Last weekend Donovan was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  This 60’s British folk singer turned psychedelic guru first hit the charts in 1965 with “Catch the Wind”.  His last top 40 hits were from his 1969 album “Barabajagal”. 

                I remember my brother, David, bringing home an album entitled “The Pye History of British Pop Music: Donovan”.  It wasn’t long before I was listening to it more than my brother.  He left it in my care when he went to college, and shortly afterwards I had bought “The Pye History of British Pop Music: Donovan Volume 2”.  These two collections of his early folk work were always on my turntable.  I would come home from high school often to an empty house – I was the last to leave home, my mom had died when I was a Freshman, and my dad would still be at work – and I would turn on the records, relax in the empty house and soak in the crystal vocals, the simple acoustic guitar work, and meditate on the lyrics.  I felt like Donovan could read my mind as I listened to “Catch the Wind” and considered my own unrequited crushes.  I weighed the merits on non-violence as I listened to “Universal Soldier”.  I dreamed of leaving home and juggling on the streets of Boston as I listened to “Rambling Boy”.  He was, in a real sense, a friend.

                After two or three folk albums, his musical style switched dramatically, and he released “Sunshine Superman”.  I was not quick to embrace his new, more complex music with seemingly simpler lyrics.  As I got older, though, I realized he was taking a lot of risks creatively as he became the first musician to dabble in jazz-fusion and world music.  His song “Jennifer Juniper” mixed folk and classical sounds, “Hurdy Gurdy Man” is musical brilliance, and “Atlantis” introduced me to my favorite word, “antediluvian”. 

                Although Donovan was one of the first celebrities to get involved in Hare Krishna,he inadvertently contributed significantly to the Jesus Movement of the 1970’s.  He wrote and performed the sound track for the movie “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”.  This movie, based on the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, had a huge following among the Jesus People, and is still relevant today.  I remember my college roommate and campus Jesus freak singing the title song periodically.

                Part of growing up is realizing that your heroes are not perfect, but can still be admired in their imperfection. Donovan is, to this day, a follower of Hare Krishna.  Clearly, this means there are huge differences in our theological views. Furthermore, some of his pre-conversion work was blatantly about drug use, as even just the titles suggest: “The Trip”, “Candy Man”, “Mellow Yellow”.  Nonetheless, I believe that, rather than an evil from my youth that I must avoid, his songs were one small, but not insignificant thing God used to form me into the person He would use years later.  Every time I go on a ministry trip, somewhere in the back of my mind I’m hearing “Rambling Boy”.  Every time I read of wars and rumors of war, I hear “Universal Soldier”.  “To Try for the Sun” is the sound track always playing during the times I choose risk taking over security.  Sometimes, when I hold Sue’s hand, I can almost hear these words from the song “Turquoise”: 

“Your smile beams like sunlight on a gull's wing
And the leaves dance and play after you.
Take my hand and hold it as you would a flower.
Take care with my heart, oh darling, it's made of glass.”

                Congratulations to Donovan for his well deserved and long overdue election to the Hall of Fame.  Thank you for the music, the innovation, the company you gave me in an otherwise empty house in Vermont 35 years ago.