![]() top ten within weeks of the RSG shows and remained there through most of April and May, impacting the U.S. "Catch the Wind" ('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.') was written for Linda Lawrence, a young woman in a relationship at the time with Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones (Donovan had met the band shortly after his star began to rise) the single hit the U.K. A contract with Pye records resulted Leitch wrote his own material, singing and playing acoustic guitar on most of the tracks he recorded. ![]() Albans and later Cornwall, north of London, he made the rounds using the singular name Donovan, performing folk music with a kazoo-playing friend from Hatfield, David Mills, who went by the nickname "Gypsy Dave." In 1964, the 18-year-old Donovan caught the eye of songwriter Geoffrey Stephens and his business partner Peter Eden and they began representing him an audition tape was sent to Elkan Allan of Ready Steady Go!, leading to three consecutive February '65 appearances on the highly influential TV series. The Glasgow-born adolescent lived in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England starting in the mid-1950s, becoming interested in folk music as it blossomed later in the decade. Entertaining art at the very least, his musical output over a four-year period in the latter half of the 1960s is abundant with mysterious imagery. From lines like 'Thrown like a star in my vast sleep' (from "Hurdy Gurdy Man"), one might suspect he purposely solicited a certain degree of bewilderment. The only thing we ever got close doing was that Mary Hopkin album.Deeply personal, often indecipherable lyrics are the rule rather than the exception for Scottish songsmith Donovan Philips Leitch meanings found in his songs (ranging from persuasive social commentary to cleverly-rhymed conundrums) vary greatly according to each person's point of view. (chuckles) Paul did the “Mellow Yellow” session and added the clap and the giggle. Rumor has it that Paul McCartney sang background on “Atlantis.”ĭonovan: No. Donovan, in a Jinterview with NMEįrom an interview with Goldmine, October 16, 2008: So it’s about being cool, laid-back, and also the electrical bananas that were appearing on the scene – which were ladies vibrators. ‘They call me Mellow Yellow, I’m the guy who can calm you down.’ Lennon and I used to look in the back of newspapers and pull out funny things and they’d end up in songs. His voice is likely somewhere in the mix at the end of the song amid the revelry.ĭonovan had recently helped out McCartney on another “Yellow” song: He provided the “sky of blue, sea of green” line in “ Yellow Submarine.” Both songs hit #2 US in 1966. McCartney dropped by the session and was captured on tape saying “Mellow Yellow” and doing some cheering. He was rumored to be the whispering voice saying “quite rightly,” but that was Donovan. Paul McCartney appears somewhere on this track, but it’s not clear where. Donovan had a small part in coming up with the lyrics for “ Yellow Submarine“, and McCartney played bass guitar (uncredited) on portions of Donovan’s Mellow Yellow album. Paul McCartney can be heard as one of the background revellers on this track, but the “quite rightly” whispering answering lines in the chorus is not McCartney but rather Donovan himself. This definition was re-affirmed in an interview with NME magazine: “it’s about being cool, laid-back, and also the electrical bananas that were appearing on the scene – which were ladies’ vibrators.” According to The Rolling Stone Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll, he admitted later the song made reference to a vibrator an “electrical banana” as mentioned in the lyrics. ![]() According to Donovan’s notes, accompanying the album Donovan’s Greatest Hits, the rumour that one could get high from smoking dried banana skins was started by Country Joe McDonald in 1966, and Donovan heard the rumour three weeks before “Mellow Yellow” was released as a single. ![]() The song was rumoured to be about smoking dried banana skins, which was believed to be a hallucinogenic drug in the 1960s, though this aspect of bananas has since been debunked. 1.) Outside the US, “Mellow Yellow” peaked at No. (Both Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys and Winchester Cathedral by The New Vaudeville Band kept it from hitting No. “ Mellow Yellow” is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. ![]()
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