I love Donovan (Donovan P. Leitch, Glasgow, Scotland, b. 5/10/1946), as do my mother and sisters. Great songs, clear delivery, smart guy, influential friend of Bob Dylan and John Lennon and many others. Apropos of yesterday's post on the Iraq War, here's a Donovan song from his 1965 EP, The Universal Soldier. The more things change. . . . .
"The War Drags On"
Let me tell you the story of a soldier named Dan.
Went out to fight the good fight in South Vietnam,
Went out to fight for peace, liberty and all,
Went out to fight for equality, hope, let's go,
And the war drags on.
Found himself involved in a sea of blood and bones,
Millions without faces, without hope and without homes.
And the guns they grew louder as they made dust out of bones
That the flesh had long since left just as the people left their homes,
And the war drags on.
They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
Last night poor Dan had a nightmare it seems.
One kept occurring and re-occurring in his dream:
Cities full of people burn and scream and shoutin' loud
And right over head a great orange mushroom cloud.
And there's no more war,
for there's no more world,
And the tears come streaming down.
Yes, I lie crying on the ground.
Today's Rune: Fertility.
Birthdays today include Erskine Caldwell's (1903-1987) -- Tobacco Road (1932).
Fiimaan illaah!
5 comments:
haha cool album cover!
"They call me mellow yellow."
I have a manager named Donovan. We call him "Mellow Yellow."
I comparisons between Donovan and Bob Dylan are interesting. I like Donovan, too, but he is not, in my opinion, Europe's Dylan. Have you seen "Don't Look Back"? In it, a naive Donovan is dying to play Dylan a song. The song is cute, and Dylan drawls "Hey, that's pretty good." Then Dylan goes on to play a song of his own (I think it's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue) and blows poor Donovan out of the water. Then, a nervous, broken Donovan sits quietly and smokes a cigarette.
By the way, I love the use of Donovan's "Atlantis" in Goodfellas. Amazing cinematic moment.
Weird that you should post on Donovan - Just yesterday I was actually listening to his (not so immortal) hit "Epistle to Dippy" which I have on my iPod, oddly enough, along with a couple of other Donovan tunes. I recall us listening to a tape of the entire "Sunshine Superman" album on a cross-country roadtrip. I think I had taped it from an original vinyl copy that my girlfriend's roomate Jackie had in college...
Donovan's always got slammed for being a Dylan wannabe, but I always thought his music was fun anyway.
Thanks, y'all, for the comments. Simon, I first saw Don't Look Back on the big screen at the Marquee Club in London and it was way cool. To me, both guys are cool. Dylan has more output and impact, but Donovan's still cool. "Colours," "Catcth the Wind," "Hurdy Gurdy Man," etc. EVAN! I rememeber that road trip well, indeed. Great stuff. I had a bunch of used Donivan records, no idea what happened to them . . . . .
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