Del.icio.usDonovan
Fact Sheet
| Musical genre: | Pop |
| Country | Scotland, UK |
Since Donovan was billed as the British version of Bob Dylan, a meeting between the two in 1965 made headlines. He toured with Dylan and Joan Baez, and can be seen backstage in the concert film Don't Look Back. He performed to critical and audience acclaim at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Donovan began performing with future Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and John Bonham. Later he is rumored to have introduced them and essentially created the band.
His first international hit was "Sunshine Superman", which was followed by "Mellow Yellow", a song believed by many to be about the supposed practice of smoking banana peels, which became his signature tune (Paul McCartney is said to be heard whispering on it). Other hits included "Season Of The Witch", "Hurdy Gurdy Man", and his snarling "Barabajagal" is perhaps the hardest rocking mystical evocation of Christianity ever recorded, while "Atlantis" is as pagan and hippy-dippy as they come.
Donovan was a sometime collaborator with The Beatles, supplying lyrics for Yellow Submarine. In 1969 he married Linda Lawrence, the widow of former Rolling Stones member Brian Jones.
In the late 1960s, seeing many of his audience succumb to hard drug use, Donovan went on record opposing the use of drugs. He became a student of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, embracing vegetarianism and Hindu and Buddhist philosophies.
He provided the songs for Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973), Franco Zeffirelli's film about St Francis of Assisi.
Donovan has two children who have become actors, his namesake son, Donovan Leitch Jr., and his daughter, Ione Skye.
Article licensed under the GNU FDL. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Donovan"