Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Nik Cohn on Donovan


'Donovan began as a carbon Bob Dylan. He was born in Glasgow and he was another drop-out, he spent a long time bumming around the country with his friend Gypsy Dave. He wrote songs, poems, and finally he arrived in London.

When Dylanesque came into vogue, he was launched on Ready Steady Go! wearing a cap and singing in an oddly familiar retard's whine. Inevitably, everyone and me leaped at him, accused him of cynically cashing in. What's more everyone and me was wrong.

For a start, he had none of Dylan's harshness. He was one gentle person, naïve and well meaning, desperately sincere, and he wrote limp little nursery rhymes all poetical minstrelsy.

The same things that made him interesting in himself, his innocence and real sweetness made his music unbearable. Always, he sounded angelic and folksy and fey, almost like an updating of one of those sentimental heroes in Dostoevsky, Alyosha or Prince Myshkin, the Holy Fools.'

 
You can see what Cohn's on about. But this song if you get beyond it's slightly precious trappings is great. Donovan is always precious. If you don't go for that he's not for you.
 
*Winifred Emma May (4 June 1907 – 28 August 1990) was a poet from the United Kingdom, best known for her work under the pen name Patience Strong. Her poems were usually short, simple and imbued with sentimentality, the beauty of nature and inner strength

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