Search - Sunshine Superman - The Journey Of Donovan on DVD

Good songwriter, bad ego problem

C. Robertson | 05/30/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"If you are someone who only wants to hear the good I'll get that in first and then you can exit. I was impressed with the musicianship and songwriting of the young Donovan. "Catch the wind" is really a beautiful tune and his songwriting, voice, and guitar playing as a young man were all very fine. I am a child of the fifties and a musician and have played and sung some of his music in bands myself without ever really investigating Donovan the person. I am even more impressed with some parts of Donovan's music than I was prior to seeing this. I wish he had stopped talking long enough to let us really listen to some of his earlier music, the little bit I could hear was quite good.


Now, you may exit if you don't want to hear the negative. Even in the context of Donovan being a pop star from my favorite era, the size of his ego is astounding. It takes a while for it to really hit you. I would advise folks who still want to like Donovan as a person when they are done watching this to watch only the first hour or so. By the time the third hour is up you want to write him a letter and tell him that he did not, actually, invent air.

I suspect that the Producer and Director of this was Donovan himself, whoever else may be listed on the credits. At least two and a half hours of the three are just Donovan talking about Donovan and always saying something really nice, if not even things that are embarrassingly so. The first impression you have is that he is quite an intelligent fellow and has a wide range of interests and many rich experiences. By the end you wonder why, if meditation and promoting meditation are such strong issues of his later years, does he still have such a monstrous ego and such intense issues with attachment. By comparison with Donovan, Paul McCartney is modest. Even a true egomaniac could be intelligent enough to hide it during interviews, and Donovan seems to be quite intelligent, so it's a puzzle.

I once knew a man, a famous man, named Velikovsky. Velikovsky lived in Princeton and so had met Einstein, who also lived there. This confused him into thinking that he WAS Einstein and he wrote several absurd books in which he claimed that Earth had collided with Venus in recent historical time. When questioned on his crazy conclusions he loved to talk about his good friend and fellow scientist Einstein, although Einstein in fact had expressly told him he was on the wrong track. I mention this because Donovan hung out with the Beatles and many other famous pop musicians and he also got confused it seems. There is good reason that Donovan the songwriter does not enjoy the repute of Lennon-McCartney, Dylan, or Hendrix. Mellow Yellow or Hurdy-Gurdy Man do not compare in their social influence or level of musicianship with Eleanor Rigby, She's Leaving Home or Across the Universe, to name just a few. Donovan was very talented, but, all in all, not at that level. By the end of his documentary I really felt like I'd like to see someone tell him that.

Why was it not enough for him that he has had fame, fortune, popularity, and a generally rich and happy life? It's a kind of pathetic greed, he has had it all, but despite his long description of his huge interest in meditation, it does not seem to have worked for him, he needs still more and more public love, fame, recognition, and attention. This I just found to be really sad and I think it greatly diminishes him.
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