They call me Mellow Yellow...

[marky]

I seem to have fallen into a Donovan trip. Have any Donovan records McC? For some reason I think you might.

Yes I know Happy Mondays named a song after him, and Kate Bush covered him and blah blah blah. I guess I've been meaning to check him out for awhile but had preconceived notions that he'd be someone hard for me to take seriously. I approached with caution but after hearing a couple of songs I realized I was rather spellbound. Something about him just stops me in my tracks. It's interesting to me just how much he sounds like Belle & Sebastian at times (he is Scottish, after all), but then I do think it's fair to say he's more versatile than they are.

What I like about him is he can be wonderfully wacky and silly sometimes and yet still be poetic/romantic/beautiful/flowery. He can do the folk thing nicely, but he's not afraid to jazz or blues it up either.
I've listened to the Mellow Yellow album three times today. It's got a great track at the end called "Sunny South Kensington" that is really quite bad ass and like one of the more danceable Belle & Sebastian numbers.

What I've heard of his earliest work bothers me a little: too much like Bob Dylan. Which is fine, but if you want that, why not listen to Dylan? His later stuff is supposed to be a little more rock and roll (joined up with Jeff Beck group, for one thing) but I have yet to fully investigate.

Any comments on Donovan, anyone?

There is a song he covered in his early days, though, written by a virtually unknown Brit folkie guy (can't remember the name now) called "The War Drags On". Not sure I've heard a better war song in my life. It might bring you to tears, watch out!

[mccutcheon]

Dylan's Masters of War is very good.

Yeah I'm very into the D man, even have some live recording on vynil. But anyone who wants to get into him, and this is the case for almnost any band, is avoid the Greatest Hits. You'll miss great tracks like The Fat Angel wich is the love child song George Harrison and Nick Drake never wrote together.

[bfj]

I like "Universal Soldier" too as far as Donovan war songs. Donovan stuck with the early dylan stuff that Bob left behind him. The two did become friends when Bob was in England. They had mutual respect for eachother and they used to teach eachother their songs. I've got just one Donovan album on vynil, "Like it is...' Song for song great stuff. like that song about 15 year olds having sex... i can dig that.