Donovan Said He Couldn’t Have Written 1 Song From The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’

A song from The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is so old-fashioned it could have come out during the Victorian era. One of The Beatles’ rock ‘n’ roll peers said that he couldn’t have written the song because he had no sense of time. Regardless, that singer’s tunes have lasted over the course of generations.

Donovan on why Paul McCartney wrote a song from The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’

One of The Beatles’ fellow British Invasion stars was Donovan. He contributed to psychedelia as much as they did with hits such as “Sunshine Superman,” “Atlantis, and “Hurdy Gurdy Man.” Donovan also accompanied the Fab Four on their fateful trip to India to meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and learn about Transcendental Meditation.

During a 2013 interview with BusinessLive, Donovan discussed his own sense of time. “One couldn’t remember last Tuesday or think about next Tuesday,” he said, laughing. “We were reading about the eternal now … the past is gone, the future is about to happen, and as soon as it’s happened, it becomes the past, so you live in the moment — that’s all there is, only now … we’re the ‘now generation.’

“And I’m still living in the now!” he added. “There was only Paul McCartney, who wrote ‘When I’m Sixty-Four,’ who was looking ahead. I didn’t look ahead. Who knows about longevity? You never know how long anything will last or what makes a song continue.”

Donovan paved the way for 1 of The Beatles and many other singers

While Donovan doesn’t look ahead, he has a sense that his songs have lasted through the decades. “Every three or four years, I seem to reach a whole new audience who respond to these bold, experimental, fusions,” he opined. “They hear ‘Mellow Yellow’ on a Gap advert, get on the internet, and out jumps 27 albums!” Donovan mentioned that his song “Season of the Witch” inspired covers by Led Zeppelin and Courtney Love, while the Butthole Surfers did their own version of “Hurdy Gurdy Man.”

The “Mellow Yellow” singer’s influence extends beyond that. A cover of “Atlantis” by the girl group No Angels appeared in the cult classic Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Donovan himself spoofed the track in the Futurama episode “The Deep South,” which is about the city of Atlanta sinking beneath the ocean. Donovan’s image as a rock ‘n’ roll mystic also paved the way for artists like Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, George Harrison’s solo career, and even Marilyn Manson, an avowed Satanist.

Paul McCartney said George Martin wanted ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ to sound younger

The 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now says Paul penned “When I’m Sixty-Four” when he was a teenager. He revived the tune for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. While Paul added several vaudeville songs to The Beatles’ catalog, he was worried that “When I’m Sixty-Four” was initially “too vaudevillian.”

The Beatles’ producer, George Martin, increased the song’s tempo. He said he did so because he wanted the track to have a more youthful feeling. On the other hand, Paul said this decision made the song sound more “rooty-tooty,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. The “Silly Love Songs” singer sent Martin a bottle of wine when he turned 64.

Donovan couldn’t have written “When I’m Sixty-Four” — but we’re glad that Paul did!