You don't like Donovan? Hey, without him, no Lennon fingerpicking on "Dear Prudence"!

strictly subs bench

..lead me there.
Always guilty of being a little on the airy-fairy side, but a robust guitarist in the Jansch style, a good singer and he wrote some great pop songs.
On "Sunny Goodge Street" he more or less invented Nick Drake's style.
Maybe his biggest crime is that he's alive and healthy.

I love him. I listen to Donovan far more than I listen to The Beatles, The Stones or Dylan. Fantastic pop songs, a great 'swinging london' sort of style at his peak, but also some lovely lovely ballads.

Comparing him to Dylan does him a disservice, because he had a style all of his own. Far closer to The Kinks actually.

...hearing Donovan now takes me right back to a certain time - mid to late 60s - when the music just fitted perfectly into what I can only call the zeitgeist. Much more so than a lot of your more highly regarded stuff that still gets listened to. Sure, even then he was always a touch twee and mannered, but on a long summer evening (of course the sun always shone then), with a good supply of wine and substances he was your only man. Gift from a Flower to a Garden tested your patience, though - not sure I ever got all the way to the end of side 4. And of course Leonard Cohen's first album landed soon after, so the mooning around in bedsits market defected en masse.

he was shit. just lucky.

I watched a documentary about Donovan the other day, as I've often felt I need to investigate him further.
He's a relatively nice bloke, though his speech is riddled with all the ridiculousness of hippie-talk as he described swanning around the hip spots of the world in the 60's, at one time living a basic life and then deciding that actually he'd quite like a yacht.
He was talking about his time in the desert, and unwittingly came out with the Colemanballs line, "The desert was like an oasis to us".

I still feel the need to investigate him further.

still sustains the odd listen. His version of "Universal Soldier" and "Little Tin Soldier" being especial favourites.

that whereas Dylan was lyrically profound, Donovan was more musically innovative. Actually it was Donovan I heard say this.

Donovan was an innovator-his flower era stuff was recorded in '65, but did not hit the streets for months and months thanks to a legal problem with his record label/management. By the time they did come out, the rest of the market had caught up.

'Sutras', if you can find it. Sightly insufferable but you've got to love the guy ... From his website:

"The first concert of the "Ritual Groove" Tour. A unique occasion where Donovan will be performing many of his classic hits as well as debuting a few songs from his forthcoming album "Ritual Groove".The evening will be made more special by the use for the first time of natural perfumes which will be introduced into the theatre during certain of the songs.Donovan describes the evening as a fragrant symphony of music, poetry colour and aroma."

Discovered him as a teenager and loved him ever since. A tiny bit of a twat as a person, but musically I think he's great:

So many brilliant songs and he covered it all. Pop, rock, folk, psychedelia, etc:
Superlungs
Poor Cow
To Susan On The West Coast Waiting
Hurdy Gurdy Man
Jennifer Juniper
Sunny Goodge Street
Love Is Hot
...and so it goes on

There's a great Australian compilation called Love Is Hot, Truth Is Molten, with a nice broad overview of his oeuvre.

better than I like any Dylan song. There (as they say), I've said it.

...of Season Of The Witch yet? One of his best I think.

(from A Gift...) inspired Prince's Cynthia Rose in her choice of breakfast.

does it for me, joyful memories of our Head of 6th form singing this at school folk evenings...became very emotional on the final one before the parting of the ways.

...always struck me as a rather strange relationship. But hey ... peace and love!

...he wouldn't constantly mention his connection to The Beatles, I feel like it cheapens how good he really is. It seems like he's always mentioning it, but by the quality of his own work he just doesn't need to.

Season Of The Witch, There Is A Mountain, Atlantis, Sunny Goodge Street... fantastic stuff. Saw him at Green Man a couple of years back and he's still worth going to see live.

(in his own mind).

Was it somewhere on this site that I once saw someone say that in every charity shop there is at least one copy of "The Golden Hour Of Donovan"? Well, none of them have my copy, and having read this thread and been reminded of how much I used to enjoy it, I'm going to go home tonight and listen to it in full for the first time in quite a few years!