I saw in yesterday’s Guardian that singer Beverley had died in April.

I featured her version of Randy Newman’s Happy New Year on 1/1/2021.

Beverley’s marriage to John Martyn was marred by abusive behaviour on his part and also meant Beverley’s career, certainly in a solo sense, stalled.

This was her second solo single. This time a song written by Donovan – which is obvious when you listen to it.

Beverley: Museum

Though known after her marriage, and in her musical collaborations with John, as Beverley Martyn, in accordance with the Scottish tradition on headstones I commemorate her in death with her maiden name.

Beverley Kutner: 24/3/1947 – 27/4/2026. So it goes.

And on Wednesday it was the turn of Jeff Beck to leave us too early. He was one of that group of English exponents of the electric guitar which sprang up in the early to mid-sixties. But Beck was the electric guitarist’s electric guitarist.

Sadly he never gained the commercial success on his own account to match his status with his peers. He really only had the one hit and that track, Hi-Ho Silver Lining, wasn’t representative of Beck’s musical tastes.

I featured that hit here and his single Tallyman here. As the Jeff Beck Group he also had a hit with Donovan and the song Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love is Hot.)

His earliest brush with fame came with The Yardbirds. His guitar was a major part of their psychedelic sound.

This clip of the group performing Over, Under, Sideways, Down has a remastered stereo edit laid over the footage.

The Yardbirds: Over Under Sideways Down

Geoffrey Arnold (Jeff) Beck: 24/6/1944 – 10/1/2023. So it goes.

Well it is Hallowe’en.

Donovan: Season of the Witch

(Since the video of my original posting of this song at Not Friday on my Mind 8 had been taken down this seemed a good opportunity to replace it. I’ve reposted a live version there now.)

More psychedelia-tinged Donovan from a bit later in the decade than Sunshine Superman. Pity the video isn’t synched – but then it sounds as if the record has been laid over a TV performance.

Donovan: Hurdy Gurdy Man

This one is more straight-forward rock though, if full of nonsense lyrics.

Donovan and the Jeff Beck Group: Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)

An article in Friday’s Guardian suggested Donovan’s Sunshine Superman had a good claim to being the first example of recorded psychedelia and the album of the same title is unjustly undervalued due to his reputation as being a dippy hippy. (To be fair, when you call an album A Gift From A Flower To A Garden you’re asking for it.)

Sunshine Superman’s release was delayed due to a contractual dispute among record labels and so when it finally came out it was no longer ahead of the game but seemed of a piece with what else was going in musically in 1967.

I did feature Donovan’s later song Atlantis in my category Friday On My Mind (entry number 32) as it is more of a forgotten gem. Sunshine Superman still gets fairly regular airplay.

Here it is so you can judge its psychedelic credentials.

(Edited, 10/5/18, to add: the original video is no longer available. This is the only clip I could find which approximated to the 60s single version. It has very tinny sound.)

Donovan: Sunshine Superman

Season Of The Witch (from the album) is even more of a psychedelic experience but wasn’t released as a single in the UK.

Donovan: Season Of The Witch; live version

Edited to add:-
This song is now featured at Friday on my Mind 105.

Donovan suffered a lot of criticism mostly because, as a singer songwriter in the folk/pop vein, he wasn’t Bob Dylan (whom it was said he was trying to emulate.) But who – apart from Dylan – was?

OK, he was maybe a bit soft centred but Donovan still did some good stuff like Sunshine Superman, Season Of The Witch, Hurdy Gurdy Man.

And in Atlantis he contrived what must be the only use of the word antediluvian in a pop song (except of course he speaks it.)

It wasn’t a big hit in the UK or US – it came at a time when his career was waning – but it did make No. 2 in Germany and No. 1 in Switzerland.

Donovan: Atlantis