He stepped off the merry-go-round in the early 70s before it turned into a treadmill, and recorded and toured intermittently. After the Happy Mondays sponsored his revival in the early 90s with a track on their Pills \u2019N\u2019 Thrills & Bellyaches album, Donovan recorded Sutras with producer Rick Rubin<\/a> in 1994. In 2008, he sat down with Classic Rock to look back over his cosmic journey and some of the larger-than-life characters he met along the way.<\/p>\n \n Brian Jones<\/p>\n One day in 1964 Brian Jones walked into a basement studio in Denmark Street. He had heard about this new kid on the block. He came in and saw what I was doing.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n He had a word with Elkan Allen at [TV pop show] Ready Steady Go. I went on for three weeks \u2013 completely live, no pre-recording. And that set me up. Afterwards I met a girl, Linda Lawrence, who would become my muse and wife. She\u2019d had a child with Brian. I didn\u2019t even know this when I met her. There was a very interesting karmic triangle going on. And next year we\u2019ll be celebrating that triangle \u2013 the 40th anniversary of Brian\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Bob Dylan<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t like you see in the Don\u2019t Look Back film. We had met before, briefly. Folk met rock when Dylan, Joan Baez and myself were together that May in 1965. I\u2019d already had a hit with Catch The Wind, and Bob and Joan, who were both album artists, released singles \u2013 Joan had There But For Fortune and Dylan\u2019s was The Times They Are A Changing. It was clear that Bob was going to go electric and I was going to go electric folk jazz. It was also clear what we were going to do with it, too, because a few days later Bob introduced me to The Beatles.<\/p>\n \n Donovan with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, The Beatles and their entourage in India in 1968 (Image credit: Keystone Features\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)The Beatles<\/p>\n Martin Lewis, the legendary Beatleographer, told me: \u201cYou don\u2019t know this, Don, but you had more social, musical and spiritual contact with these four guys than anyone of your generation.\u201d At the time, of course, we were young and crazy and we didn\u2019t know how long it was going to last.<\/p>\n \n This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock issue 128 (January 2009) (Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n George and I were closest because of our spiritual paths and the books we were both reading. John was fascinating to be around; he didn\u2019t suffer fools gladly. Paul was full of light and energy and jokes and we would constantly be jiving each other. We tried to write songs together but it was impossible, because every idea I had sparked him off and every idea he had sparked me off.<\/p>\n But the real deal happened in India. George said later that you can hear me all over the White album. We only had the acoustic guitars, and that\u2019s when we really got to know each other.<\/p>\n Marc Bolan<\/p>\n Marc asked if he could open for me when I played the Royal Albert Hall. That was with T. Rex and they sat crossed-legged on the floor, much like me. But sleeping inside Marc Bolan was a little rock\u2019n\u2019roll guy. We met again on his rise to fame in a funky little flat near Marble Arch. He\u2019d brought two little metal dinosaur toys back from Tokyo and said: \u201cDo you want a battle?\u201d\u2019 We got these two tin T. Rex\u2019s going at each other, and they made all the roaring sounds and out of their mouths came little puffs of talcum powder.<\/p>\n I made a recording with him in Munich about a year before he died, a rock version of Lalena, but it\u2019s lost. I asked his son Roland if it had been found but there\u2019s no sign of it.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Mickie Most<\/p>\n Mickie Most was the Phil Spector of Britain. He was very experimental. We were introduced by Allen Klein as part of a deal. Allen said: \u201cHere\u2019s your producer.\u201d Mickie said: \u201cI\u2019ll pick the singles and you do what you want on the albums.\u201d And that opened a whole world for me.<\/p>\n The studio became a bohemian painter\u2019s studio for me. And Mickie would say: \u201cI\u2019ll have that one\u201d \u2013 Mellow Yellow, Sunshine Superman, Hurdy Gurdy Man. I didn\u2019t know whether they were popular songs or not; Mickie knew. And he had this instinctive sense: \u201cTake that out, put that in.\u201d And it worked. I wish he was still here. I\u2019d like to make another record with him.<\/p>\n NEW \ud83d\udcc0 Hurdy Gurdy Man – Donovan {Stereo} Summer 1968 – YouTube Watch On <\/a> Our initial meeting was a little strained. He\u2019d come in to arrange Mellow Yellow and it had this great New Orleans thump to it. But when I listened to the playback something sounded wrong. I didn\u2019t know what it was. So I\u2019m frowning, and John is glaring at me because he thought he\u2019d done something wrong. I said: \u201cNo, it\u2019s just that there\u2019s something\u2026 not mellow.\u201d And Mickie Most is going: \u201cWell for fuck\u2019s sake find out what it is.\u201d And then one of the horn players says: \u201cI know what Don means. We gotta put the hats on.\u201d And Mickie goes: \u201cFor Christ\u2019s sake, what\u2019s an \u2019at?\u201d And the main horn player says: \u201cThe mutes, Mickie, the mutes.\u201d So they did it again with the mutes and everyone went: \u201cWow.\u201d Now it was mellow.<\/p>\n Jeff Beck<\/p>\n When Mickie Most first heard Barabajagal he couldn\u2019t make head nor tail of it. He was working on [Jeff Beck\u2019s album] Beck-Ola at the time and suggested that he bring the band in to see what they could do. So one morning the band troop in, except for Jeff, and I played them the chords. Eventually Jeff ambles in, sits down and doesn\u2019t say a word. Mickie Most says: \u201cOkay Jeff, get your guitar out.\u201d Jeff looks around and says: \u201cWhere is it?\u201d The roadies had dropped off the other instruments but not Jeff\u2019s guitar. It was locked up in a van in Manchester. Jeff says: \u201cI suppose we could rent one.\u201d So the call went out: Jeff Beck needs a great Fender Stratocaster. One showed up and we did the session.<\/p>\n Nigel Kennedy<\/p>\n He played at the Proms, and Jeff Beck made an appearance and they were going to play a song dedicated to me that opens his new album but they ran out of time. Linda and I have been friends with Nigel and his wife, Agnieszka, for years. Whenever I go to his concerts we play an acoustic version of Hurdy Gurdy Man and he plays his wild violin.<\/p>\n \n Jimi Hendrix onstage in 1967 (Image credit: Bob Baker\/Redferns))Jimi Hendrix<\/p>\n I saw him at [London club] the Bag O\u2019Nails. Everyone was there: the Stones, The Beatles, The Who, the Kinks. Chas [Chandler, Hendrix\u2019s manager] had invited everyone. He\u2019d put this thing together. He told me: \u201cI\u2019ve got a jazz drummer and a bass player who\u2019s a guitar player.\u201d And it was quite incredible. Such a superb blend of musicians.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t see him much after that because we all went on the road and we all got famous and our paths only crossed occasionally. But when I wrote Hurdy Gurdy Man I thought of Jimi. I said to Mickie Most: \u201cThis is for Hendrix.\u201d And he said: \u201cNo it isn\u2019t, it\u2019s for you.\u201dSo I said: \u201cLet\u2019s get Hendrix to play on it.\u201d Mickie phoned Chas who said: \u201cJimi\u2019s playing shows back-to-back.\u201d So we got Jimmy Page. And aren\u2019t we happy about that. Because what came out of that, thanks to Jimmy, Mickie Most and John Paul Jones, was something that was pagan Celtic rock\u2019n\u2019roll, not a copy of American rock\u2019n\u2019roll.<\/p>\n Shaun Ryder<\/p>\n I was doing a gig in Manchester when my son Julian, Brian Jones\u2019s boy, said: \u201cThere\u2019s five guys in a van out the back and they say they\u2019ve come to take you to the Hacienda.\u201d I said: \u201cI remember Manchester but I don\u2019t remember a hacienda there. So not this time, boys.\u201d<\/p>\n I got to know Shaun and his brother Paul later and when I listened to the Happy Mondays. Linda and I realised they were the Rolling Stones of the 80s. You could hear that they were going to be the ones to lead the way. And then Shaun and Paul fell in love with our two daughters. Which was rather frightening at first because we didn\u2019t know how they would take to Manchester madness. But Linda wasn\u2019t scared. Oriole and Shaun fell in love and fell out of love but they produced a beautiful girl called Coco.<\/p>\n Rick Rubin<\/p>\n He called me up in 1994 and said: \u201cDo you want to make a record?\u201d And I wondered who he was. Then I found out that he was meditating, just like David Lynch and I. And when I went to his house I found that his bookshelves were full of books on spiritual paths and meditation. He is a major talent. He said very little but we made beautiful music and created the Sutras album. It was a pivotal time in my career because I realised that I wanted to continue to make records on this level. I had kind of dropped out a little but I came back with Rick. I\u2019d rank Rick with Mickie Most, George Martin and Phil Spector. Because he listens to the song. He knows the song is everything. He also knows what he wants, but he also wants the artist to come forward and he knows that he mustn\u2019t get in the way.<\/p>\n Donovan \u201cPlease Don’t Bend\u201d Live From The Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival – YouTube Watch On <\/a> David and I are both outsiders within our own art. He\u2019s an outsider in the film world, and nobody can put their finger on what I actually do. That\u2019s given us quite a bond, and we have teamed up to promote transcendental meditation.<\/p>\n Originally published in Classic Rock issue 128, January 2009<\/p>\n![\"Classic](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Mm2aXHnAcTD5rV3KPSXBUP.png\")
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\nDavid Lynch<\/p>\n