| Donovan – Mellow Yellow Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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When this song first came out we thought it was about smoking the white stuff scraped from the inside of banana peels, too. So one day we loaded up one of our buddy's cars and headed out for San Francisco from LA during the Easter Break. When we arrived at Golden Gate Park sure enough, all of the hippies were smoking what they called "Mellow Yellow"! We asked one guy what the high was like and he said it just mellowed you out and it was perfectly legal to smoke it. So we thought, "What the Heck! Let's try it!". Well, besides rasping our lungs out, it didn't do a thing, but we sure had a great time. Will never forget the beautiful girls walking around with nothing but a white sheet wrapped around them. Some of them were so high on other drugs they never realized it when the sheets fell off. Quite an eye bulging experience for 3 - 17 year-old guys at the time! Sure wish someone would organize one more love-in just to have the chance to relive that day. What a fantastic period to have lived in. Just remembered that we even went to the extent of making our own peace sign pendants from thin copper rods and solder in Metal Shop so we might fit in to the crowd. Nothing could have been further from the truth. We stuck out like sore thumbs, but everyone was really cool and it didn't seem to matter that we weren't dressed like all of them. That was before the hippie scene in San Francisco went bad because of the money everyone was making off drugs, et cetera. It was truly the Summer of Love for us. |
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| Donovan – Lalena Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I really love the breathlessly sung lyrics of this song. They are soaked in a bitterseet sadness. I wonder as I listen to it if Donovan is singing about a prostitiute who has been forced into her trade by the circumstances of her life. The lyrics, "When the sun goes to bed, That's the time you raise your head," seem to suggest that she is a Lady of the Night. And, "That's your lot in life, Laleña Can't blame ya, Laleña." suggests that she has been forced into the lifestyle she leads and can't be blamed for it as she did not choose it willingly. Donovan's lyrics are usually sparse, but they are always on the mark. He conveys Lalena's inner pain when he sings, "Run your hand through your hair, Paint your face with despair." I can almost see this woman as she sits up in bed after much thought, runs her hand through her hair, reveals her despair in a facial gesture and slowly exhales as she acknowledges that she most likely will never escape the lifestyle she has been forced to live. Donovan has often been portrayed as the "Poor Man's Dylan" and atlthough that may be true, it shouldn't detract from his real songwriting talent. He was, after all, barely 18 years old when he wrote the first of his most famous songs. And because of his youth he trusted the advice of his producer at the time, Mickie Most, in developing a more Psychedelic Pop style which projected him into mainstream music rather than placing him on the outside cutting edge with performers like Bob Dylan. Would love to hear what others think of the lyrics to this and other Donovan songs. I think that he has been pretty much ignored because of some of his kind of silly songs and that is a real shame. His music helps to define an eclectic period of pop music; the mid 60's to the early 70's. |
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