A music-obsessed, retired San Francisco lawyer, and author of the rock & roll memoir Jittery White Guy Music (available on Amazon)... picking a random album or song in his collection every day or so and sharing a few thoughts.
To the extent I listen to Donovan--which, frankly, isn't all that often--I prefer his late 60s light psychedelia to his mid 60s meet-the-British-Dylan acoustic folk. But there was a happy collision of the two on the 1968 remake of "Colours." Apparently when compiling a greatest hits record, the label wasn't able to use the original 1965 single, so Donovan recorded a new, more fleshed-out version with some studio musicians (including, as with several of his songs, a pre-Led-Zeppelin John Paul Jones on bass). The song was always quite pretty, but the sparse solo acoustic original was a simple folk song, while the new version, stretched out in length and given some gentle studio touches, feels more emotionally rich, gorgeous guitar lines and quiet percussion and call-and-response vocals.
Then again, my enjoyment of the song is 100% tied to its use at the beginning of the 2002 movie Rules of Attraction. And, ok, I find the movie largely unwatchable after the opening segments, but following a brilliant deployment of the Cure's "Six Different Ways," the movie pivots to a funny and raw split-scene character introduction backed by the '68 version of "Colours," and the two split screens joining at the end wraps up one of the most memorable openings in film history, with that amazing Donovan needle-drop an integral part of the work.
That Rules of Attraction scene:Donovan live duet with Nana Mouskouri (1973?):
Luna's Dean & Britta:
Eric Bibb cover:"Donovan's Colours," a Van Dyke Parks instrumental:
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