Despite the breakthroughs by Bob Dylan and the Mothers of Invention in 1966, 1967 was not a banner year for the twin platter. In fact, I can only find one, but it is important, 'A Gift From a Flower to the Garden'. The absolute height of hippie indulgence. A masterpiece by Donovan Leitch.
Donovan has the unfortunate problem of being compared to the greatest artists of his generation. He is the butt of the joke in 'Don't Look Back', with Dylan at his snidest, putting him down. He was close friends of the Beatles, especially George and Paul. Looking beyond that, he was one of the most influential artists of his time in his own right.
His story is downright weird. Scottish, sickly, leaving home at sixteen, bumming around rural England with his friend Gypsy Dave, absorbing everything, especially the burgeoning Celtic guitar scene. Two guitarist were particularly influential, Davey Graham and Bert Jansch, also important for Led Zeppelin, Rory Gallagher, Richard Thompson, and countless others. The folk tradition was different in England than in America, based on ancient ballads and strange tunings more than labor songs and cowboy tunes.
Going from homeless to appearing on the 'Ready Steady Go' television show in a day when the producers were desperate for a Dylan copycat, Donovan proved to be much more. Rushed into studios by an exploitative manager, he recorded a barrage of Woody Guthrie and Buffy Saint Marie tunes while finding his own voice. Not yet eighteen, he was ripe of exploitation. They sold him as Britain's answer to Bob Dylan.
That's where the D.A. Pennebaker documentary comes in, capturing the 1965 Donovan frenzy getting steamrolled by Dylan. Joan Baez, recognizing his talent, keeps coming to Donovan's defense, especially at the Newport Folk Festival later that year. It may have lead to the power couple's breakup by the end of the year. It didn't matter; by his second album, Donovan had gone electric, although in small steps. Ventures into blues and jazz pop came early.
Let's get this straight; Donovan was no Dylan copycat. He came from a Celtic tradition. In addition, there was a jazz lilt to much of his work, as well as an openness to world music. Not yet eighteen years old, on the fast track to fame, it didn't take much for things to wrong. They did, horribly, even after he started writing songs on his second album, exerting his personal creativity. 'Sunny Goodge Street' is a particular standout, a melancholy mixture of jazz and pop, the template for his massive success in the next five years.
There was a separation from his first manager, his career taken over by his father. He was the first major British pop star to be busted for drugs, a year before the Rolling Stones. His landmark 'Sunshine Superman' album, cutting edge psychedelia full of sitar and mellotron, was delayed for over six months, back when that was a crucial amount of time in one's career. Teaming up with a new record label, the perfect producer for his sound in Mickey Most, and sensitive arrangers led by John Cameron and supplemented by John Paul Jones, and adding the best session musicians in England, including Jimmy Page. It was heaven, a nearly perfect album.
Instead of leading the psychedelic pack to fame and fortune, Donovan had to hide out from both the law and the lawsuits. Over six months with Gypsy Dave in the Greek Islands, finding out by telephone that he had a number one hit in both Europe and America. A follow up was quickly put together with the same team, 'Mellow Yellow'. Another major hit, he was now a star on both sides of the Atlantic.
That's when 'A Gift From a Flower to a Garden' comes in. Fame peaking, Donovan was not a happy guy. The love of his life, Linda, had moved away. Gypsy Dave stayed in Greece. Looking for something more, he was the first one interested in Eastern religion. It would be the first of a couple of key concepts the Beatles borrowed from him.
'From a Flower...' is the first true box set in rock history. It was also split into two albums by the record company because it was an expensive package. It was an actual box with inserts, hand drawn illustrations of all 22 songs with lyrics. The box opened up, two separate albums inside.
It's not a concept album, although there are two themed discs. The first one was similar to 'Sunshine Superman' and 'Mellow Yellow', this time heavier on jazz and organ. The big hit was 'Wear Your Love Like Heaven', indicative of the sound of that disc. It's another top notch collection of tunes, uniformly excellent. It sold very well when split off to a single disc.
The second platter is different, a collection called 'For Little Ones'. Not only was Donovan asking his fans to abstain from drugs on the album cover, he recorded twelve gentle acoustic pieces as a children's album. Nobody else was doing anything like this, anywhere. It's all of one piece and it's pretty good if you want to mellow out. The illustrated lyric sheets really add to this album.
Most influential was the actual presentation. George Harrison, in his massive and massively popular 'All Things Must Past" project, copied the format exactly, repeating it again on 'The Concert For Bangladesh.' It was the classy packaging of choice for all artists during the next couple of decades. Fold outs were fine, but an actual box set was the bomb.
The idea of doing children's albums stuck with Don. Not only did he star in Jacque Demy's 'The Pied Piper', which is really a little too grim to be strictly considered a children's movie, but he returned to the concept twice. The first one, 'H.M.S. Donovan', was another double album in 1972. Leaning more on nonsense nursery rhymes and Lewis Carrol this time, as well as emptying the closets of a great deal of leftover material from the last four years, it's the last really good album in his career until the Rick Rubin produced 'Sutras' in 1996.
Donovan rode out the 1960s near the top, with 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' being a particular favorite. There was a slight decrease in quality, probably due to the pressure of touring. There was conflict with Mickey Most; Don wanted to start producing himself, or at least having more say in how his music sounded. The team broke up during the 'Barabajagal' album, which still had some great material on it, as well as appearances by the Jeff Beck Group. But singles like 'Jennifer Juniper' and 'Atlantis' were too pop. That, along with too many appearances on primetime American television, including a one hour summer replacement special, made him seem unhip once Woodstock hit.
Away from Mickey Most, it was time to form a real band. Open Road was the result, a stab at Celtic rock that was highly influential to the likes of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. It's my favorite
of his albums. Too bad Donovan had his epiphany the next year, turning his back on fame, reuniting with his muse Linda, getting married, having kids, and eventually moving to the Mohave Desert. Albums kept coming out, but he was becoming a joke despite some occasional fine music.
He's lived long enough to become hip again, fortunately. Songs like 'Season of the Witch', 'Hurdy Gurdy Man', 'Get Thy Bearings', 'Colours' and 'There is a Mountain' were hugely influential. Groups from Jefferson Airplane to King Crimson to the Allman Brothers covered his songs. He chose family over fame. More power to him. And he still meditates every day.
The Beatles and Donovan had been friends since at least 1966, when he added lyrics to 'Yellow Submarine'. He was there for the crazy night that ended Sgt. Peppers, when they had a party to record the crescendo for 'A Day in the Life', as well as for the live broadcast of 'All You Need Is Love.' He produced an album for Mary Hopkins with Paul McCartney, who has remained a close friend to this day. George Harrison helped with the lyrics to 'Hurdy Gurdy Man'.
Donovan's greatest legacy may have been during his time with the Beatles in India, where he had the chance to show off his Celtic finger picking patterns. Only John took lessons. Paul would wander by, adapting things to his own style. George only wanted the chord patterns, not into playing with his fingers. The excellent songs inspired by this new approach form the backbone of the Beatle's most diverse and controversial album, 'The Beatles' aka 'The White Album'.
Songs like 'Dear Prudence', 'While My Guitar Gently Sleeps' and 'Blackbird' are just the tip of the iceberg of the Celtic guitar style invading the Beatles' style. They were ready for a change after a year of psychedelia, especially after the public disaster of 'Magical Mystery Tour' on British television. Stuck in India for weeks, they only had acoustic guitars. That, plus the Celtic patterns of Donovan, helped forge a very different album.
'The White Album' is the anti-Stg. Peppers. Not carefully constructed layer by layer, aiming for perfection, Instead organic, sloppy, sprawling, full of mistakes and random noise. They were all full of creativity, pumping out top notch material. John and Paul weren't writing together anymore, especially after Yoko entered the scene. George wanted more space to showcase his improving talents. Even Ringo came up with a decent song.
The riff between Paul and John is the stuff of legend. Everyone thinks it is about John hooking up with Avant Garde artist Yoko One. I think it was about divorcing Cynthia and leaving his child. The Beatles were notoriously clannish, bringing a tribe of Liverpudians to London with them, Cynthia was one of the oldest, having endured rough times as well as high tide and green grass. 'Hey Jude' was written by McCartney as a reaction to this separation, specifically about the effect on Julian Lennon. John thought it was about him instead. It went downhill from there.
The only one left out was George Martin, their world class producer. He had crafted their sound and encouraged their experimentation. There was a method involved; getting a good backing track, replacing all the instruments, adding sounds one layer at a time, achieving perfection. Now it was 109 takes of 'Not Guilty' a George song that didn't even make it on the album. Martin was miserable, handing much of the work to the engineers, letting the band produce themselves.
That was the trend at the time, spearheaded by the Rolling Stone and Jimi Hendrix, perfected by Led Zeppelin. Now the process was to capture a good room sound and band performance, interplay being more important than perfection. It was trying to capture the groove and the moment. Frankly, it didn't come naturally to the Beatles, especially two years distant from playing together on stage regularly. They really struggled to reach that point. Sooner or later, everyone involved quit or took a vacation.
In a radical move, many of the songs on the double disc set were demoed on acoustic guitar, along with a handful that didn't make the cut. This is the only incident of the Beatles extensively playing acoustic. Rough at times, but fascinating and heavily bootlegged, both where the music is fully formed and where it changed radically before ending up on the album. Both Paul and George kept writing during the sessions, John was busy with Yoko and a flirtation with heroin.
The end product spans nearly every type of music popular in 1968. Doo Wop, Beach Boys parody, heavy metal, gentle ballads, all blended together. It gets radical at times, mostly from John, starting with 'Happiness is a Warm Gun', ending with the apocalyptic 'Revolution 9. I love every second of it, but there is always the discussion of editing it down to one great album. Not me, brother.
It was also the end of the Beatles as a band. 'Let It Be', ugly and fatal, came next, such a bad experience that John quit while the rest walked away. their utopian dream of Apple turned into a nightmare, the devil appearing in the form of New York music sharpie Allan Klein. 'Abbey Road' is a great album, but it is four individuals coming together to produce one last masterpiece, rarely more than two together in the studio at one time. It's more polish than passion.
In retrospect, 'The White Album' is the definitive statement of the late Beatles, of the 1960s heading into the 1970s. It's the end of brotherhood and good vibes, the beginning of 'Helter Skelter'. It would be inevitable that the greatest band in the history of popular music would break up. They did so spectacularly, leaving behind two platters worth of masterpieces. Thank God for 'The White Album'.
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