Album #11: The Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968)
Donovan
Genre: Folk Rock
Dedicated to MB Member:
1. "The Hurdy Gurdy Man"
2. "Peregrine"
3. "The Entertaining of a Shy Girl"
4. "As I Recall It"
5. "Get Thy Bearings”
6. "Hi It's Been a Long Time"
7. "West Indian Lady"
Side Two
1. "Jennifer Juniper"
2. "The River Song"
3. "Tangier"
4. "A Sunny Day"
5. "The Sun Is a Very Magic Fellow"
6. "Teas"
From the first acoustic strums of the A chord on the opening\title track, Hurdy Gurdy Man is a misstep off the curb spraining the metaphorical listening ankles of all who indulge. For those who have never, imagine David Bowie a decade prior to his debut, or Beck born thirty years earlier, and you’ll be close enough. Donovan Leitch followed his smash hits “Mellow Yellow” and “Sunshine Superman” with this open over looked but in retrospect outstanding sixth studio effort; 1968’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man”.
The same influences that powered his early releases; peace, love, flower power and the rest of 1960’s culture, are present in this album any in many ways it’s mundane in that regard. But the defining element of this album is an often misreported story about the title track, the visit to India that inspired it, and the set of collateral circumstances including Donovan’s admiration for the Beatles that may have been responsible for the explosion of Led Zeppelin on the Rock & Roll scene in the months and years to come.
Hurdy Gurdy Man draws it’s name not directly from the instrument donning it’s name but as an ode to Mac MacLeod, a musical mentor of Donovan’s who had formed a band called “Hurdy Gurdy” , after the instrument of course. Inspired by the Beatles and John Lennon’s relationship with the Maharishi Mahesh and his teachings, Leitch traveled to India and found inspiration for his music and realized that inspiration while playing with Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones. The trio were part time studio musicians for Donovan in the time he was recording the album. The album credits and Leitch himself credit them as having played on the title track, however Jones the songs musical director clarified that while Page and Bonham did play the song several times in studio the recorded version actually features Alan Parker on lead guitar and Clem Cattini on drums. All four have confirmed this now and it was Jones who in fact booked the musicians for much of the album. Regardless the three Jones, Bonham and Page had joined Robert Plant and formed Zeppelin before this record hit the shelves.
Speaking frankly “Hurdy Gurdy Man” is more an exception then a rule for Donovan and even the album itself; but it embodies the movement and the time which was always Leitch’s aspiration. The use of the Tambura, the production and arrangement of Jones, who also stole the show on the hit singles “Mellow Yellow” and “Sunshine Superman” and the imagination of Donovan. The whining psychedelic guitar and the heavy guitar, drum and bass rhythm on which it lays are ahead of their time and reason enough to check the album out if the era appeals to or interests you.