A Tale of Two Albums: Donovan – A Gift From A Flower to A Garden
- Abigail Devoe
- Apr 2
- 14 min read
“I came here to smoke weed and wear capes. And they took away my weed.” – Donovan in 1967, probably
Donovan: vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica, principle songwriter
Eric Leese: electric guitar
Cliff Barton: bass
Mike O’Neill: keys
Keith Webb: drums
Harold McNair: flute
Ken Baldock: double bass
Mike Carr: vibraphone
John Carr: congas
Tony Carr: drums/percussion
Special guest: Jack Bruce, bass on “Someone’s Singing”
Produced by Donovan with Mickie Most
art by Karl Ferris
There’s a few things to know going into A Gift From A Flower To A Garden. For one, it’s technically one double-album, two single albums, and pop music’s very first box set; the “PopSet,” as artist Karl Ferris calls it. In “interview” with yours truly (if you count conversations in the DMs as an interview,) Karl indicated Gift was released in so many formats because of Donovan’s US distributor, Epic Records. While Pye was totally fine with a box set, Epic moaned it’d be “too expensive.”
So we’ve established that A Gift is technically two albums. The first of the two, Wear Your Love Like Heaven, is an anti-drugs album. The second, For Little Ones, was intended as a children’s album.
Why is Donovan, the guy who wrote a whole song about tripping on LSD, writing an anti-drug album?
Because he self-snitched!
Back in 1965, Donovan released Fairytale. While the album is remembered these days for kickstarting his medieval folk era, it was the opening lines of “Sunny Goodge Street” that got him into a predicament.
“On the firefly platform on sunny Goodge Street/A violent hash-smoker shook a chocolate machine…”
That same year, Parliament passed an amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Act. It's hard to work out exactly what the ’65 amendment changed; there’s much more information out there on the original law from the 1920s and the ’67 amendment. There’s a lot of legalese to parse through, but from my best guess, the ’65 Dangerous Drugs Actofficially criminalized marijuana. Smoking it, importing it, exporting it, growing it. The works. Now you might understand why a lyric about being so stoned that you beat the shit out of a candy machine would get the attention of the authorities!
But it wasn’t until dear Donny and his circle were shown indulging in a documentary the following year that Sargent Pilcher and his Drug Squad were able to build a case. Just after Mellow Yellow’srelease – or lack thereof in the UK, but that’s a whole other can of worms – Donovan became the very first British pop star to be busted for possession of marijuana. I shit you not, an undercover officer just turned up at Donovan’s apartment at 1:30 AM – and his best friend just let her in! Paul McCartney and George Harrison hooked Donny up with a good lawyer and he managed to get off with a $5,100 slap on the wrist. But his arrest still had far-reaching implications: most notably the raid of Keith Richards’s Redlands estate. The fallout, and one candy-bar-related rumor, nearly ended Marianne Faithfull’s career.
A largely falsified 1967 expose on drugs in pop music ran in News of the World was a PR nightmare for Donovan, among others.
The Beatles and Stones’s drug bust and court case-induced headaches were temporary. It didn’t really hurt them in the long run through. It did hurt Donovan, though. He was banned from playing in the States for over a year. I believe this was why Donovan was never quite as big over here as he was in Britain. Remember, he’d barely shed the Britain’s answer to Dylan thing when all this was going down. Expertly phrased by Virginia Cannon, for Donovan, “the summer of love was over before it began.”
If Donovan missed out on the summer of love, he was early to the spirituality party. Around ’67, he got really into Transcendental Meditation and met the movement’s leader, the Maharishi. Here’s what he had to say about the Maharishi in interview with the NME:
“He’s a great guy, and there’s a lot of speculation about whether he’s just another one but the thing is I wouldn’t even speak with him if he wasn’t simple. I met the man and I knew that he was what I instinctively knew was a holy man. He’s straightening everybody out.”
quoted from: Nick Logan, “My Magic Flows In My Blood: Donovan Talking to Nick Logan.” NME, 12/18/1967.
Wow. Talk about confidence!
It’s worth noting this interview took place a couple months before he took a trip to Rishikesh with some very famous faces…
...and those very famous faces had a gnarly falling out with the Maharishi. To this day Donny follows Trandscendental Mediation; he still does interviews promoting it.
Perhaps as a PR strategy, perhaps as reflection of his new philosophy, it full well could have been both, Donovan did a heel-turn on drugs. Gone were the days of tripping with Dylan and smoking weed on camera. From the Gift liner notes: “Yes, I call upon every youth to stop the use of all drugs and heed the quest to seek the sun.” Clearly Donovan’s deep cuts were getting him in trouble with the law, so for the time being he turned to radio-friendly singles that reflected his new image. In August of ’67, “There Is A Mountain" peaked at number 11 on the Billboard singles charts. This was enough a success to warrant touring the States! But ofcourse, he was only allowed back in the country after the Monterey Pop festival. Now that just feels targeted.
There’s one problem with being a pop singles artist: you can’t always show off the breadth of your songwriting chops. So Donny thought, “hey. Why don’t I release a pop album to write some fun hooks and pal around with my session player buddies...AND a folk album to feature mostly me and what I can do on guitar? Because I’m a pretty good guitar player! Moreover, what if instead of writing for my generation, I write for the next?” “These poems are for youth, that is true, but they are fluid enough in their nature and may be enjoyed by all,” he said. Thus, A Gift From A Flower to A Garden; comprising mostly of material he wrote while in America. Donovan described Wear Your Love Like Heaven as “music for my age group, an age group which is gently entering marriage.” For Little Ones was intended for their children.
Equal parts regal and charming, the figurehead of the midcentury medieval trend, I love Donovan. More than most. I shout his praises from the rooftops whenever I can. He was super influential on the Beatles’ later years – he taught John the clawhammer playing style in India – and doesn’t get nearly enough credit for it. Donovan’salbums aren’t easy to find in the wild over here, despite his two most successful albums originally being US exclusives. I hunt down as many of his albums as I can, and I enjoy it. His autograph hangs on my wall. This man was a real-life fairytale bard in this psychedelic-medieval-folk stage of his career and I love him for it. (Hozier girlies: Donovan may only be an honorary Irishman, but if you’re looking for those same enchanted forest man vibes but make them ’60s, here you go.) Sunshine Superman is firmly my favorite Donovan album. It’s just the right blend of folk, rock, and pop, with a great jazz sensibility. It’s some of the most tasteful use of sitar on a British LP of the time. So I was excited for this episode to finally roll around...and for me to finally get around to posting the review eight months later! This was one of the "greatest hits" reviews I contemplated posting when I relaunched this site in September, but it didn't make the cut. Then I teased posting it in the 2024 Year in Review(s) special. Then I realized that, for the bulk of my music taste being psych rock, I have altogether too few psych reviews posted in writing.
Well...here's your Psych 101.
Since this is a monster two-album, 22-track package, there just wasn’t the time in video format to go track by track. Ergo, I structured this review as I would a double album review. Identify what I like, what I don’t like, and spotlight the strongest tracks.
Going in, I assumed I was going to prefer the pop rock record; and the folk album would be nice but childish. The title “children’s album” did worry me me. Come to find out I was all turned around! For Little Ones clears Wear Your Love Like Heaven so hard, it’s not even funny. The former’s writing is just plain better.
Wear Your Love Like Heaven’s greatest strengths are, surprise surprise, its title track and B-side. This was Donovan’s “singles era.” Naturally, he put the most emphasis there. Wear Your Love Like Heaven is one of his most quintessentially late ’60s songs. It was used in a Love’s commercial, then in a Simpsons episode. The chiming keys act as a sort of drone. There’s organ and flute. The free-floating psychedelic feel occasionally punctuated by marching drum kicks. The lyrics are quite esoteric; Donny speaks of an idyllic flower child world where “all our race proud and free.” He’s more focused on painting a feeling with his words as opposed to a defined picture. He might literally be painting: Prussian blue, scarlet, alizarin crimson, carmine yellow were staple pigments in my art school paint box. Listening to “Wear Your Love Like Heaven,” I can smell the gesso.
“Wear Your Love’”s B-side, Oh Gosh, is adorable without being too kiddish. The bassline is groovy and playful, the keys and flute are bright. Donovan gives us another saccharine tale of hippie utopia: we sport “coat(s) of many colors” and “flowers in (our) hair” as we nurture the next generation of flower children. I also want to give some love to Sun for its hazy, breezy summer day feeling, and There Was A Time for the chipper, lightning-fingered harpsichord part. Even though I’m not crazy about Little Boy In Corduroy, it is quite catchy. My biggest qualm with Wear Your Love Like Heaven is that, of the two discs, this feels like the kids stuff.
At several points this week I got to wondering, “Are we SURE For Little Ones is the children’s album?” We have “Little Boy In Corduroy” on the album for grown-ups and Isle of Islay with the kid’s stuff? Okay.
The whimsy I usually love Donovan for reads a little much here. It’s especially heavy-handed on Mad John’s Escape; apparently about 19th century poet John Clare fleeing a mental institution, and Skip-Along Sam. Donovan did some great narrative-heavy character songs in his time; see “Guinevere,” “The Trip,” and “Legend of Girl-child Linda.” Those are successful because a. there’s more run time to flesh out the characters, “Girl-child” is almost seven minutes long. So b., Donovan can elaborate on their fantastical journeys. And c., “Guinevere” and “Girl-child” are a bit more grounded. Austere. The whimsy lies in the songs’ settings. Whimsy on top of whimsy doesn’t mesh. I’d rather have seen “There Was A Time” on Wear Your Love Like Heaven over “Mad John” or "Sam." It’s supposed to be a pop tune, and they’re more successful pop tune.
Speaking of pop tunes: Donovan largely confined himself to two-and-a-half minute songs for this first record. In doing so, he restricted what he could do with his anti-drug message. The lyrics don’t have the depth they’d need to uphold this concept. The only song that directly handles the theme is The Land of Doesn’t Have To Be. Donovan tells the listener in rather oblique terms that you’ll reach quicker without the “wall of doubt” obscuring your thoughts and senses. Denounce the norm, kiddies! Then comes Someone’s Singing. This is another of Wear Your Love Like Heaven’s strongest cuts. It serves as the perfect bridge between discs one and two. As thoroughly okay as Wear Your Love is, I strongly feel you should experience A Gift From A Flower to A Garden as a full package. “Someone’s Singing” introduces a running theme on For Little Ones: sounds of the seaside. It’s fittingthat Karl put Donny in a boat, a la Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott for its cover.
Donovan goes full flower child on “Someone’s Singing.” Love is for feeling for you and me! Happy he is with people and flowers, and we’re all one in the same. It’s the beginning of a new world, man! And he positions himself as the Pied Piper guiding us all there. Pretty perfect, considering he literally played the Pied Piper in a film.
I’d follow you anywhere, Donovan!
It’s a little silly, but when it’s balanced like it is here, it works. The arrangement is exciting and the instrumental is gorgeous. They are what makes this song work. “Someone’s Singing”’s core is the theatrical, strolling “happy I am” verses a la Mellow Yellow. Then the lush pre-chorus and choruses glissade in; filled out by romantic piano and strings. The unifying element is the brass. At the very end, Donovan fills the role the brass once held; doing a trumpet-like fanfare of a vocal round. It’s funny, I can hardly hear the bass Jack Bruce supposedly contributed.
On to the much stronger body of work, For Little Ones. Why is this album more successful?
For one, Donovan made some really cool production choices. (Though Mickie Most for sure produced “Wear You Love Like Heaven,” virtually everything else was left to Donny.) There are odd choices: I could really do without the baby crying on Song of the Naturalist’s Wife. But look out, she’s got a theory! I believe Donovan sang into the hole in his acoustic guitar on this song. His vocals are slightly muffled; the most resonant notes he sings are echoed by the strings. I’m not sure where he would have put the mic to pick that up, but it’s one of the most enchanting production choices on this enchanting body of work. The prince sings to himself as he rides through the forest, before coming across a beach where he’ll rest and play his banjo.
Speaking of atmosphere: the most charming thing about Donovan is how he allows himself to create little worlds for his songs, both sonically and lyrically. The unfortunately-named The Enchanted Gypsy (I’m holding off on that conversation until a Gypsy self-titled review) is one of the most done-up songs here. It’s a possible nod to his best friend, Gypsy Dave. Traveling mystical figures show up a lot in Donny’s work; see the wanderers on this album and the “gypsy driver” who doesn’t care if you catch your hair in the ferris wheel. “Enchanted”’s instrumentation especially leans into Donovan’s eclectic, exotic side. There’s bongoes, bells, and a bending of the low string acting as a drone. The fun dance section where the tempo picks up and flute takes over reminds me of the stuff Gabor Szabo did in the late ’60s. Lo and behold, Szabo covered Donovan multiple times!
The Tinker and the Crab’s finger cymbals are goody, but the song is just as imaginative as “Enchanted.” All these characters and stories are unified by an ancient seaside village. Collecting seashells in “Naturalist’s Wife,”seaweed clinging to fingers on “Enchanted,” “Islay”’s sand and gulls, the entirety of “Tinker and the Crab” and “Starfish-on-the-Toast.” The gulls cry overhead, waves crashing on the rocks. I get the feeling Donovan spent a lot of time on the California beaches while writing. The gulls and gentle waves would’ve been constant companions. It’s only fit to include them on the record somehow. It also fits with the Gift cover photo; taken at Cornwall.
The generally light accompaniment allows Donovan’s voice, writing, and guitar-playing to shine on For Little Ones. Not everyone can get into Donny’s singing, it’s very stylized with lots of classical rolled R’s; see the very medieval Lullaby of Spring. But it works for him. When I think British seaside, I think gray with choppy water. Nothing like the vibrant reds, yellows, and blues of Donovan’s world.
“Isle Of Islay” is one of the most beautiful tunes on the whole package. It taps into this gray, somber side. Our narrator feels hopeless and lost, “like a grain on your sand.” “Felt like a tide left me here.” Despite how world-weary ournarrator is, Donovan carries no bitterness in his voice. He’s gentle and morose, with a tenderness that brings a tear to one’s eye. Widow With Shawl is wistful and pretty, and no less devastating. Its narrator longs for her lover to return from his voyage, if he’s even still alive: “Whether he be in Africa/Or deep asleep in India, fill his dream...” Day in and day out for seven years, she paces the shore awaiting his return. Donovan does romance best: “In my chariot of sleep/I ride the vast and dreary deep, deep sea.”
These two songs handle much more complex emotions than we saw on Wear Your Love Like Heaven; supposedly the album for grown-ups. I love when writers don’t treat children like they’re stupid. They feel all the same stresses and sadnesses we do with just as much depth, if not more.
Donovan’s manner of singing suits his writing style. He’s much more illustrative on For Little Ones: deep cloaks of fine damask, bejeweled casks, sparkling eyes, sparkling ring...a dancing monkey? All is glittering and beautiful. But his fantastical and direct imagery never feels weighed down. His finger-picking style has a lightness, while still possessing beautiful depth; warm low tones and sparkling highs. His most lush playing is on Voyage into the Golden Screen and The Mandolin Man and His Secret. He’s minimal on “Islay,” tender as he sings. Equally minimal but more joyous is “Mandolin Man.” Donovan’s playing shares the same bucolic beauty and depth as Nick Drake’s best work. I have to give a shout to his harmonica playing on “Mandolin Man” as well; a leftover skill from his wannabe Dylan days.
Again, there are some tracks I could do without. The Magpie and “Starfish” are forgettable in the grand scheme of things. But once again, we have a closing track which unifies halves one and two: a tribute to another friend, Epistle to Derroll. I suspect “Derroll” might be a direct callback to Donny’s Dylan days. I can’t remember the last time I heard him strum a guitar; he’s firmly a finger-picking guy by now. I feel this change in style is best to let the song’s melody shine. With as strong a melody as the Wear Your Love Like Heaven material and a sense ofworldbuilding as For Little Ones, “Derroll” is one of Donovan’s forgotten all-timers.
About his career, Donovan said this:
“The Muse lead me in the right places at the right time, and it was always the one guitar, the one song, and the one intention.”
quoted from: “Donovan in Conversation with John Doran at The state51 Factory” YouTube, The state51 Conspiracy, 1/12/2024.
t’s so interesting. He’s a weathered and wise old storyteller when he sings, but in interview he’s still a young man.
Donovan’s intent was to “invade” pop culture and infuse it with all manners of influences: jazz, classical, blues, folk, classical Indian and Arabic music, Gaelic, Carribean. And that’s exactly what he did. Is it very of its time? Even a little psychedelic ’60s cliche? Yes. But Donny did it with such great success that, by the time everyone else caught up, he’d already run off to try new things. His Summer of Love ending before everyone else’s might’ve worked in his favor. The first half of Gift is good, not without its standout moments. But my god, the second half is great. Timeless and beautifully-crafted folk tunes for listeners of all ages, not just for little ones.
A Gift showcases all facets of Donovan’s best period. Part one is Donny the reformed pop star, part two the utterly enchanting storyteller; a companion piece to a most fantastic journey. He’s the wise old traveler with the imagination of a child. With one foot in the land of dreams and the other in the organic real, A Gift From A Flower to A Garden is the fullest picture of one of the great underrated songwriters of the 1960s.
Personal favorites: “Wear Your Love Like Heaven,” “Oh Gosh,” “Someone’s Singing,” “The Enchanted Gypsy,” “Voyage Into The Golden Screen”, “Isle of Islay,” “The Mandolin Man and His Secret,” “Widow With Shawl (A Portrait,)” “Epistle to Derroll”
– AD ☆
Watch the full episode above!
Cannon, Virginia. “The Season of ‘Season of the Witch’” The New Yorker, 5/16/2012. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-season-of-season-of-the-witch
Errigo, Angie. The Illustrated History of Rock Album Art. London: Octopus Books Ltd., 1979.
Gleason, Ralph. “Donovan On Drugs: From Ralph Gleason in San Fransisco” Melody Maker, 12/23/1967. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Melody-Maker/60s/67/Melody-Maker-1967-1223.pdf
Logan, Nick. “My Magic Flows In My Blood: Donovan Talking to Nick Logan.” NME, 12/16/1967. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/New-Musical-Express/1967/NME-1967-12-16-S-OCR.pdf
“Donovan in Conversation with John Doran at The state51 Factory” YouTube, The state51 Conspiracy, 1/12/2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bEXDeXDMBc&t=1671s
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