Donovan Quotes

Donovan is a Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music . He has lived in Scotland, Hertfordshire , London, California, and since at least 2008 in County Cork, Ireland, with his family. Emerging from the British folk scene, Donovan reached fame in the United Kingdom in early 1965 with live performances on the pop TV series Ready Steady Go!.

Having signed with Pye Records in 1965, he recorded singles and two albums in the folk vein, after which he signed to CBS/Epic Records in the US – the first signing by the company's new vice-president Clive Davis – and became more successful internationally. He began a long and successful collaboration with leading British independent record producer Mickie Most, scoring multiple hit singles and albums in the UK, US, and other countries.His most successful singles were the early UK hits "Catch the Wind", "Colours" and "Universal Soldier" in 1965, written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. In September 1966 "Sunshine Superman" topped America's Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week and went to number two in Britain, followed by "Mellow Yellow" at US No. 2 in December 1966, then 1968's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" in the Top 5 in both countries, then "Atlantis", which reached US No. 7 in May 1969.

He became a friend of pop musicians including Joan Baez, Brian Jones and the Beatles. He taught John Lennon a finger-picking guitar style in 1968 that Lennon employed in "Dear Prudence", "Julia", "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and other songs. Donovan's commercial fortunes waned after parting with Most in 1969, and he left the industry for a time.

Donovan continued to perform and record sporadically in the 1970s and 1980s. His musical style and hippie image were scorned by critics, especially after punk rock. His performing and recording became sporadic until a revival in the 1990s with the emergence of Britain's rave scene. He recorded the 1996 album Sutras with producer Rick Rubin and in 2004 made a new album, Beat Cafe. Donovan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014. Wikipedia  

✵ 10. May 1946
Donovan photo
Donovan: 32   quotes 0   likes

Famous Donovan Quotes

“It seemed — in 1968 — the possibilities of peace and brotherhood could be realised that very year. We're still working on it.”

During a performance for "Beatle Week" in Liverpool (27 August 2006), as prelude to singing "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (YouTube video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu-18cP4164&mode=related&search=

“The softer you sing, the louder you're heard.”

Interview in the first issue Rolling Stone magazine (9 November 1967) http://books.google.com/books?id=LBXGGpvaDmcC&q=%22softer+you+sing%22#v=snippet&q=%22softer%20you%20sing%22&f=false; also in Pop Chronicles, Show 48 - The British are Coming! The British are Coming!: With an emphasis on Donovan, the Bee Gees and the Who. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19823/m1/

“Wear your love like heaven.”

"Wear Your Love Like Heaven"
A Gift from a Flower to a Garden (1967)

“I'll tell you right now
Any trick in the book now, baby, all that I can find…”

"Sunshine Superman"
Sunshine Superman (1966)

Donovan Quotes about the world

“There is a world consciousness.”

Donovan: "We are all one shining Being" (1998)
Context: Today I can’t comment on what the problem is in China, Russia, or Africa without realizing again and again the Diamond Sutra, which says that we look at the world and see it as separate but in fact, this is an illusion, but the reality is that we are one shining being. Until this can be understood, I can’t see any change. But I see some change now. There is a world consciousness. In the "old" New Age, they talked about the Age of Aquarius being an age of enlightenment. And now when a man goes to the moon he sees the earth. Before when someone did meditation he or she could meditate on the earth and the moon but now a man and a woman can see that we are on one planet and that the water is polluted and that the air is dirty. So these are changes that are important. But when we spoke about these things in the 60s people said we were dreamers.

“We are one, we are all brothers and sisters, but the people of the world do not know this.”

Donovan: "We are all one shining Being" (1998)
Context: We are one, we are all brothers and sisters, but the people of the world do not know this. So this was the teaching, but how do you teach it? As young people, John Lennon, George Harrison, myself, Carlos Santana and other spiritual seekers in pop music, we wanted to know the answer but we found a question: How do you convince the rest of the western world that they are ill, they are mentally ill, that they have a sickness and that they have lost the way? How do you teach that? You cannot teach that in the normal sense. You have to encourage a spiritual call, so we devoted ourselves to making songs which would have a spiritual call inside of them, hoping to awaken an awareness with this music. And other people in the arts felt the same...

Donovan Quotes

“I wanted to save our culture from the stupidity and the bigotry and the ignorance that threatened it.”

Grip interview (1997)
Context: The most important of my achievements, if you want to call them that, was that I successfully introduced mystical ideas into pop culture, which was my obsession and my compulsion when I was 16 years old. So, behind all of this fame and fortune, there was a seeker, on a spiritual path — a young man who wanted to discover and share with others an alternative way of looking at the world. I wanted to save our culture from the stupidity and the bigotry and the ignorance that threatened it. And there was the Buddhist way, and the Celtic way.

“Lord, kiss me once more, fill me with song
Allah, kiss me once more that
I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven”

"Wear Your Love Like Heaven"
A Gift from a Flower to a Garden (1967)
Context: Lord, kiss me once more, fill me with song
Allah, kiss me once more that
I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven
Wear my love like
Wear my love like heaven.

“The most important of my achievements, if you want to call them that, was that I successfully introduced mystical ideas into pop culture”

Grip interview (1997)
Context: The most important of my achievements, if you want to call them that, was that I successfully introduced mystical ideas into pop culture, which was my obsession and my compulsion when I was 16 years old. So, behind all of this fame and fortune, there was a seeker, on a spiritual path — a young man who wanted to discover and share with others an alternative way of looking at the world. I wanted to save our culture from the stupidity and the bigotry and the ignorance that threatened it. And there was the Buddhist way, and the Celtic way.

“We are magic. It is magic that we're walking around.”

Interview in Rolling Stone (9 November 1967)
Context: We are magic. It is magic that we're walking around. It's fantastic magic. Some people would call it miracles; I like to call it magic. … Yes, I'm very aware of this. Yes, the more aware I get, the more I can understand how big it is, how big it will get. It'll be harder to comprehend; that's why I have to go along with it, 'cause its so vast. To say to somebody that God is everything that lives and ever has lived and ever will live, and you're never going to touch and see, smell and be everything that is God. Magic is very hard to comprehend. <!-- Everyone's on their own, but they're not.

“In the chilly hours and minutes
Of uncertainty
I want to be
In the warm hold of your lovin' mind.”

Catch The Wind (1965)
Context: In the chilly hours and minutes
Of uncertainty
I want to be
In the warm hold of your lovin' mind. To feel you all around me
And to take your hand
Along the sand,
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

“Meditation is a lot better for you, and it's great to be straight.”

Grip interview (1997)
Context: Up to '67, the drugs were, uh, soft. Marijuana, and even LSD, I considered soft drugs then. But, then, after '67, needle drugs and the strong amphetamines came in, and that's when the Beatles and Donovan stood up and said, 'Try meditation instead.' And I still stick by that, of course. You've got to be very, very careful. I'm talking about naive days, before the drug barons and the dealers took over. It was once a small, bohemian event. But it was when millions started wanting to get high that it got bad. And when Haight-Asbury turned into Skid Row, the Beatles and me stood up and said, 'Give it a rest.' The answer is that each individual must face the problem by himself. And meditation is an alternative. Meditation is a lot better for you, and it's great to be straight.

“I'm talking about naive days, before the drug barons and the dealers took over. It was once a small, bohemian event.”

Grip interview (1997)
Context: Up to '67, the drugs were, uh, soft. Marijuana, and even LSD, I considered soft drugs then. But, then, after '67, needle drugs and the strong amphetamines came in, and that's when the Beatles and Donovan stood up and said, 'Try meditation instead.' And I still stick by that, of course. You've got to be very, very careful. I'm talking about naive days, before the drug barons and the dealers took over. It was once a small, bohemian event. But it was when millions started wanting to get high that it got bad. And when Haight-Asbury turned into Skid Row, the Beatles and me stood up and said, 'Give it a rest.' The answer is that each individual must face the problem by himself. And meditation is an alternative. Meditation is a lot better for you, and it's great to be straight.

“Histories of ages past
Unenlightened shadows cast.
Down through all eternity
The crying of humanity.”

In a performance during "Beatle Week" in Liverpool (27 August 2006), Donovan sang lyrics he declared that George Harrison had improvised for "Hurdy Gurdy Man":
Hurdy Gurdy Man (1967)
Context: Histories of ages past
Unenlightened shadows cast.
Down through all eternity
The crying of humanity.
'Tis then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Comes singing songs of love...

“The problems were very deep. They were nothing short of changing the way we look at reality.”

Donovan: "We are all one shining Being" (1998)
Context: When I was 14 or 15 I wanted to be a protest singer like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. My father was a socialist and worked with the unions. I thought change was to change the government and to change from one system, capitalism, to socialism and to make the poor of the world happy. But when I opened the book The Way of Zen by Alan Watts and I opened up the Diamond Sutra, and Lao Tsu’s Tao Te Ching, I realized that the problem of suffering was much deeper than governments and social problems. The problems were very deep. They were nothing short of changing the way we look at reality. Therefore I became a teacher, or a reflection of the teachings. Phil Ochs, the great protest singer, said I had given up protest, and Joan Baez said to Bob Dylan, “He’s given up protest.” But what I had given up was looking for the answer in social change. The change was to be a spiritual change. The suffering was coming from an erroneous view of reality...

“So these are changes that are important.”

Donovan: "We are all one shining Being" (1998)
Context: Today I can’t comment on what the problem is in China, Russia, or Africa without realizing again and again the Diamond Sutra, which says that we look at the world and see it as separate but in fact, this is an illusion, but the reality is that we are one shining being. Until this can be understood, I can’t see any change. But I see some change now. There is a world consciousness. In the "old" New Age, they talked about the Age of Aquarius being an age of enlightenment. And now when a man goes to the moon he sees the earth. Before when someone did meditation he or she could meditate on the earth and the moon but now a man and a woman can see that we are on one planet and that the water is polluted and that the air is dirty. So these are changes that are important. But when we spoke about these things in the 60s people said we were dreamers.

“Sunshine came softly through my a-window today
Could've tripped out easy a-but I've a-changed my ways”

"Sunshine Superman"
Sunshine Superman (1966)
Context: Sunshine came softly through my a-window today
Could've tripped out easy a-but I've a-changed my ways
It'll take time, I know it but in a while
You're gonna be mine, I know it, we'll do it in style
'Cause I made my mind up you're going to be mine.

“I'll pick up your hand and slowly blow your little mind
'Cause I made my mind up you're going to be mine.”

"Sunshine Superman"
Sunshine Superman (1966)

“Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be.”

Repeated chorus.
Atlantis (1968)

“For standin' in your heart
Is where I want to be
And long to be,
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.”

Catch The Wind (1965)
Context: When rain has hung the leaves with tears
I want you near to kill my fears,
To help me to leave all my blues behind. For standin' in your heart
Is where I want to be
And long to be,
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

“They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow…”

Mellow Yellow (1966)

“The magic that you hear in tales and things was all based around the Celtic mythology of England, which is Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.”

I just drain from that source. I just drain everything. So the magic is there.
Interview in Rolling Stone (9 November 1967)

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