We’re going to play a game. Guess the lyricist whose hit song is about a yellow female pleasure instrument. Appalled? Yes, and it is even funnier that he is the #88th greatest lyricist of all time. Guess the lyrics actually sounds like an intriguing idea. How about we do a section here where we post lyrics and you guess what song they came from. Oh wait! My roommate had that same idea and is going to be running that exact section a couple of days a week, one of them that is already posted. Don’t you feel fooled. Okay, that was simply stupid. Let us get to the lyricist.
Did you guess who it was? Do they call him mellow yellow? Yes, they do, and his name is Donovan Leitch, a.k.a Donovan or British Bob Dylan. That title of British Bob Dylan has tracked Donovan’s music for the majority of his career which began as a young busker (street performer) in 1964. Late in that same year he recorded ten tracks for Pye Records in London, one of which included my favorite Donovan song entitled “Catch the Wind.”
Can you imagine that conversation?
The album also revealed Donovan’s tribute to both Woody Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, two men who particularly influenced both Dylan and Donovan. Dylan, Donovan, same interests in music, similar folk music style. Get the comparisons.
Yet, in 1966, Donovan became simply Donovan. Dylan’s folk comparisons dropped and Donovan became a British “flower power” machine. His music also switched to a fusion of eastern music, jazz, blues, and mainly pop. The psychedelic “Sunshine Superman” was released, conga, harpsichord and sitar was introduced, and some very odd lyrics started to pop up in his music. Lyrics that we will profile right now. How does that sound?
Like the majority of these lyricist profiles I would like to focus on two different songs. With Donovan this is not tough to accomplish. Let us focus first on an abstract song entitled “Atlantis,” which may actually be about love but more about love’s concept. Here are some lyrics
“The continent of Atlantis was an island
which lay before the great flood
in the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean.
So great an area of land, that from her western shores
those beautiful sailors journeyed
to the South and the North Americas with ease,
in their ships with painted sails.
To the East Africa was a neighbour, across a short strait of sea miles.
The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian culture.
The antediluvian kings colonised the world
All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas
In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis.
Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the Earth.
On board were the Twelve:
The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.
Though Gods they were –
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind
Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new
Hail Atlantis!”
If you listen to the song you will realize that the lyrics are spoken. Yes, it still counts as a song. Yet, look deeply into the lyrics. The words represent a tender, beautiful ode to a land long lost. The people who left the land of Atlantis knowing their fate are attempting to spread their knowledge and civilization to the far reaches of an unknown world. If you listen to some more lyrics in the song you will notice that Donovan starts singing about his “antediluvian baby.” Antediluvian means old by the way. This can establish that Donovan is searching for some sort of true love that may still be in this mysterious island of Atlantis. The love goes directly into the next song, “Catch the Wind.”
“Catch the Wind” first appeared on the horribly misspelled “What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid,” where it hit success as a single. Here are some lyrics:
“In the chilly hours and minutes
Of uncertainty
I wanna be
In the warm hold of your Loving mind.
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.
When sundown pales the sky
I wanna hide a while
Behind your smile,
And everywhere I’d look, your eyes I’d find.
For me to love you now
Would be the sweetest thing,
‘T would make me sing,
Ah but I may as well try and catch the wind.”
The simplicity of this song makes it good. Donovan is demonstrating his love in the song and is also realizing that while he wants her so badly he is attempting to catch the wind. Catching the wind is pretty impossible and this is an unfortunate subject in an otherwise beautiful song.
“Atlantis”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leI7sfmipuI&feature=fvst
“Catch the Wind”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LREIPfDLYks
The Music Court 
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