Who provided the mystic backing vocals for Donovan song ‘Atlantis’?
Back in the day, Donovan and Bob Dylan were often considered together like two peas in a pod. But in reality, it really should have been Paul McCartney you had your eye on.
This is not a suggestion that Macca was creeping around like some sort of stealthy spy, stealing song ideas from Donovan or anyone else he could get his hands on. Indeed, quite the opposite was true: even at the most manic height of his 1960s fame, the Beatle was never done with reaching out to other artists and seeing what he was able to glean from their sonic muses.
Donovan was no exception in this case. To this end, although he was never quite rightly credited for all he did, he played a pivotal role in providing lyrics to many a Fab Four hit, ranging from ‘Yellow Submarine’ to ‘I Will’. It was only right, in this regard, for McCartney to return the favour from time to time.
He did that with his contributions to Donovan’s 1966 hit ‘Mellow Yellow’, both in terms of his input on the lyrics and with a backing vocal thrown in. But it was not a case of the pair’s partnership being mutually exclusive or a one-and-done deal. It seemed McCartney’s influence on Donovan’s work actually stretched far further than what first met the eye.
By the time 1969 rolled around, and you arrived at the Scottish musician’s album Barabajagal, the song ‘Atlantis’ stuck out not just for its mythological and therefore mysterious island namesake, but because there was an equally mystical credit on the backing vocals of the track to go with it. Although attributed as “Donovan’s fans”, rumours have long swirled that the former Beatle could have had something to do with it: so what is the truth?
Did Paul McCartney really sing on ‘Atlantis’ by Donovan?
The unfortunate reality of the matter is that no one really knows. ‘Atlantis’ was a true artistic endeavour for Donovan’s part, as he provided a warbling narrative poem for most of the track while only singing the lines: “Way down beneath the ocean/ Where I wanna be she may be.”
Of course, it hardly takes a genius to figure out that this bears some resemblance to the line “I’d like to be under the sea” from The Beatles’ ‘Octopus’s Garden’, or indeed the sentiment of ‘Yellow Submarine’, which Donovan himself had left his imprint on. But at the end of the day, these are nothing more than conjectures of lyrical similarities. The mystery still remains.
Some reports suggest that it’s an impossibility for Macca to have been involved since he was supposedly hiding out in the Highlands of Scotland when ‘Atlantis’ was recorded. But given that this is Donovan’s home nation, wouldn’t it have been quite easy to scout him out? Who knows what they were getting up to?
So, whether it really was the so-called “Donovan fans” or McCartney himself, there will always be a shroud of mysticism surrounding the story of the song. In a way, it would be a shame to burst the bubble after all this time. For as long as these two legends live, you can be sure they’ll be keeping tight-lipped, no matter what the truth may be.
