| "Hurdy Gurdy Man" | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Donovan | |||||||||||
| B-side | "Teen Angel" | ||||||||||
| Released | May 1968 (UK) June 1968 (U.S.) |
||||||||||
| Format | 7" 45 RPM | ||||||||||
| Recorded | April 3, 1968, CBS Studios, London, England[1] | ||||||||||
| Genre | Psychedelic rock, folk rock, acid rock | ||||||||||
| Length | 3:15 | ||||||||||
| Label | Pye Epic (USA) |
||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Donovan | ||||||||||
| Producer | Mickie Most | ||||||||||
| Donovan UK singles chronology | |||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" is a song by the Scottish musician Donovan. It was written and recorded in early 1968 and released in May as a single and gave name to the album The Hurdy Gurdy Man, which was released in October of that year. It reached #5 in the U.S. and #4 in the UK pop charts. The song was written for Donovan's old friend and guitar mentor Mac MacLeod. MacLeod was in a Danish band at the time called Hurdy Gurdy.[2][3] The song features a harder rock sound than Donovan's usual material, supplying a range of distorted guitars. It also features an Indian influence with the use of a tambura. The song was an anthem for free-spirited hippies at the time due to its psychedelic sound.
In the booklet that came with Donovan's 1992 double CD, Troubadour: The Definitive Collection 1964-1976, Allan Holdsworth and Jimmy Page are listed as the electric guitar players and John Bonham and Clem Cattini as drummers on the recording. However, according to John Paul Jones, who arranged and played bass on the track (and also booked the session musicians), Clem Cattini played the drums and Alan Parker played the electric guitar.[4] This line-up was confirmed by Cattini [5] On Jimmy Page's website, he lists this song as one on which he plays.[6] Jimmy himself has actually never claimed that he played on the track and has also mentioned that Alan Parker was the guitarist on the session.
Chart positions were #4 UK Singles Chart; #5 Billboard Pop Singles (US); #3 Cash Box (US)
The session was produced by Mickie Most and engineered by Eddie Kramer.
In interviews with Keith Altham for the NME and Hit Parader, and Tony Wilson for Melody Maker,[2] Donovan explained he wrote "Hurdy Gurdy Man" as a gift for his friend and early guitar mentor Mac MacLeod. Donovan wanted MacLeod's band Hurdy Gurdy to record it. However, Donovan changed his mind about giving the song as gift and recorded his own version. Donovan claimed in an interview with Little Steven Van Zandt that he had originally hoped Jimi Hendrix would play on the song, but he was unavailable. Jimmy Page has often been credited as playing electric guitar, which Donovan maintains in Hannes Rossacher's 2008 documentary Sunshine Superman: The Journey of Donovan, where he asserts that the song ushered in the Celtic rock sound which would lead to Page, Jones, and Bonham forming Led Zeppelin soon afterwards.
Contents |
The lyrics recount the tale of a nameless narrator being visited in his dreams by the eponymous Hurdy Gurdy Man and his close associate, the Roly Poly Man. Both men come "singing songs of love".[7]
On several concert records, Donovan tells the audience that there is also an additional verse written by George Harrison that was not part of the radio single:
| “ |
When the truth gets buried deep |
” |
When performing the song in concert, Donovan often relates to his audience the story of how this final verse came about. He played the song for Harrison when they met in Rishikesh, and Harrison offered to write a verse for the song. Harrison's verse was recorded: however, in order to keep the running time below the three-minute maximum allowed for singles at the time, the producer had to choose between this extra verse and a guitar solo, and chose the solo. Donovan claims the additional verse is a summary of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's explanation of the way in which the teaching of transcendental consciousness is eventually re-awakened after being been forgotten for a long period of time, and is based on part of the Maharishi's commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. Donovan said the Hurdy Gurdy Man is the one who re-awakens this knowledge; in this case, the Maharishi.
The tambura which Donovan himself plays on the track was a gift to him from Harrison, given while they were both together in India.
The song has been covered by many musicians over the years, including:
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" was most recently used as a framing device in David Fincher's 2007 film Zodiac;[9] in the 2006 film Man of the Year, starring Robin Williams; in the 2006 film Bobby; in the 2005 film Edison; in the 2002 independent film Spun; in Michael Cuesta's 2001 film L.I.E.; and in Barry Levinson's 1996 film Sleepers. The 1994 film Dumb and Dumber featured a cover version by Butthole Surfers.
|
|||||||||||||||||
