Donovan Favourites

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:19 am

Well, He Who Has Asked The Impossible Was Making a Feeble Attempt At A Joke. I Will From This Intant In Time Make Every Effort To Ask Peter If I Can Change My Name.

I thought Page did play on every recorded tune known to man including stuff that was recorded before he was born? no?

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:21 am

Roy: The one that always gets me is 'You Really Got Me' by The Kinks. There were indeed session guitarists on that track (including Page and Big Jim Sullivan) but it was Dave Davies who played the extraordinary lead break. Ray Davies has always expressed disappointment that his brother's contribution to that landmark recording has often been wrongly credited to Jimmy Page.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:41 am

Posted on Sunday, July 10, 2005 - 03:24 am:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You really Got Me:

We went into a cheap little studio, and on the session was Mick Avory on drums, Dave Davies playing lead guitar—playing a Harmony guitar which was like a cheap version of a Gibson—I was playing a Maton which is a cheap version of a Harmony. I had a Wallace amplifier which was custom built. Dave was using a Vox and a little six watt pre-amp with knitting needles stuck in it. We had Arthur Greenslade—a session pianist—on piano, and a guy named Vic who was doubling my part because I was singing lead. So there were three guitars and a piano doing the riff. And for all I know, Jimmy Page must have been having dinner with his mother that night.

I remember Page coming to one of our sessions when we were recording "All Day And All Of The Night". We had to record that song at 10 o'clock in the morning because we had a gig that night. It was done in three hours. Page was doing a session in the other studio, and he came in to hear Dave's solo, and he laughed and he snickered. And now he says that he played it!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:42 am

How old was Dave at the time?

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:00 am

Bob: I've read that very same Ray Davies account before. He changes it up sometimes, depending on his mood I think. He's fanciful guy who has been known to practice selective memory and rewrite history sometimes. I think the details surrounding the session for 'You Really Got Me' are honestly confusing because there were two recordings made in different sessions. The first complete recording was abandoned by Davies because he hated it. If I recall correctly, the second recording was made without the permission of their producer. Page claims to have played on the song, and he may have, but probably not the final version that Ray is talking about here. On a side note, Ray also loves to deliver terribly backhanded compliment to Dave by saying that his brother deserves credit for the one great bit of playing he ever did!

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:04 am

Thing is about You Really Got Me and the did Page or didn't he play lead saga is that Page to my knowledge, though admit don't follow his career, but he could have ended all the speculation by simply stating "No I didn't"

Dave Davis would have been seventeen.

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:10 am

Paul: Dave was only sixteen or seventeen-years-old at the time. Despite his young age, he was already an accomplished boozer. By his own account, the early years of The Kinks were a blur for him. He was expelled from school for being disruptive and 'getting girls in trouble', just like Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. Lots of drinks, fights, pills, women, and a few men (by his own admission). He explains that it was a crazy time, but he never considered himself a homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that). Read all about it in his autobiography 'Kink'. I think we're straying from the Donovan topic...

Scastles · Post by **Scastles** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:34 am

The rumor about Page has been floating around forever, which reminds me, McCartney is dead, 'ya know. And Dave supposedly got the sound or effect on You Really Got Me by slicing the cone on his amp or some such nonsense.

Now back to more Donovan.....

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:54 am

Mc Cartney is dead. You'd never get him to admit it, though.

There's a great song on Randy Newman's "Bad Love" album about this phenomenon. It's called "I'm Dead", strangely.

And now, back to the Donovan thread.

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 8:03 am

Anyone ever seen pictures of Donovan with a Rick? I know I've seen shots from what I believe was a BBC-TV performance like 'Ready Steady Go'. As I recall, he may have been miming 'Sunshine Superman' while holding a 1997 or 1998. Seems like he may have borrowed it from someone (possibly Denny Laine?) for the shows. Anyone know the details about this? By the way, I came across of photo the other day of Denny Laine with his Rick after he gave it a custom psychedelic repaint. Has anybody else seen it? Does anybody else find it amusing that Denny Laine went on to play with the guy who wrote 'Penny Lane'? Am I asking too many questions?

Scastles · Post by **Scastles** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 8:12 am

Okay, another one from the rumor mill, was McCartney actually on 'Mellow Yellow', doing the little whisper bit in the background? Of course, this was when he was alive.

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 8:21 am

Stan: According to the same sessionography I consulted before, that is Paul you're hearing on 'Mellow Yellow'. It's also very easy to hear Sir Paul on 'Atlantis'. And Donovan is one of the people whooping it up on 'Yellow Submarine'. It seems they often dropped in during recording sessions.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 8:32 am

And they often 'dropped'...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:04 am

Hippy Light.

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:09 pm

I consulted the sleeve notes of the recent 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' remaster CD. Here's What I found regarding musicians on the title track:

"Although Jimmy Page has apparently claimed to play on some of the sessions for the album, John Paul Jones (musical director) has refuted suggestions that his future band-mates Page and John Bonham played on this track. Jones has identified the guitar player as Alan Parker (later of Blue Mink, as well as sessions for the likes of David Bowie and Elton John), rather than the also-mooted Allan Holdsworth."

This seems to support Roy's assertion that some of these 'who played on what' mysteries could be solved if Jimmy Page himself were more forthcoming and accurate in his recollections. But then again, he played a lot of sessions, and it was the 1960's.