Donovan, the folk-rock musician behind the 1960s psychedelic hits “Mellow Yellow” and “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” was recognized Friday by the Los Angeles City Council.
The Glasgow-born artist, whose full name is Donovan Philips Leitch, is kicking off his American tour on Monday.
Councilman Paul Koretz, who led the presentation, said listening to The Kinks’ “Sunny Afternoon” and Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” towards the end of “a long summer of 1966” sparked a lifelong love of rock-and-roll music.
“Through his music and his life, Donovan has been a vagabond poet and a troubadour, a rebel and a guide, a visionary and a uniter … and a voice for change,” Koretz said.
Donovan was closely identified with the “flower power” cultural movement of the 1960s, and is credited as one of the innovators who helped create the psychedelic sound. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
Though he now lives in Ireland, Donovan was a long-time resident of Joshua Tree, a Southern California desert community a couple hours drive from Los Angeles.
Cynthia Fox, disc jockey for classic rock radio station 100.3 The Sound, said Donovan has frequently brought his appreciation for Los Angeles to his songs.
“We have to thank Donovan for referencing and mentioning Los Angeles in his songs,” Fox said. “It has been an honor for us playing his music on the air these many years working in radio.”
Donovan thanked the council for the “great honor” and said that “Los Angeles was always a second home to many a singer-songwriter from Britain and Ireland and Scotland.”
He then performed snippets of his early chart-toppers “Catch the Wind” and “Sunshine Superman,” which he said he began writing while walking along a “beach near here” with his then muse and now-wife, Linda.
“She’s the Sunshine Supergirl,” he said.
— City News Service