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" I was listening to a lot of bebop. And to Miles Davis. Everyone thinks I was just in the folk world in 1966, but in 1963 and 1964, I was absorbing enormous amounts of music, from baroque to jazz to blues to Indian music. "

Donovan

Music

Blues

Jazz

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" The Beatles and I became fast friends. "

" I get plastic nails done in the salon. When I was younger, they were stronger, but now I get my nails built up. Then I can dance over the strings. I say, 'Okay, I need four nails; I'm a guitarist.' Sometimes if I'm in a strange place, the girl says, 'Yeah, all the guys say that.' "

" The songs I write are about searching, and they're ambiguous - always to be understood in different ways. "

" The poet is the voice of the people. And when the poet presents certain ideas, two phrases in one poem can alter a generation's view. So poets have always been feared - and controlled and jailed. "

" There's only one thing, in the end, and that's singing truth in a pleasant way. "

" I think of myself as a poet. I grew up with poetic influences - what I know from my background is the bardic poetry, which came down through oral tradition. "

" The way I sing my songs leads the listener into a place of introspection, a state of mind that can trigger self-healing and the kind of profound rest you cannot get from sleep alone. "

" I already had top 10 records before 'Sunshine Superman,' with 'Catch the Wind' and 'Colors,' but this was a real breakthrough for me. It was a consciousness change for songwriting, as people are now saying I initiated the psychedelic revolution with this album, 'Sunshine Superman.' "

Donovan

Sunshine

Revolution

" I didn't know until later, but my uncle was quite a famous bohemian in Glasgow, and he played guitar. My father was a kind of a poetic bohemian, and he read me poetry. "

Donovan

Know

Poetry

" I've experimented with so many different sounds, it's difficult to say what the Donovan sound really is, but it's essentially my voice and guitars. "

" I've exhibited quite a few of my photographs. I expand them digitally till they're very big. It's an art school thing, I suppose. "

" I was making the music and writing the songs which reflected the emerging consciousness of my generation. "

" I wasn't trying to sound like anybody else. Basically, I was just experimenting all over the place. "

Donovan

Sound

Trying

" After having polio, my right leg was weaker, so I wasn't great at football. But I swam lots and even did long-distance running. "

" I can't help it: when something strikes me, I write it down. "

" Most people think that I heard Bob Dylan first and got a cap and harmonica. Really, it was Woody Guthrie. He was so influential. "

" Linda's in all the songs. 'Sunshine Superman,' 'Hampstead Incident,' 'Young Girl Blues'... Linda's the muse. "

" The similarity between my music and The Beatles' music is it has within it a very positive quality. It's woven with humor. "

" In bohemian circles, we were very aware that poetry was missing from popular culture. "

" 'Superman' had nothing to do with the superhero or physical power. It's a reference to the book 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra,' by Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote about the evolution of consciousness to reach a higher superman state. "

" I sounded like Bob Dylan for about five minutes, and it was blown out of all proportion. "

" I regard myself as an international man, a citizen of the earth. "

" Having had polio never held me back as I got older. Although having one leg smaller than the other isn't much fun, I could always get about without any trouble. Luckily, in the music industry, everyone was only interested in my singing and playing and not the size of my legs. "

" The audiences used to say, 'Are you a Donovan fan or a Dylan fan?' It was all very naive, really. "

" In my time, we didn't know songs could last. All we ever thought of was next Tuesday. You never imagined a future. "

" I became a recluse many times and enjoyed a private life I didn't have during the '60s. "

" Any nobody from the folk blues world could avoid being influenced by Woody Guthrie, who is actually of Scottish-Irish ancestry. "

" Celebrities can suffer a horrible loneliness even though they have millions of fans. I started doing meditations because I realized that a spiritual path was necessary. "

" The human race is ill because we have no contact with the lowest level of consciousness. "

" 'Sunshine Superman' was a pioneering work that for the first time presented a fusion of Celtic, jazz, folk, rock, and Indian music as well as poetry. "