Donovan Epistle to Dippy

[MrCarl220]

A weird tune! But terrific!

[LindsayTydomin]

Thank you.  Great melody.

[jazzgirlrules]

this always makes me happy and energizes me! thanks D!

[skovie23232]

why cant this be like three hours long

[MrBreemer]

@skovie23232 Donovan wanted it to be.

[ferfinly]

Yeah, very original and strong.

[nicholz1234]

woooooo great take back to the 60's yessssssssssssssssss

[GriffonKeeper]

Elevator in the brain hotel!

[DavidCKendall]

Sooooper good!

[katapappa]

one of the greatest songs

[Silvamedalist]

the guitar sounds... heavy

[Ahsay1]

I can't get this song out of my head! Had to search this song on youTube . Great song.

[JayneBarnum]

How can you listen to this song and not want to kick off your shoes and dance ??

The doctor bit was sooooo far out....

[lionellogan]

Jimmy page played the electric guitar on this song

[jandenotter1]

@lionellogan is that true???

[lionellogan]

@jandenotter1 Yeppy look it up.

[jwmellott]

I remember all other Donovan top 40 songs from my childhood, but not this one. I lived in Ft. Wayne, and WOWO censored a lot of songs with any questionable lyrics (Rich Girl by Hall and Oates, Kodochrome, for example). Maybe they were suspicious of this one too.

[keidun]

@jwmellott

I was talking to someone the other day about the days before FM radio when I would search for WOWO signal at night while driving across Georgia into South Carolina.

[eoj2495]

@jwmellott omg, WOWO censored Kodachrome?? Holy cow! I don't recall hearing this one on WFUN or WQAM in Miami back then either...

[jwmellott]

@eoj2495 Of course they censored it . It had the C word----

( The C--- I learned in high school.)Not acceptable language

on the City of Churches radio back then.

[jwmellott]

@jwmellott They actually played both Rich Girl and Kodochrome with the offensive words

edited out. In Rich Girl for sure and probably Kokochrome, there seem to have been

actual records produced with edits. Kodochrome left out the first verse, Rich Girl

just kept on saying Rich Girl instead of B---- Girl.

[mugwamp4]

@jwmellott ....i wasnt aware kodachrome had such racy lyrics....so i'm guessing Necro and Da Alcoholiks are'nt on high rotation there !!

[frugbaby]

This song will be played at my funeral for sure. Everyone must frug to it. Manditory.

[1856gazoo]

So,luv this song...a great vibe :)

[Mojave888]

"Rebelling against society,

Such a tiny speculating whether to be a hip or

Skip along quite merrily."

Awesome stuff!

[lordsonny789]

grandad :)

[lordsonny789]

This song is completly based on my grandad ron gale

[ClueSign]

@lordsonny789 So, is it about your dad or your grandad??? in either case, very very coooooool!!!

[lordsonny789]

This was written about my dad who was Donovans best friend

[Way2NextLittleGirl]

I can see you've had your fun

[stanleysoldman]

nice

[zamoooomaz]

Epistle=important letter.

I read that this is from Donovan to someone he knew who was in the military and stationed in Malaysia to try to convince him to come home. But I also heard that it means whatever one thinks it means. Either way...Donovan is amazing and his music is indescribably beautiful.

[titostacos]

what year'd this come out? We asked my dad what an "epistle" was...

[uhhuhhhh]

I have Donovans: Greatest Hits on vinyl and I love to dance to this song! It's beautiful

[icemangcoy]

i love the way he says "spectacles"

[PIEKART2001]

He showed the world how make that sound:

DIRGY ACOUSTIC on a bed of BACKPOCKET BASS and REVERSE ELECTRIC with a side of COUNTERPOINT STRING MELODIES all swimming in a tasty ROCK JAZZ DRUM gravy..:

[ggreenwood4]

My Favorite!

[mikeg888]

How great is this song!!! The words were a bit mysterious when it first came out all due to Donovan's great phrasing and terrific accent! My personal favorite of his!

[LeatherCladVegan]

EleVaToR iN tHE bRaiN hoTeL!

[apinkfloydsound]

Epistle To Dippy {m/s?} vocal and acoustic guitar - Donovan electric guitar - Jimmy Page keyboards and arrangement - John Cameron bass - Danny Thompson  drums - Tony Carr strings - Royal Philharmonic

[MrJamesrnolan]

Very trippy. Very psychedelic. Don't fully understand what the lyrics are saying, but that's part of its loopy charm. Poetry set to music? Acid experience description? "The doctor bit was was so far out"--huh? (in a good way). And it made the Top 40! Bully! (in the best old school British sense of the term, though Don is actually Scottish).

[asbpab1966]

Not acid, meth.

[asbpab1966]

Could be both. "Crystal" refers to meth, but "Windows" may refer to windowpane acid.

[MrJamesrnolan]

@asbpab1966 Well, that line about "the doctor bit was so far out" I sometimes think might be a reference to Dr. Robert, the infamous '60s NYC doc who used to give special "rejuvenating" (i.e. Speed and who knows what else in the mix) shots to the in crowd and pop star s alike until they shut him down or he jumped ship before they nailed his ass (I'm not really sure which, or what eventually became of him).

[WillNTobin]

Jimmy Page sounds great on this one... That's right it is him playing electric guitar.

[musikfanat]

I think John Paul Jones is on the keyboards, not sure...

[WillNTobin]

It is possible that Jones is playing. I know he arranged the horns for Donovan's Mellow Yellow album.

[EmilyBarnettGinsberg]

one of the best donovan songs

[christoJihad2]

This is such a blowmind. I remember loving this song in the 7th grade. Donovan was special, and to sing he'd given up tripping by '67 probably kept a lot of fans off halucinogens. Thank God he did that, and deserves credit for it.