The Hurdy Gurdy Man is the sixth studio album by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the US in October 1968, but not in the UK, because of a continuing contractual dispute that also prevented Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow from being released there. A songbook of lead sheets to the album was nonetheless issued in both countries.
History
Donovan wrote and recorded much of The Hurdy Gurdy Man in late 1967, not long after recording the songs that would form A Gift from a Flower to a Garden. The rest of The Hurdy Gurdy Man was recorded in April 1968, after he visited Rishikesh in India to study Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. John Lennon, Cynthia Lennon, George Harrison, Pattie Boyd, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Ringo Starr, Mia Farrow, Prudence Farrow and Mike Love were there as well. Harrison wrote a verse for "Hurdy Gurdy Man" when they were in India, but it was cut from the studio version in order to ensure that the song was not overly long for a single. On his 1973 live album and his 1990 live album Rising, Donovan explains the story and sings the previously omitted verse. The last verse of "Hurdy Gurdy Man", written by Harrison, is: "When the truth gets buried deep / Beneath a thousand years of sleep / Time demands a turn around / And once again the truth is found". Donovan's songwriting for The Hurdy Gurdy Man centered on drones on such songs as "Peregrine", "The River Song" and "Tangier", and pop music on most of the other tracks. "As I Recall It" continued Donovan's infatuation with jazz. "Jennifer Juniper" and "Hurdy Gurdy Man" were both released as singles well before the album was released. The recording sessions for the album are purported to have included future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Page was in The Yardbirds at the time and was actively looking to rebuild that band. The album creditsJohn Bonham for percussion on the song "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and Clem Cattini as the drummer.
On 24 October 1994, EMI released Four Donovan Originals in the UK. Four Donovan Originals is a CD box set containing four Donovan albums that were not previously released in the UK. The Hurdy Gurdy Man is disc three of that set.
On 24 May 2005, EMI reissued The Hurdy Gurdy Man on CD in the UK with seven bonus tracks.
All tracks credited to Donovan Leitch. According to BMI, "A Sunny Day" and "The River Song" were collaborations with David J. Mills, but "Tangier" was written solely by Mills under its original title of "In Tangier Down a Windy Street". Side one
