Donovan

a repository of links and commentary, by Sandra Dodd

Donovan was full of crap, but some of it was the irridescent velvet childlike crap of the dreams of starfish. Yeah. Too much painter-takes-acid-too-seriously, but still... I really like a lot of his stuff. I'm embarrassed to like some of it, and other stuff I wish I had listened to weekly for my whole life.

So Holly, at 16, is very interested in Donovan, and as I've pulled out all my albums including my prized bootleg, I hear it through the ears of the mother of a young girl, and the gentleman was a pervert. But I'll let that slide too.

I saw Donovan at Johnson Gym at UNM in 1969 and when I find my ticket stub and flyer, I'll bring then here. The flyer is below; click it for more.

I saw him again at a coffeehouse in Santa Fe in the early 80's and took notes so I could tell my friend Steve everything he sang. I don't remember now why Steve didn't go too. I think I was with Jodi, but when I find the notes (someday, and bring them here) I'll know.

I remember when I was sixteen, learning the guitar part to "Lullaby of Spring," and really liking the words. "Chiff-chaff eggs are painted by mother bird eating cherries..."

Other people's Donovan stuff:

The Donovan Scrapbook, compiled and maintained by John McIver (transcripts of articles and reviews from the 60's):

Part I, 1965-March 1967

Part II April 1967-December 1968

Part III January 1969 - 1984(?)

Part IV August 1984 - December 1998

Later additions, also John McIver's project (click the image):

More Recent:

The View From The Beat Café DONOVAN interviewed by Andrew Darlington undated; crazy Brits and their lack of dating publications... but Donovan says he's 59.

(From that site: "DL: Fifty-nine. Yeah - somebody got it wrong and wrote that I was 60 this year - so I grew a year in just two days! I got a year older in two days! [In fact, to set the record straight, he was born Donovan Phillips Leitch, 10th May 1946]")