Donovan In Session – 1967 – Past Daily Sounbooth

Donovan – In session for Baton Rouge – ORTF, Paris – 1967 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –

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Donovan, for a change of pace this week. In session for the legendary French program Bouton Rouge, produced out of Paris for ORTF. This segment aired in 1967.

If any one person could epitomize the headier, patchouli-drenched aspects of the 60s, it would have to be Donovan. Obviously, as much as the Beatles and early Pink Floyd were responsible for the headlong dive into Psychedelia as groups, Donovan did it as a solo artist. I can’t think of a single person who didn’t have, at one time, the massive 2-lp box set, A Gift From A Flower To A Garden sitting prominently on their record shelf. Season of The Witch (which ends this set) was as much of an anthem to the Flower generation as White Rabbit – there was no shortage of evocative songs to conjure up a flood of experiences, usually under some sort of influence or another; that was just the 60s – as much, I am sure as the 70s, 80’s, 90’s and 00’s are to many other people of other generations. It’s just a passage of time thing.

Donovan was the companion soundtrack – and even though as the 70s and 80s wore on it was no longer deemed “cool” to have any Donovan albums in your collection, they were there, perhaps long to be dusted off and played, but they were there and they waited. And Donovan’s soothing other-worldly voice floated over the room like a warm blanket – and that’s what it meant to a lot of people at the time. And like so many things, the music of Donovan still evokes a flood of memories and feelings; it’s just the way he sounded.

So to get an idea of what all the fuss was about during the fabled (and somewhat dubious) Summer of Love of 1967, here is a sample of what Donovan was up to and what they were humming along to in Paris, and in fact the rest of the world for the most part.

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