Donovan songs4/5/2023 ![]() The guitars are just masterful, and the song, always an arrow straight to the soul, now makes me weep. “Our Friend Bobby,” one of my favorites from Both Ways, is one of the “super-highlights” of the record. There’s more urgency to “Another Way.” “Burn That Bridge” is a prayer, and “Truck Full of Money,” becomes an elegy. He gave Todd full freedom to re-arrange, change chords, tempos, whatever else, and what a spectacular result it is. It’s the same beautiful, intimate voice, of course, but even more so, which I wouldn’t have thought possible.Įvery word is precious and so present, and there’s so much space and freedom in the delivery. These are practically brand new songs. The exquisite production was done by Todd Lombardo who also plays all the guitars and stringed instruments (acoustic, high-string, tenor, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, 12-string, classical, slide resonator). These aren’t stripped down acoustic versions. And then I listened again, and then again, and haven’t stopped listening, and I doubt I’ll be listening to anything else for quite a while. It was such a different emotional experience. In 10 seconds, I was hooked when I heard a chord in “Good Lover” that isn’t on the original version, and as the record progressed, my eyes and ears got wider. Then the CD arrived in the mail, and I listened. I’m still alive – and that’s good, because we’ve lost too many.ĭonovan celebrates his 70th birthday with a special concert at The London Palladium, 30 Argyll Street, London W1F 7TE on 6 May ( .When Heather Kitching of Roots Music Canada asked me if I wanted to review Donovan Woods’ new album, The Other Way (Meant Well Records), an acoustic rendering of his 2018 Both Ways, my first response was, “no.” What more could I say about the songs that I hadn’t already said in my Both Ways review last year? I suppose all I really know is that I’m still here. And you have to ask: “What am I afraid of?” If you can’t feel love, then you are afraid. ![]() I realised something long ago, and I think this now: I can’t save the world, but if I can share some ideas people might be able to save themselves. Recently I heard some children singing “Mellow Yellow” – well, they were singing: “They call me smelly belly.” And I thought: “You know you’ve had some effect when your song becomes a street song for kids.” Like Dylan Thomas, who fell in love with the sound of words, I think the sound of the words themselves is music. ![]() “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” was something someone said to me. I don’t sit down to write like you’d sit down to make a pair of boots. It’s where the roots of the music are, it’s where the tradition comes from, and it’s the last wilderness of Europe. I now live in Ireland for half the year, and have a life and studio in Mallorca. It is up to us to realise where the fear is coming from, and to conquer it. In the long run, food, shelter and clothing are all we can do to help each other. There’s that great Beatles line: “For the benefit of Mr Kite, there will be a show tonight…” It’s light-hearted, but so exciting. My sense of humour comes from the Irish side. The songs I write and sing try to say important things with a lightness. It wasn’t all just fun and games, the 1960s, but I have a light touch. I was the first British pop singer to be arrested for possession That’s a feeling of: “I want you to be fulfilled, and if you are fulfilled, I’m fulfilled.” And this third kind of love needs a bit of work – some conscious effort. There’s emotional love: “I love you,” Aphrodite’s love – the basis of it all. There’s intuitive love: that which a child feels, which makes you reach out to help someone.
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