Donovan – Hurdy Gurdy Man

“Hurdy Gurdy Man” – Single by Donovan from the album The Hurdy Gurdy Man. B-side “Teen Angel”.
Released: May 1968.

A hurdy-gurdy is an odd instrument resembling an organ grinder. It is played by turning a crank and pressing buttons to play notes.

In the song, Donovan finds a shimmer of enlightenment when he awakes from a sleep to see a hurdy-gurdy man singing songs of love.

The song gave its name to the album The Hurdy Gurdy Man, which was released in October of that year in the United States. The single reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

Donovan wrote “Hurdy Gurdy Man” while in Rishikesh in India, where he was studying Transcendental Meditation with the Beatles. The recording features a harder rock sound than Donovan’s usual material, supplying a range of distorted guitars and aggressive drums. It also features an Indian influence with the use of a tambura, a gift to Donovan from George Harrison, who also helped write the lyrics. The song may have been influenced by “Green Circles”, a psychedelic 1967 song by Small Faces. The similarity is in the melody of the descending verse, the strange vocal delivery, and the topic of being visited by an enlightened stranger. In 2012, Donovan revealed that he had become friends with Small Faces in 1965.

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Donovan - Hurdy Gurdy Man

Donovan - Hurdy Gurdy Man - 196803:22

Over the years Donovan has mentioned various people as playing on this track. It is now understood to be as follows according to John Paul Jones (who did play bass and book the session players) as:

Donovan on acoustic guitar, tambura and vocals
Alan Parker on Electric Guitar
John Paul Jones on bass, also the musical director
Clem Cattini on drums

Donovan’s friend George Harrison wrote another verse for this song, but it was never recorded. Here is that verse:

When truth gets very deep
Beneath a thousand years of sleep
Time demands a turn around
And once again the truth is found

Awakening the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Who comes singing the songs of love
Here come the Hurdy Gurdy Man
And his singing the songs of love

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