Donovan

Donovan Philips Leitch is a Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist from Maryhill, United Kingdom, born in 1946. He is associated with contemporary folk, folk, folk pop, folk rock, pop and psychedelic folk, and releases music through Donovan Music Ltd.

Career

He first becomes known in Britain in 1965 through live appearances on the television pop series Ready Steady Go!, and that same year he begins charting with Catch the Wind. His early success is followed by a run of singles, many produced by Mickie Most.

Donovan starts as a 1960s folk singer, then develops a more varied style that brings together folk, pop, jazz, world music and psychedelia. His songs often carry political and idealistic themes, and he becomes closely associated with the 1960s flower power counter-culture.

Key recordings and influence

Sunshine Superman appears in 1966 and marks his move into the psychedelic scene; it is also regarded as an important album in that genre. In 1967 he releases A Gift from a Flower to a Garden, a double album issued as a boxed set and described as the first major album released in that format. This record completes his shift from beat poet folk singer to hippie troubadour.

He is a close friend of The Beatles and travels with them to India during their stay at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He also teaches them the clawhammer finger-picking style, which appears on several tracks on their 1968 double album The Beatles, also known as the White Album.

Later years and recognition

His commercial popularity declines after he splits from Mickie Most in 1969, and he later falls out of favour during the rise of punk rock in the mid-1970s. He records and performs only intermittently for much of the following decades. Interest in his work returns with Britain’s rave scene in the 1990s, when his best-known recordings are reissued and reassessed positively. With the release of Sutras in 1996, produced by Rick Rubin, his career settles into a steadier pattern of new releases, archive material and reissues.

He is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.