from the era, with the singer later acknowledging that Phillips primarily composed "
Season of the Witch". Several songs including the title track had a harder edge. The driving, jazzy "The Trip", named after a Los Angeles club name, chronicled an
LSD trip during his time in L.A. and is loaded with references to his sojourn on the West Coast, and names Dylan and Baez. The third "heavy" song was "Season of the Witch". Recorded with American and British session players, it features Donovan's first recorded performance on electric guitar. The song was covered by
Julie Driscoll,
Brian Auger and the Trinity on their first LP in 1967 and
Al Kooper and
Stephen Stills recorded an 11-minute version on the 1968 album,
Super Session. Donovan's version is also in the closing sequence of the
Gus Van Sant film,
To Die For. Because of earlier contractual problems, the UK version of
Sunshine Superman LP was not released for another nine months. This was a compilation of tracks from the US albums
Sunshine Superman and
Mellow Yellow. Donovan did not choose the tracks.
Mellow Yellow , London On 24 October 1966, Epic released the single "
Mellow Yellow", arranged by
John Paul Jones and purportedly featuring
Paul McCartney on backing vocals, but not in the chorus. The song became Donovan's signature tune in the US and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 3 on the Cash Box chart, and it earned a gold record award for sales of more than one million in the US.
Arrest On 10June 1966, Donovan became the first high-profile British pop star to be arrested for possession of
cannabis. Donovan's drug use was mostly restricted to cannabis, with occasional use of
LSD and
mescaline. His LSD use is thought to be referenced indirectly in some of his lyrics. According to Donovan, the article was based on an interview by an ex-girlfriend of his friend Gypsy Dave. The article was the first in a three-part series,
Drugs & Pop Stars – Facts That Will Shock You. It was quickly shown some claims were false. A
News of the World reporter claimed to have spent an evening with
Mick Jagger, who allegedly discussed his drug use and offered drugs to companions. He had mistaken Brian Jones for Jagger, and Jagger sued the newspaper for libel. Among other supposed revelations were claims that Donovan and stars including members of
The Who,
Cream,
The Rolling Stones and
The Moody Blues regularly smoked marijuana, used other drugs and held parties where the recently banned hallucinogen LSD was used, specifically naming the Who's
Pete Townshend and Cream's
Ginger Baker. It emerged later that the
News of the World reporters were passing information to the police. In the late 1990s,
The Guardian said
News of the World reporters had alerted police to the party at
Keith Richards's home, which was raided on 12 February 1967. Although Donovan's was not as sensational as the later arrests of Jagger and Richards, he was refused entry to the US until late 1967. He could not appear at the
Monterey International Pop Festival in June that year.
1967–69: International success In July 1967, Epic released "
There Is a Mountain", which just missed the US top ten and was later used as the basis for
the Allman Brothers Band's "
Mountain Jam". In September, Donovan toured the US, backed by a jazz group and accompanied by his father, who introduced the show. Later that month, Epic released Donovan's fifth album, a set titled,
A Gift from a Flower to a Garden, the first rock music box set and only the third pop-rock double album released. It was split into halves. The first,
Wear Your Love Like Heaven, was for people of his generation who would one day be parents; the second,
For Little Ones, was songs Donovan had written for coming generations. Worried it might be a poor seller, Epic boss
Clive Davis also insisted the albums be split and sold separately in the US (the "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" album cover was photographed at
Bodiam Castle), but his fears were unfounded – although it took time, the original boxed set sold steadily, eventually peaking at 19 in the US album chart and achieving gold record status in the US in early 1970. The psychedelic and mystical overtones were unmistakable – the front cover featured an
infra-red photograph by
Karl Ferris showing Donovan at
Bodiam Castle, dressed in a robe, holding flowers and peacock feathers, while the back photo showed him holding hands with Indian guru
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The liner notes included an appeal for young people to give up drugs. His disavowal of drugs came after his time with the Maharishi in
Rishikesh, a topic discussed in a two-part interview for the first two issues of
Rolling Stone. In late 1967 Donovan contributed two songs to the
Ken Loach film
Poor Cow. "Be Not Too Hard" was a musical setting of
Christopher Logue's poem
September Song and was later recorded by such artists as
Joan Baez and
Shusha Guppy. The title track, originally entitled "Poor Love", was the B-side of his next single, "
Jennifer Juniper", which was inspired by
Jenny Boyd, sister of
George Harrison's wife,
Pattie Boyd and was another top 40 hit in the US. Donovan developed interest in eastern mysticism and claims to have interested the Beatles in
transcendental meditation. In early 1968 he was part of the group that traveled to the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in
Rishikesh. The visit gained worldwide attention thanks to the presence of all four Beatles as well as
Beach Boys lead singer
Mike Love, as well as actress
Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence (who inspired Lennon to write "
Dear Prudence"). According to a 1968
Paul McCartney interview with
Radio Luxembourg, it was during this time that Donovan taught Lennon and McCartney
finger-picking guitar styles including the
clawhammer, which he had learned from Mac MacLeod. Lennon used this technique on songs including "
Dear Prudence", "
Julia", "
Happiness is a Warm Gun" and "
Look at Me", and McCartney with "
Blackbird" and "
Mother Nature's Son". '' advertisement, June 15, 1968 Donovan's next single, in May 1968, was the psychedelic "
Hurdy Gurdy Man". The liner notes from EMI's reissues say the song was intended for Mac MacLeod, who had a heavy rock band called
Hurdy Gurdy. After hearing MacLeod's version, Donovan considered giving it to
Jimi Hendrix, but when Most heard it, he convinced Donovan to record it himself. Donovan tried to get Hendrix to play, but he was on tour. Jimmy Page played electric guitar in some studio sessions and is credited with playing on the song. Alternatively, it is credited to
Alan Parker. Donovan credits Page and "Allen Hollsworth" (a misspelling of
Allan Holdsworth) as the "guitar wizards" for the song, saying they created "a new kind of metal folk". Since
John Bonham and John Paul Jones also played, Donovan said perhaps the session inspired the formation of
Led Zeppelin. Early in 1969, the comedy film ''
If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium'' featured music by Donovan; the title tune was written by him and sung by J. P. Rags, and he also performed "Lord of the Reedy River" in the film as a singer at a youth hostel. On 20 January, Epic released the single, "To Susan on the West Coast Waiting", with "
Atlantis" as the B-side. The A-side, a gentle
calypso-styled song, contained another anti-war message and became a moderate Top 40 US hit. However, when DJs in America and Australia flipped it and began playing "Atlantis", that became a hit. The gentle "Atlantis" later formed the backdrop to a violent scene in
Martin Scorsese's 1990 film
GoodFellas. "Atlantis" was revived in 2000 for an episode of
Futurama titled "The Deep South" (2ACV12) which aired on 16 April that year. For this episode Donovan recorded a satirical version of the song describing the Lost City of
Atlanta which featured in the episode. In March 1969 (too soon to include "Atlantis"), Epic and Pye released ''
Donovan's Greatest Hits'', which included four previous singles – "Epistle To Dippy", "There is a Mountain", "Jennifer Juniper" and "Laléna", as well as rerecorded versions of "
Colours" and "Catch The Wind" (which had been unavailable to Epic because of Donovan's contractual problems) and stereo versions of "Sunshine Superman" (previously unissued full length version) and "Season of the Witch". It became the most successful album of his career; it reached 4 in the US, became a million-selling gold record and stayed on the Billboard album chart for more than a year. On 26 June 1969 the track "
Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)" (recorded May 1969), which gained him a following on the rave scene decades later, was released, reaching 12 in the UK but charting less strongly in the US. This time he was backed by the original
Jeff Beck Group, featuring Beck on lead guitar,
Ronnie Wood on bass,
Nicky Hopkins on piano and
Micky Waller on drums. The Beck group was under contract to Most and it was Most's idea to team them with Donovan to bring a heavier sound to Donovan's work, while introducing a lyrical edge to Beck's. On 7 July 1969, Donovan performed at the first show in the second season of free rock concerts in
Hyde Park, London, which also featured
Blind Faith,
Richie Havens,
the Edgar Broughton Band and the
Third Ear Band. In September 1969, the "Barabajagal" album reached 23 in the US. Only the recent "Barabajagal"/"Trudi" single and "Superlungs My Supergirl" were 1969 recordings, the remaining tracks were from sessions in London in May 1968 and in Los Angeles in November 1968. In the late 1960s to the early 1970s he lived at
Stein, on the Isle of Skye, where he and a group of followers formed a commune and where he was visited by
George Harrison. He named his daughter, born 1970, Ione Skye.
1970s: Changes In late 1969, the relationship with Most ended after an argument over an unidentified recording session in Los Angeles. In the 1995 BBC Radio 2
The Donovan Story, Most recounted:
Open Road band Donovan said he wanted to record with someone else, and he and Most did not work together again until
Cosmic Wheels (1973). After the rift, Donovan spent two months writing and recording the album
Open Road as a member of the rock trio
Open Road. Stripping the sound of Most's heavy studio productions down to stuff that could be played by a live band, Donovan dubbed the sound "
Celtic Rock". The album peaked at No. 16 in the U.S., the third-highest of any of his full-length releases to date, but as his concert appearances became less frequent and new artists and styles of popular music began to emerge, his commercial success began to decline. Donovan said: Donovan's plan for
Open Road was to tour the world for a year, beginning with a boat voyage around the
Aegean Sea, documented in the 1970 film
There is an Ocean. This was partially on the advice from his management to go into
tax exile, during which he was not to set foot in the UK until April 1971, but after touring to France, Italy, Russia and Japan, he cut the tour short: The band would continue without Donovan, adding new members, touring and releasing the album
Windy Daze in 1971 before disbanding in 1972.
Reunions with Linda Lawrence and Mickie Most After this reunion, Donovan and Linda married on 2 October 1970 at Windsor register office and honeymooned in the Caribbean. Donovan dropped out of the round of tour promotion and concentrated on writing, recording and his family. The largely self-produced children's album
HMS Donovan in 1971, went unreleased in the US and did not gain a wide audience. During an 18-month tax exile in Ireland (1971–72), he wrote for the 1972 film
The Pied Piper, in the title role, and for
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972). The title song from the Zeffirelli film provided Donovan with a publishing windfall in 1974 when it was covered as the B-side of the million-selling US top 5 hit "
The Lord's Prayer", by Australia's singing nun,
Sister Janet Mead. After a new deal with Epic, Donovan reunited with Mickie Most in early 1973, resulting in the LP
Cosmic Wheels, which featured arrangements by
Chris Spedding. While recording the album,
Alice Cooper invited Donovan to share lead vocals on his song "
Billion Dollar Babies".
Cosmic Wheels was followed up by two albums that same year: his second concert album,
Live in Japan: Spring Tour 1973 and the more introspective
Essence to Essence. His last two albums for Epic Records were
7-Tease (1974) and
Slow Down World (1976). In 1977, he opened for
Yes on their six-month tour of North America and Europe following the release of
Going for the One (1977). The 1978 LP,
Donovan was on Most's
RAK Records in the UK and on Clive Davis' new
Arista Records in the US; it reunited him for the last time with Most and Cameron, but was not well received at the height of the
new wave and did not chart.
1980s–1990s The punk era (1976–1980) provoked a backlash in Britain against the optimism and whimsy of the hippie era, of which Donovan was a prime example. The word "hippie" became pejorative and Donovan's fortunes suffered. In this period, he released the albums
Neutronica (1980),
Love Is Only Feeling (1981) and
Lady of the Stars (1984), and guest-starred on
Stars on Ice, a half-hour variety show on ice produced by
CTV in Toronto. There was a respite when he appeared alongside
Sting,
Phil Collins,
Bob Geldof,
Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck in the
Amnesty International benefit show ''
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball''. Accompanied by
Danny Thompson, Donovan performed several hits including "Sunshine Superman", "Mellow Yellow", "Colours", "Universal Soldier" and "Catch the Wind". He was also in the performance of Dylan's "
I Shall Be Released" for the show's finale. Donovan also appeared at the
Glastonbury Festival on 18 June 1989 with the band
Ozric Tentacles accompanying him onstage. In 1990, Donovan released a live album featuring new performances of his classic songs. In 1991,
Nettwerk released a
tribute album to Donovan,
Island of Circles. Sony's double-CD boxed set
Troubadour: The Definitive Collection 1964–1976 (1992) continued the restoration of his reputation and was followed by the 1994 release of
Four Donovan Originals, which saw his four classic Epic LPs on CD in their original form for the first time in the UK. He found an ally in rap producer and
Def Jam label owner
Rick Rubin and recorded the album
Sutras for Rubin's
American Recordings label. and toured the UK with Lynch in October 2007. In March 2007, Donovan played two shows at the
South by Southwest music festival in
Austin, Texas. He had planned a spring 2007 release of an album, along with a UK tour, but the tour was cancelled and the album delayed. In April 2007, Donovan presented a three-part series on
Ravi Shankar for
BBC Radio 2. In October 2007, he announced plans for the "Invincible Donovan University" focusing on Transcendental Meditation, to be near Glasgow or Edinburgh. In October 2007 the DVD
The Donovan Concert—Live in LA, filmed at the Kodak Theatre Los Angeles earlier that year, was released in the UK. On 6 October 2009, Donovan was honoured as a
BMI Icon at the 2009 annual BMI London Awards. The Icon designation is given to BMI songwriters who have had "a unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers".
2010s–2020s In October 2010, Donovan released the double album
Ritual Groove, which he had described as "a soundtrack to a movie not yet made." On 10 May 2021, his 75th birthday, Donovan released the music video for the album's song "
I Am the Shaman".
David Lynch produced the track and directed the video. In 2012, he released
The Sensual Donovan, recorded in 1971 with
John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas, backed by
The Crusaders. In 2013, he recorded the album
Shadows of Blue at Treasure Isle Studios in
Nashville. The album includes songs he wrote in the 1970s and explores a
country style. It features covers by
The Flaming Lips,
Lissie and
Sharon Van Etten. In 2019, Donovan released
Eco-Song, an album of songs with an ecological theme, inspired by
Greta Thunberg. He hoped to adapt the album into a
rock opera but was unable due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of
Brian Jones's death, Donovan released a tribute album,
Joolz Juke, featuring Jones's grandson (and Donovan's step-grandson), Joolz Jones. In 2021, he released the album
Lunarian, dedicated to his wife. The album's song "Still Waters" was recorded decades earlier with
Nils Lofgren. Donovan and Lawrence created an animated children's television series,
Tales of Aluna, with 26 episodes produced by Australian studio Three's a Company. They had developed the series's story over decades. Donovan released the album
Gaelia in December 2022. The album's singles "Rock Me" and "Lover O' Lover" featured
David Gilmour on guitar. Donovan took 2024 off to prepare for a 60th anniversary concert series planned for 2025. == Legacy ==