...you're my singer, let me be your song...

Mentioning Donovan

List of songs in which Donovan is mentioned in some way.

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Dental Hygiene Dilemma

· Song by: Frank Zappa

· Appears on: 200 Motels (Soundtrack)

· Year: 1971

· Quote: ...Man! This stuff is great! It's just as if Donovan himself had appeared oon my very own TV with words of peace, love and eternal cosmic wisdom! Leading me. Guiding me. On paths of everlasting pseudo-karmic negligence, in the very midst of my drug-induced nocturnal emission...

Fakin' It

· Song by: Simon & Garfunkel

· Appears on: Bookends (Album)

· Year: 1968

· Quote: ...Good morning, Mr.Leitch! Have you had a busy day?...

· Trivia: the girl who says that is Beverly Martyn, as Paul Simon claimed in an interview for Rolling Stone magazine in 1972. Beverly Martyn (born Beverly Kutner) was an old friend of Donovan's and was part of a love triangle with him and singer-songwriter Bert Jansch.

Finisterre

· Song by: Saint Etienne

· Appears on: Finisterre (Album)

· Year: 2002

· Quote: ...I believe in Donovan over Dylan/In love over cynicism...

I Dig Rock 'n' Roll Music

· Song by: Peter, Paul & Mary

· Appears on: Album 1700 (Album)

· Year: 1967

· Quote: ...I dig Donovan in a dream-like, tripped out way
His crystal images tell you 'bout a brighter day...

Leitch On The Beach

· Song by: Noel Harrison

· Appears on: The Windmills Of Your Mind (Single B Side)

· Year: 1969

· Quote: the entire song is a tribute to Donovan.

White robe flowing like a priest
You watch the dawn pulsing from the east
You dream of the Grail and the One-horned beast
And you're alone, all alone
you're alone, on the beach

Many sing of sorrow in the land
Or of lovers searching hand-in-hand
But you're the one who knows about the starfish and the sand
And you're alone, all alone
you're alone, on the beach

Lightly in your thoughts you run
To where the ocean and the sun
And the clouds and wind are one
And your images are Gentle Donovan

I can hear your poems reach
For the seagulls calling each to each
Telling to the children what the world's forgot to teach
And that you're happy
and you're lonely on the beach

And your voice is soft and mild
And your eyes sweet like a child
And the wind and ocean wild
Running free as spring through Gentle Donovan

And the flowers they throw around your feet
Remind me that the earth can still be sweet
And there's a joy in my heart that I could meet Gentle Don
Gentle Don, all alone, all alone
Gentle Don, all alone on the beach

(thanks to Jimmy Stanley!)

Merry Gentle Pops (Medley)

· Song by:The Barron Knights

· Appears on: Merry Gentle Pops (Single)

· Year: 1965

· Quote: the song is a medley featuring the comedy group The Barron Knights performing short impressions of 60's chart stars such as Sandie Shaw, The Ivy League, Marianne Faithfull and many more as well as Donovan. In the sung intro leading up to the song they sing:

Donovan's playing Santa Claus
And he's in such a state
He's fallen down the chimney
And landed in the grate

The words to the Donovan impression were as follows (with the tune of Catch The Wind):

From a chimney I emerged
All dressed in red, then someone said
Your beard has blown off in the wind

Later in the medley they mention Donovan again, when they list the stars at the "party":

With Marianne at the party all the stars are here...
There are the Who, [...], Animals, Beatles and even Al Bing
Andy, Sandy, [...], Cathy McGowan and Jonathan King
Sam [...], Manfred Mann, Donovan, [...], Dylan, [...]
Lulu's lovers [...] and also the Rolling Stones they'd like to say...

(thanks to Jimmy Stanley!)

Santa Monica Pier

· Song by: Noel Harrison

· Appears on: Santa Monica Pier (Album, Reprise RS 6295)

· Year: May 1968

· Trivia: Harrison can be heard calling out Donovan twice as the song fades out. In the liner notes to the self-penned song he is quoted as saying, "I call out for Donovan at the end because he wrote better songs about seagulls than I could".

Talking World War III Blues

· Song by: Bob Dylan

· Appears on: Don't Look Back (Documentary)

· Year: 1967

· Quote: ...I looked in my closet
There was Donovan...

The Blue Light

· Song by: Frank Zappa

· Appears on: Tinseltown Rebellioin (Album)

· Year: 1981

· Quote: ...All over Atlantis, Atlantis
You remember Atlantis
Donovan, the guy with the brocade coat
Used to sing to you about Atlantis
You loved it, you were so involved then
That was back in the days when you used to
Smoke a banana
You would scrape the stuff off the middle
You would smoke it
You even thought you was getting ripped from it
No problem
Ah, Atlantis, they could really get down there...

We're Turning Again

· Song by: Frank Zappa

· Appears on: Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention (Album)

· Year: 1985

· Quote: ...They were mellow
They were yellow
They were wearing smelly blankets
They looked like Donovan fans...

Wight Is Wight

· Song by: Michel Delpech

· Appears on: ?

· Year: 1969

· Quote: ...Wight is Wight
Dylan is Dylan
Wight is Wight
Viva Donovan...

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