Washington DC’s ‘Godfather of Go-Go’ passed on today. We featured photos of Chuck in last year’s Bustin’ Loose exhibition of photographs by Fernando Sandoval at Govinda Gallery. Chuck Brown created a music style that will never be forgotten. R.I.P.
Copyright ©Fernando Sandoval. All Rights Reserved.
Chuck Brown August 22, 1936 – May 16, 2012.
Doug Aitkins: Song 1
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Seventh Street and Independence Ave SW
Marc 22nd, 2012 – May 20th, 2012
Copyright ©Eric Long. All Rights Reserved.
We went to see Doug Aitken’s film Song 1, a 360-degree projection on the exterior of the Hirshhorn Museum’s building. May 20th is the last chance to see Song 1 at the Hirshhorn. We enjoyed the projection and watched it sitting in between the Air and Space Museum and the Hirshhorn.
May 18th has been designated as International Museum Day and Govinda Gallery joins in the celebration of museums. We are going to spotlight a few museum exhibitions and events this week that we enjoy a connection to.
Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage
American Art Museum, 2nd floor South
January 20th, 2012 – May 20th, 2012
Elvis’ 1957 Harley-Davidson Hydra Glide motorcycle, Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee. Copyright ©Annie Leibovitz. All Rights Reserved.
I enjoyed seeing Pilgrimage very much. I am interested in places and objects associated with creative and innovative people, and Annie Leibovitz’s photographs in Pilgrimage explore that milieu. Leibovitz’s Pilgrimage exhibition ends this weekend at the American Art Museum in Washington DC.
Govinda Gallery hosted Annie Leibovitz’s first three exhibitions; Annie Leibovitz: Photographs in 1984, Annie Leibovitz: Photographs in 1987, and The White Oak Dance Project, Photographs in 1992. The more I think about those exhibitions at Govinda the more I realize what compelling shows they were and what a special time it was for photography. Here is a link to an early interview with Annie in a local Washington D.C. magazine called Fashion Flash, during her first exhibition at Govinda Gallery in 1984.
Photographer Annie Leibovitz and Govinda Gallery Director Chris Murray, Govinda Gallery, 1984. Copyright ©The Govinda Gallery Archives. All Rights Reserved.
Annie Leibovitz: Under The Surface
An Interview by Douglas Clegg for Fashion Flash Magazine
December 1984
Annie Leibovitz glances about the Govinda Gallery in Georgetown, her framed celebrity portraits blanketing the floor. She and gallery owner Chris Murray have spent most of the afternoon conferring on the best arrangement of the pictures. “It’s amusing to me to see this stuff together,” Annie says, “it takes on a life of its own that I could not have predicted. I like looking at a group of them together, and I think that’s when they become strong and interesting… I would hope that as time passes you’d be able to look at the pictures and get a sense or feel for a time or my lifetime. Through fashion or style, even.” Beginning in 1970, Annie Leibovitz went to work for Rolling Stone magazine, and by 1973 was their chief photographer. More recently, she has become the photographer for the revived Vanity Fair magazine. She is the photo-iconographer of rock and roll, of sports, politics and pop. Annie’s show at the Govinda Gallery is drawn from work over the past five years. It includes her Olympic athlete studies of Carl Lewis and Mary Decker, her recent portrait of artist David Hockney, Better Midler on an endless bed of roses, Meryle Streep tugging at a latex facial mask, James Taylor and Carly Simon horsing around on Martha’s Vineyard, and a very muddy Lauren Hutton. Our interview took place in the gallery’s office, with Rodney Dangerfield and the Who looking on from their frames. Annie talked about cores and surfaces in relation to her work, and injected a good deal of humor and self depreciation when she felt that she was getting too serious.
Daniel Clegg: I’ll begin with the obvious. How did you first become involved in celebrity portraits?
Annie Leibovitz: It was all Rolling Stone magazine… I was going to school in San Francisco, the San Francisco Art Institute, as a painter. The second year in school I took night classes in photography and got involved in it. I found it much more exciting than painting, I was a rotten painter. Rolling Stone came out of San Francisco, it was like the local magazine to me and I guess it was the big dream to work for them. I had a portfolio of pictures that I worked on from a six month stay on a kibbutz in Israel during my junior year in college. It wasn’t really college in those days, I have to tell you. It was during the Vietnam War and it was pretty crazy. My humanities class was taking a bottle of wine to the park and drinking… Anyway, it seemed like quite the natural thing to do to show Rolling Stone my work. I didn’t realize they were hard up for photographers, and they used me right away. And the rest is history. I was so scared I just never stopped. When I left Rolling Stone I had sort of a light year working for Vanity Fair, but now I feel like I’m doing more work than I’ve ever done before and I’m at my peak performance powers now.
D.C.: Just looking around at these photographs in the gallery, has anyone ever been really angry with the way you’ve portrayed them?
A.L.: I think there have been times when, not that it’s been a battle, but it’s really been like I always knew what was better for somebody… it works like therapy in a certain way. Not that I was trying to play God, but I think there were times that I could come up with something that they didn’t want to look at often but when they saw it, it was a relief. Now, since the book has come out and this show, I really feel much more comfortable with my work. I really am quite happy at this point to do pretty straightforward portrait work. I don’t know what that is, because even when I try a straightforward approach it looks a bit strange. It’s harder to do something that doesn’t pop out at you. You have to really remember that all this stuff is magazine work. I’m glad to have a set of prints made out of it, because from an archival point of view, it’s an interesting collection. But because it was originally done for magazines it had to be exaggerated. Working for Rolling Stone for years, I really got to know what looked good in a magazine.
D.C.: Being a magazine child, do you ever feel artistic impulses pulling you in an opposite direction from editorial limitations?
A.L.: No, I’ve always been spoiled rotten that way. I pretty much do what I want. I’ve had the best schooling you could possibly have. I was working when there were no Life or Look, in the early seventies; most photographers had to appear in Time or Newsweek and there was no room there for big photographs.
D.C.: The writer Isak Dinesen said something to the effect that we are known by the masks we wear. In your work, the most obvious example is the very famous Meryl Streep picture, in which she pinches and tugs at an actual mask. Do you feel that you’re portraying something about a celebrity that the public already knows?
A.L.: I feel comfortable doing the most obvious thing. I mean, who else is doing them? I’d like to think of myself as doing portrait work for the rest of my life. Maybe 20 years from now you’ll look at it and it will have its point. I think it’s fine enough to take the image that’s at hand and photograph that. To a certain extent, I don’t think you can get much deeper than that.
Meryl Streep, 1981. Copyright ©Annie Leibovitz. All Rights Reserved.
D.C.: Do you ever feel you are creating an image for a subject?
A.L.: With some of them, I have tampered with their image but I think with age and experience you learn there is enough already there. Again, it may be exaggerated for the picture. I think what I’m best at is surmising something that I see right away and doing that. The Blues Brothers are blue, so I painted them blue. It’s the stupidest thing you could possibly do. But to say it is one thing. To actually look at it is different. It was successful at its time. Whether this stuff is going to last is something else.
D.C.: When you have a photographic subject, and these are all very famous people, what kind of give and take goes on? Do you say, “I have this idea, let’s sit down and discuss it?
A.L.: They pretty much know what is expected. I just worked with Diane Keaton and we had a great time because she really waned to almost not be in the picture… This was for a Vanity Fair cover. The cover is not a ‘photograph’, but a completely different problem. The cover was problem-solving. Somehow or another, we did a really nice piece of work together. I had a list of ideas. She’s always evading the press or hiding, and I always saw her in the corner of this picture. She did a book called Reservations, about hotel rooms. So I saw one of those rooms with her practically not I the picture. You have to look in the room and say, “Where is Diane Keaton?’ It seemed like the natural thing to do and she really liked the idea. That’s one kind of photograph. I don’t know if it’s necessary to work that closely with people. When they want to work like that, it’s a lot of fun. With the Hall of Fame in Vanity Fair, I had fifteen minutes with Mario Cuomo. Of course, it looks like it!
D.C.: Do you show favoritism, or the reverse? Are there certain celebrities that you’ve had to work with with whom you felt uncomfortable?
A.L.: Yes, but being in business long enough, you realize that just because you dislike someone, it’s no reason to take a bad picture. You can show dislike. Actually, I didn’t really like Rodney Dangerfield’s personality, but that picture was a turning point for me because I was able to express my dislike with a crying baby. I learned something from Richard Avedon. He did a shooting with Fleetwood Mac for the cover of Rolling Stone and he had said it was the worst session he had ever had in his life, they were the rudest people, they wouldn’t sit long enough. Then I saw the picture, and it was a great picture. I learned there was no reason not to get a great picture, you’re a professional. I find that professionalism leaves more room for creativity. The more disciplined I am with my working relationships, the more productive I can become.
D.C.: Do you ever stand back and think, “This is fun, what a great way to make a living?”
A.L.: More so than ever. This week I happen to be really happy in my work. I want to be grateful for everything that’s going on… But it’s a tremendous amount of work. It looks glamorous and it’s not. You succeed if it looks easy. My organization is better now, I have a good assistant, and the people at Vanity Fair have been great… I don’t think there’s any magic to my work, though. It really has been that I work hard. (She adds facetiously) And I have no personal life and go home and make myself lean cuisine dinners.
D.C.: Do you ever find that that is the case?
A.L.: That was true when I was working at Rolling Stone. I had no time to catch up with myself and find out what I wanted to do. I do have more of a personal life now. But it’s so easy to just want to work all the time because I feel much more comfortable working.
D.C.: What direction would you like your work to take in the future?
A.L.: I’d like to do something more project oriented. Take three, four months. The last time I did that was the Rolling Stone tour in ’75. I think then I took some of the most interesting pictures, journalistically, of my career. But I like to stay on the outside and look at the image. The core is not always as interesting as the image. It gets scary a little bit under the surface.
D.C.: What would be the nature of your project?
A.L.: My father was in the Air Force (her parents now live in Silver Spring, MD) and in my youth we did a great deal of traveling around the country. I still do. If you look at my pictures I think it’s a study of American pop culture. I would love to do some updated Farm Security Commission, drive across country and spend time really looking at it. I’ve had false starts on this project. Everytime I think I’m going to go off for a month I realize just how big this country is… Avedon had a criticism of me that he thought I was going to burn myself out doing this stuff, and that’s it’s important to have projects. But I haven’t really stopped (with the portraiture). I think that this is enough to do in one lifetime. I really feel that I’m doing a service with this. I’d be quite happy to continue doing this for the rest of my life.
D.C.: Are there any dream subjects that you’d love to photograph?
A.L.: The Pope. Really. I’ve been trying to get the Pope for some time… (she looks around the room at the pictures) I can’t compete with these pictures anymore. It’s like I go out now and I don’t want to put people in mud baths (referring to the Lauren Hutton portrait in which a semi-nude Hutton wallows up to the neck in mud).
D.C.: I had been wondering how that one came about…
A.L.: She was going down to visit her family’s land in Oxford, Mississippi. She was finishing up her career as a fashion model and going into acting at the time, and anyone who knows that she’s a real down-to-earth girl. So I always planned to do something very natural with her, no makeup, no fancy clothes. She’s famous for just wearing jeans and men’s shirts. Originally, I had planned on shooting her in water. Just a natural study. There was a little lake on the edge of her family’s property. We were about ready to shoot in the water and there was this mud over to the side. We decided to have her lie in the mud. It’s such a great metaphor for her because she’s wearing the earth instead of Oscar de la Renta. (Annie Leibovitz, celebrity portrait artist, pauses and sighs) I feel that people have the right to look as good as they can.
Lauren Hutton, Nude, Oxford, Mississippi, 1981. Copyright ©Annie Leibovitz. All Rights Reserved.
Washington Post Art Critic Paul Richard with Annie Leibovitz at her first Govinda Gallery exhibition in 1984. Copyright ©The Govinda Gallery Archives. All Rights Reserved.
During the same weekend as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, the new state-of-the-art Library and Archives of the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened. What a treasure this new facility is! The new library and archives is an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars, as well as anyone interested in the history and development of Rock and Roll. Located at the Cuyahoga Community College, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has taken a giant leap forward with the opening of their library and archives. Congratulations to everyone at the RRHFM and the Foundation, for establishing such a significant venue for the serious study and preservation of the musical history of Rock and Roll and American music.
In honor of Donovan’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Govinda Gallery recently donated a copy of Donovan’s Sapphographs catalogue to the Library and Archives, originally published by The Cavan County Council Arts Office for Donovan’s exhibition at the Cavan County Museum in Ireland.
Library and Archives director Andy Leach gave me and Govinda artist Carlotta Hester a tour of the facility. Here are a few photos from that visit.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Library and Archives.
RRHFM Museum curatorial director Howard Kramer with the Peer Music publishing family and Govinda Gallery Director Chris Murray at the Library and Archives. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Library and Archives director Andy Leach showing the original architectural plans for Gold Star Studios where Phil Spector created the “Wall of Sound”. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Library and Archives director Andy Leach, Catalog and Metadata Librarian Amanda Raab and Chris Murray enjoying Alfred Wertheimer’s book Elvis at 21 in the library’s special collections. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Donovan and his wife Linda after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
The Renaissance Hotel in Cleveland was abuzz with Donovan as it’s guest for his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with other hotel guests Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra (the “house band” for the induction ceremony), the NBA’s Orlando Magic with our old friend from Georgetown, Patrick Ewing, and fifty two-man teams from the 19th Annual Montana Lineman’s Rodeo. Quite a scene at the Renaissance, to say the least.
Donovan was introduced at the Induction Ceremony at Cleveland’s Public Hall by John Mellencamp, who said that “Donovan was my inspiration”. He talked of Donovan’s “beautiful song writing… like nobody else’s, and a style that Donovan brought that was nothing like it before and nothing like it ever since”. Mellencamp also spoke of Donovan’s “message of peace that spread all over the world”.
As Donovan took the stage after Mellencamp’s introduction, he received a standing ovation from the audience of 6,500 people, before he even said a word. What a wonderful moment it was. After reciting a beautiful acceptance poem Donovan performed three songs to an ecstatic audience, and his special magic was in the air. He performed “Catch the Wind” on a vintage J-45 Gibson accompanied by stand-up bass, followed by a crowd pleasing “Sunshine Superman” performed with Paul Shaffer and the band, and then a haunting “Season of the Witch”, featuring a brilliant solo on the organ by Paul Schaffer and back up vocals by John Mellencamp. Donovan rocked the house.
You can see the entire ceremony honoring Donovan this Saturday on HBO, along with the Small Faces, Laura Nyro,The Beastie Boys, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns n’ Roses, and a tribute to Freddie King.
We reproduce here Donovan’s poem written as his acceptance speech, along with photos from the rehearsal, concert, and backstage, as well as some other memorabilia.
Front and back covers for the 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony program.
Members of the Paul Shaffer band in the Renaissance Hotel lobby preparing to leave for Cleveland’s Public Hall. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Fans seeking Donovan’s autograph en route to the Induction Ceremony. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Kid Rock and Donovan at rehearsal outside the Public Hall. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Donovan’s son Donovan Leitch, Govinda Gallery Director Chris Murray, and Clear Channel President John Sykes in the dressing room. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons with Donovan. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Billy Gibbons signing an autograph for Donovan and Linda’s grandson Joolz. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Linda sitting with luthier Danny Ferrington’s custom made electric guitar on which Donovan performed “Season of the Witch”, while Chris Murray admires Billy Gibbons ring. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Linda and ZZ Top’s Dusty Rhodes. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Peer Music’s Ralph Peer and his son Ralph with Donovan’s wife Linda. Peer Music is Donovan’s long time music publisher. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Donovan’s daughter Astrella Celeste and husband Jason Rothberg with Linda in Cleveland’s Public Hall before the concert. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Some of the audience (clockwise from lower right): Robbie Robertson, John Mellencamp, Bette Midler, L.L. Cool J, Ben Harper, Kid Rock, and Steven Van Zandt. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Ronnie Wood getting an earful from Flea during the tribute to Freddie King… while Dereck Trucks takes a solo. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Silence Please! Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Ronnie Wood greets Linda backstage. Woody had his first ever exhibition in the U.S. at Govinda Gallery. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Donovan Leitch Jr. celebrating his father’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Green Day’s Tre Cool seems possessed by Donovan’s induction statue… soon Tre, soon. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Chris Rock, who introduced the Red Hot Chili Peppers, feels the weight of Donovan’s award. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Chris Murray after Donovan’s induction. Congratulations Donovan! Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Donoavn, Linda, and Astrella relaxing in their room after the induction ceremony. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Acceptance Poem
“From my wandering days on lonely sands
where I sang my song to the moon and stars
To the world’s great stage , hounoured am I
to sing my song to a million fans
Always my wish to be of service
to ease emotion deep in the heart
Always your poet , a shaman am I
to lead us all to the realm within
Yet I was branded for my beauty
yet protected by my art
Many plundered me for booty
only one did steal my heart
How she keeps it in her casket
still remains a mystery
Like the moonrise in a sunset
like the silence of the sea
Thank you for this bright green laurel
resting now upon my brow
Thank you Goddess , thank you Muses
thank you … Fellow Artists All”
- Donovan Leitch Copyright ©All Rights Reserved.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Acceptance Poem
Cleveland, Ohio
April 14 2012
I was in Cleveland last week for Donovan’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It was an amazing time… Donovan’s acceptance speech and performance, the induction concert and backstage scene, a tour of the just opened Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archive, not to mention the incredible talent assembled for the 2012 induction ceremonies… it was an unforgettable few days. On April 10th, the day before we arrived, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland’s leading newspaper, published a feature story on Donovan, written by pop-music critic John Soeder. We present the story here in full for you to enjoy. More to come on the other activities.
Tuesday, April 10th 2012
27th ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS: DONOVAN
Mellow poet still believes the ’60s dream
Inward-looking lyrics generated big hits
By John Soeder
Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic
Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and Donovan, 1968. Copyright ©Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Donovan is on a first name basis not only with the rest of the world, but with music history. “It was Joanie who introduced me to Bobby, and it was Bobby who introduced me to the four guys,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bound singer-songwriter said.
Joanie? That would be Joan Baez. Bobby? Bob Dylan, naturally. And the four guys? None other than John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
“The Beatles and I became fast friends,” Donovan said.
“We saw in each other this talent. …We came from different cities but from similar backgrounds. They came from the seaport of Liverpool. I came from the seaport of Glasgow. What you got was music from all over the world, pouring into the ports.”
Slapped by some with the dreaded “new Dylan” tag in the 1960s, Donovan kept illustrious company. In the blinding glare of his superstar pals (who also included Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix), though, it was easy to overlook Donovan’s own extraordinary accomplishments.
Horizon-broadening hippie. Inward-looking seeker. Zeitgeist-channeling musical pathfinder. Donovan was all of the above, and then some. He will be ushered into the Rock Hall by long time admirer John Mellencamp, who toured with Donovan in 2005.
Graham Nash, a two-time Hall of Famer himself (inducted with Crosby, Stills and Nash and with the Hollies), is thrilled to have Donovan joining the elite club.
“It’s a long time coming, isn’t it?” said Nash, part of the supporting cast (along with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood) for “Barabajagal,” Donovan’s 1969 album.
“I don’t think Donovan has ever gotten the credit he really, truly deserves,” Nash said.
“There was an English television show called ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars.’ The Hollies and Donovan were on there, and that’s the first time I heard him play ‘Catch the Wind.’ Not many people know this, but he taught me how to fingerpick my guitar.”
“With all due respect, who the hell can compare anybody to Bob Dylan? I think the appreciation for Donovan suffered a little because of that comparison between him and Bob. Donovan has been very underrated for years.”
Donovan’s “fabulous” songs enthralled listeners with beautiful melodies and interesting lyrics, Nash said.
Woody Guthrie an early influence
Donovan, 65, was born Donovan Leitch. Music and poetry filled his childhood.
“Most of the relatives would carry a Scottish song or an Irish song or two at parties, and my father read me poetry from a very early age,” he said.
In the process, art and activism became intertwined in young Donovan’s mind.
“The poets that my father would read me were very much a part of the past 200 years of social change,” he said.
“The great Robert Burns of Scotland was part of the social unrest of the 1700s. You come swinging all the way up through the 1800s and the 1900s, and you Robert Service and W.H. Davies, whose poems my father also read to me.”
Later, when this art-school dropout became a beatnik troubadour, he was struck by the social consciousness of Woody Guthrie’s songs.
“Most people think that I heard Bob Dylan first and got a cap and harmonica,” Donovan said.
“Really, it was Woody Guthrie. He was so influential.”
“Donovan scored his first hit, ‘Catch the Wind,’ in 1965. The introspective, homespun ballad spoke of unrequited love.
“I felt the call to become a bridge to the inner world, a bridge needed in materialistic times,” Donovan wrote in “The Autobiography of Donovan: The Hurdy Gurdy Man.”
Shortly after “Catch the Wind” caught on, he first crossed paths with a kindred American spirit.
“When I met Bob Dylan, I was definitely impressed,” Donovan said.
“This guy had come from the American folk world, but he was very schooled in poetry, too. He’d studied the Beat poets, of course. I grew up in the British bohemian scene. Dylan grew up in the American bohemian scene. So I was very pleased to meet such a guy.”
Donovan’s ever-expanding circle of musical friends also came to include John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful.
“He knew everybody I knew, from Dylan to Jack Elliott and all these guys who were part of the [Greenwich] Village scene that I had grown up with,” Sebastian said.
“We felt a kinship. As Dylan says about Donovan in ‘Don’t Look Back’ [D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary about Dylan’s 1965 UK tour], ‘Hey! He sounds like Jack!’ Yeah! I said, ’Boy, this guy has been listening to his Jack Elliott very carefully.’
“I guess what I enjoyed about Don was that his points of reference resembled mine in some ways… We were all drawing from the same pots.”
The same could be said of Donovan and his Fab Four friends.
McCartney dropped by Donovan’s London flat in 1966 and pulled out an acoustic guitar.
“You write children’s songs – what about this one?” McCartney said, launching into a new ditty about a yellow submarine.
It was missing a few lyrics. McCartney asked for help filling in the blanks.
Donovan retreated to another room. He soon came back with the lines: Sky of blue and sea of green/ In our yellow submarine…”
“That’ll do,” McCartney said.
Ask Donovan about it today, and he’s modest about his contribution.
“It’s not the most earth-shattering couplet in the world,” he said, with an almost audible shrug.
“I was very pleased to have two lines in a Beatles song, but more than that, in a song that celebrated the very unusual situation that we were in. The ‘yellow submarine’ was actually the life that they were living – that we were living – separated from the world and isolated by fame.”
A misconception about ‘Mellow Yellow’
I must have been Donovan’s yellow period. A few months later, he notched a top 5 single with “Mellow Yellow”, a cryptic ditty featuring a cameo appearance by McCartney.
“Ah! There was a lot of mellow and a lot of yellow going on at that time, yeah,” Donovan said, laughing.
While we’re at it, let’s clear this up once and for all: “Mellow Yellow” is not about smoking banana peels.
“The song became extremely popular, as you know, and the story got attached that if you smoked dried banana skins, you could get high,” Donovan patiently explained for the umpteenth time.
“People on ships headed for India were trying it. Farmers in Czechoslovakia were trying it. We wondered where the story came from.”
Decades later, Donovan got what he reckons is the only satisfactory answer. During a visit to the Rock Hall in the late 1990s, he bumped into Country Joe Mcdonald, who confessed to spreading rumors about the intoxicating properties of banana peels while driving around San Francisco in 1966 – just as “Mellow Yellow” was climbing the charts – in a truck decorated with a giant banana.
“You couldn’t make this up!” Donovan said.
Banana peels aside, his exotically arranged music – complete with sitar and harpsichord – provided a perfect soundtrack for the psychedelic revolution, especially the landmark album “Sunshine Superman.” The trippy title track (with Jimmy Page on guitar) went to No. 1 in 1966, the same year that Donovan was busted for marijuana possession.
He dabbled in other drugs, too.
“Our generation in the 60’s wasn’t the first to use sacred plants,” he said.
“It was pretty obvious that generations had been using altered states of consciousness in music and art, before us… I didn’t particularly write songs on psychedelics. But the experiences were so extraordinary, on mescaline and on peyote, that I wrote about them.”
“The ‘50s were a very restrictive world. Until the early ‘60’s, when we guys came along, nobody left their garden patch. Then the garden became world-wide. It was completely open. You could do anything you wanted, musically.”
“That album [‘Sunshine Superman’] seemed to be a herald. I was ringing a bell, saying that you could do anything you want.”
“If I opened the gate first, I’m very pleased, ‘cause what came through that gate we all know was so important for everyone. That’s my understanding, that the gate we opened led to the inner world.”
“And yes, psychedelics were a part of it.”
For Donovan, so was transcendental meditation, the virtues of which he continues to extol. He first studied it (along with the Beatles) under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
When Donovan wasn’t getting in touch with his inner self, he continued to enjoy Top 40 success to the tune of “Hurdy Gurdy Man” and “Atlantis,” among other hits.
Looking forward to touring again
After the sun set on the ’60s, his popularity faded. He continued to record and to perform, albeit less frequently.
Now Donovan is ripe for rediscovery. A new retrospective, “The Essential Donovan,” is set to come out Tuesday, April 17, with 36 songs on two CDs.
Donovan also is raring to hit the road again.
“This Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction — what a springboard that will be for a tour,” he said. “I’ll be back onstage almost everywhere, from this summer on.”
Long after flower power became a punch line for some, Donovan is one ’60s survivor who hasn’t abandoned the dream.
“The ’60s are a living idea, and the idea is still being developed,” he said.
“Up until that period, there were lots of doors closed. Now they’re open, and you can still walk through, no matter what you want to do.
“For instance, every country in the Western world has an ecological board to talk about the future of the planet. Years ago, there was nothing like that.
“In yoga and in bohemian ideas, there is no particular era that was then, and then it’s over. Its impulse is still being felt. It’s alive today.”
Last Tuesday night I saw the new documentary feature film Marley, about the life journey of Bob Marley… it was brilliant. Jah Rastafari!
I asked guitarist extraordinaire, Junior Marvin, Marley’s lead guitarist from 1977 until his death in 1981, to join me along with photojournalist extraordinaire David Burnett, whose photographs of Bob Marley are featured in his book Soul Rebel and Bob Marley. Junior Marvin, the british Jimi Hendrix, is featured in the film, as are many of his rare photographs of Bob Marley and his scene. Other remarkable on-camera interviews include Rita Marley, Bunny Wailer, Cindy Breakspeare, and Ziggy Marley, among others. Burnett’s photos are also featured in the documentary film. We were all deeply moved by the movie. Kudos to Steve Bing and Kevin Macdonald for this great document of the ‘Tuff Gong’. Thanks to Jennice Fuentes, cultural critic extraordinaire, for inviting me and my guests to this special screening. You might enjoy reading the New York Times story about the film from April 8th.
Junior Marvin and Chris Murray being photographed by David Burnett at the E Street Cinema, Washington, DC. Copyright ©Carlotta Hester. All Rights Reserved.
Soul Rebel (Insight Editions, 2009), recently published in paperback; Bob Marley (Insight Edtions, 2012).
The I Threes, Bob Marley, and Junior Marvin, Exodus Tour, Paris, 1977.Copyright ©David Burnett. All Rights Reserved.
Last Saturday National Public Radio broadcast a terrific interview and story with photographer Mick Rock who recently had an exhibition at the W Hotel in Washington. That exhibition is currently touring other W Hotels around the country. Mick is a great story teller and has a rich ‘on-air’ voice. If you haven’t heard the broadcast already, you will enjoy hearing Rock talk about David Bowie, Syd Barrett, and about his life as a photographer… I got to say a few words about Mick Rock in the program myself.
Iggy Pop, Back Bend, 1972 Copyright ©Mick Rock. All Rights Reserved.
This weekend Donovan will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. What a great celebration it will be.
Donovan is also featured in the traveling museum exhibition Sound and Vision: Monumental Rock & Roll Photography in Barry Feinstein’s extraordinary portrait taken of him in New York City in 1964.
Donovan is close to our hearts here at Govinda Gallery where we represent his Sapphographs. Congratulations Donovan!
Donovan, Los Angeles, 1969. Copyright ©Baron Wolman. All Rights Reserved.
