Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor and remember the men and women of who gave their life for our freedom. The artist Donovan who's from Scotland recorded Universal Soldier in 1965, the song was written by Canadian Buffy Sainte-Marie.
September 30,1965, Donovan made his US television debut on Shindig. I don’t remember seeing Donovan on Shindig but I did have the honor of meeting him backstage at The Royal Oak Music Theater in 1986. I was really struck by what a friendly and humble guy he was considering his rock icon status.
Looking out the studio window right now this song feels perfect. It’s Donovan with 'Sunshine Superman' which was the #1 song here in the U.S.A. this week in 1966. Future members of Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones are featured on the tune.
Sundazed Music has always been known for their plundering of the vaults of rock and roll's past and coming up with unique and forgotten artifacts. In recent years, their focus has turned increasingly towards high-quality vinyl reissues featuring both obscure, and big sellers.
An old Donovan favorite gets the nod today, Hurdy Gurdy Man from later in his career, around 1968. This psychedelic nugget is interesting in many ways, some, being a harder rock style than Donovan's usual peace love dove mellow yellow stuff, he wrote it for another band until he decided to just record it himself, and was believed to have a pre Led Zeppelin line-up playing on it...
While John Mellencamp has arguably carved out his own place in rock n roll history, he took to the stage of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame last night to induct one of his musical heroes, Donovan.
Mellencamp shared amusing anecdotes relating to how he felt he took Donovan’s influence upon his music a little too liberally, while also regaling the audience of having toured with the musician for 40 show
Donovan's annual classic Season Of The Witch gets a spooky spin on today's Vinyl Vault. Thought by critics to be one of the first psychedelic tracks, probably for it's slow, druggy groove, it dates way back to late 1966 but sounds better than most recordings from that era, sonically...