‘Mellow Yellow’: Donovan’s joke with The Beatles that defined the 1960s
In 1963, the patent for LSD expired. There was a three-year period after that where the drug was legal and, although it seems very un-60s-like to mention admin, it was this logistical oversight (or potential conspiracy) that defined an era. The resultant headwind of acid blurred the zeitgeist in a swirl of peace, love and utter psychedelic mayhem. By 1966, even the ancient genre of folk was beginning to feel the heady effects. No song depicts the swinging revolution quite like Donovan’s ‘Mellow Yellow’. And the backstory of a lark with John Lennon only adds to this delirious emblem of history.
When Donovan was asked what the song was about, the folk star mused: “Quite a few things. Being mellow, laid-back, chilled out.” So far so obvious, but there is a lot more frivolity in the welter of the track. As he continued to tell the NME: “They call me Mellow Yellow, I’m the guy who can calm you down.’ [John] Lennon and I used to look in the back of newspapers and pull out funny things and they’d end up in songs. So, it’s about being cool, laid-back, and also the electrical bananas that were appearing on the scene – which were ladies vibrators.”
In short, the whole thing retrospectively seems like a snatch at seizing the zeitgeist by literally rattling off a stream of timely curios that were emerging from it. Lennon did the same thing himself with ‘A Day In the Life’. Indeed, a great deal of Russian absurdists like Daniil Kharms did it a few decades before either of them in Moscow, where the madness in newspapers became the muse of many poets.
Aside from the ‘chill out, dude’ vibe, even the subtle vibrator reference is a hint at the sexual liberation of the times as newly available contraceptives turned youth culture on its head or rather extended youth culture beyond the clutches of early parenthood. Thus, Donovan set about cramming as much of the 1960s iconography surrounding him as he could into one song, layering it with what he called “cool, groovy phrases” as he went along.
This evidences the influence of Lennon beyond the little joke that they shared. You see, Lennon was the master at playing on a pun to reflect the times. Beatles songs are full of hip puns. As David Bowie once said: “The one thing that I really adored about Lennon’s writing was his use of the pun, which was exceedingly good. I don’t think anyone has ever bettered Lennon’s use of the pun.”
Well, with ‘Mellow Yellow’, Donovan tried to rival him, and he even recruited the bespecctacled Beatle’s mate to help him out. However, Paul McCartney’s presence in ‘Mellow Yellow’ is almost mystical—a lingering ghost of the 1960s. Its not even immediately apparent how exactly he features at all.
He was present in the studio during the sessions and both Donovan and ‘Macca’ himself are certain that he contributed something, but it is hard to decipher what that was exactly. This in of itself is also weirdly indicative of the laidback bohemian scene of the time. These days you’d be hankering for that much-needed credit on the callsheet; then, as the song asserts, everything was easy come, easy go. Donavon even claims to have given Bob Dylan and The Beatles a fair few free ideas in his time—though, admittedly, this a rather convenient claim to make.
All the same, the joviality of the biggest star of the day forgetting his role in a defining anthem only helps to make it even more defining. However, none of this is seen as the secret of the song’s wild global success. Nope, Donovan himself puts this down to the time signature of the track. Speaking about why it took off in the States, he says: “A great many of the discs are heard on car radios, and if the music is not sympathetic to the driver, one push of the button and he’s on another station. You can almost change gear in time to ‘Mellow Yellow.'” If that’s the case, it’s perhaps inadvisable driving music to boot.
