The dimly lighted BergenPAC stage looks unassuming this Thursday, June 1, 2017 evening, sparsely set with a microphone, a small patterned rug, an amplifier, and a short black stool.
The event?
The legendary 1960’s musical icon, Donovan, is here tonight with his 50th Anniversary of Sunshine Superman concert tour — a show originally scheduled for November, 2016, but which had to be postponed due to illness.
Before the festivities begin, this packed house of mostly baby-boomer music lovers chat and make new friends as they talk about ‘60's music together, comparing concerts they’ve attended and artists they’ve seen in person.
One fan, for example, reminisces about Donovan’s 1969 Madison Square Garden concert, revealing that Donovan was carried onstage wearing a toga with flowers in his hair!
These are true ’60’s music fans who have come together tonight to celebrate the music of a generation and to relive how it felt to be young and free.
Before Donovan takes the stage, singer/songwriter Joolz Jones is introduced to the packed house. The step-grandson of Donovan and the grandson of Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones, Joolz welcomes the crowd and invites them to sing along whenever they choose.
Opening with a Jimi Hendrix song on which Joolz’ famous grandfather, Brian Jones, played percussion on the original recording, Jones launches into a robust rendition of “All Along the Watch Tower.”
Deftly accompanying himself on the guitar, Jones continues with several original tunes, exclaiming to the crowd in his endearing British accent, “This is like a dream come true to play in a big theater like this. I opened for Donovan in a little place before, but this place is amazing — you guys are amazing.”
Moving on to a cover version of The Waterboys’ “Fisherman’s Blues,” the engaged crowd claps and sings along while Joolz, jumping up and down as he plays, gets into a reggae-style groove.
Following avid applause, Jones says, “Thank you! I really appreciate it.” Putting his hand to his heart, he earnestly adds, “Thanks again. Thanks to Donovan,” but the crowd won’t let him leave the stage, enthusiastically demanding “One more! One more!”
Surprised and pleased, Jones agrees announcing, “I’m going to try my best for you, but I’ll need your help on this one!”
Adding “This one’s for Brian Jones,” Joolz has the entire audience “whoot/whooting” along with him as he performs an energetic and vibrant rendition of The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.”
The crowd loves this charming descendant of rock and roll royalty and shows it with huge cheers and applause, to which Jones replies, “You guys are the best audience ever! I love every single one of you and I hope to see you again!”
During intermission, we have an opportunity to chat with Joolz out in the BergenPAC lobby where he tells us he is a “self-taught musician” who’s been performing since he was thirteen. In addition to guitar, Jones reveals he also plays drums, bass, and piano.
Hailing from Ireland, Jones discloses he’s currently in New York recording — “in a big studio, for the first time” — a yet-untitled EP of four songs.
When asked how he enjoys performing here in the Garden State, Jones replies, “I love it! The crowd here is so great, and Bergen County is such a beautiful place. It’s my first time here and the crowd really helped me so much with their singing!”
The lights start to dim and we quickly make our way over to our seats to see Donovan enter the stage smiling broadly to an applauding and cheering crowd.
“It took me six months to get onto this stage!” exclaims Donovan. Thank you for waiting!”
Opening with his beautiful 1965 Top 25 hit, “Catch the Wind,” Donovan sounds like he did a half-century ago, his unique green guitar emblazoned with an image of a deer contrasting with his red shirt as he sings and plays.
Telling the crowd that when he’s asked, “What does it feel like to be playing for 50 years?” Donovan says he usually responds by saying, “I wasn’t counting.”
Going on to acknowledge, “When I started this tour two years ago in Scotland — the place I was born — in order to thank you all for 50 years of music, I realized that I’d need to include songs from my early years.”
Moving on to one of those songs, 1965’s “Remember the Alamo,” Donovan uses his voice and storytelling skills to detail the historic events which occurred at The Alamo. Singing, “Jim Bowie lay dying, the blood and the sweat in his eyes/But his knife at the ready to take him a few in reply,” the audience listens in rapt attention.
Following avid applause, Donovan invites the crowd to sing along on his 1965 release, “Colours,” echoing his lead vocal and listening to his harmonica as it rhythmically punctuates the song.
He follows this up with a lovely version of 1966’s “To Try For the Sun,” his voice conjuring up vivid imagery as he sings, “We stood in the windy city/The gypsy boy and I/We slept on the breeze in the midnight/With the rain droppin’ tears in our eyes/And who’s going to be the one/To say it was no good what we done?/I dare a man to say I’m too young/For I’m going to try for the sun.”
In discussing his world-class guitar fingerpicking skills, Donovan explains to the audience, “I learned it so good I taught it to John Lennon.” Adding that Buffy St. Marie wrote this next song about the Vietnam War, he performs a poignant version of his 1965 single, “Universal Soldier.” He follows that up with his 1968 Top 40 smash, “Jennifer Juniper,” demonstrating his top-notch fingerstyle guitar-playing expertise.
Acknowledging, “When I see reviews of my concerts, I’ll read that I’ll tell stories between songs, but sometimes I don’t believe some of these stories myself!” At this point, Donovan smiles and goes on to reveal to the audience, “This was the first song to have ‘hashish’ in it — 1965’s “Sunny Goodge St.”
Moving on to a fun song which he says he wrote “on a trip to the Caribbean to chill out,” Donovan performs a lively rendition of his 1967 Top 20 single, “There Is A Mountain.” Each time he says, “Your turn!” the audience sings and claps along to Donovan’s engaging vocal and his rhythmic guitar strumming.
Telling the audience about his Irish and Scottish ancestry, Donovan explains that, at one time, musical instruments were banned in that part of the world. Going on to note that “women were composing songs for hundreds of years,” he sings a woman’s folk song, his voice crooning the story of a young lass who is about to be married to a boy who is too young for her. Featuring guitar work in which he alternates between melody, harmony, and bass where multiple elements are sometimes played simultaneously, the audience is impressed with his skillful performance and shows it.
Moving on to his 1968 Top 40 single, “Lalena,” Donovan sings, “When the sun goes to bed/That’s the time you raise your head/That’s your lot in life, Lalena/Can’t blame ya/Lalena.”
Following the crowd’s enthusiastic response, he acknowledges, “I had a bunch of hits and every one was different.” Going on to note, “In 1966, full color exploded everywhere and, with it, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock — all talents exploding everywhere,” Donovan laments, “I miss the days before super fame grabbed us by the collar and dragged us into it.”
Here, Donovan uses his master storytelling skills to tell the audience about a time during the mid-1960s when Beatle Paul McCartney stopped by his London flat. When Paul asked what he was doing, Donovan replied he was writing songs. Paul then told Donovan that he was writing songs, too, and admitted he was stuck on a line.
Treating the BergenPAC audience to a short segment of The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” Donovan explains how he came to contribute the line McCartney was missing — “Sky of blue and sea of green” — to the emerging song, after which Paul simply replied, “Yeah, that works.”
Informing the crowd that his wife, “Linda — my Sunshine Superman — is here tonight,” Donovan performs a soulful version of his 1967 Billboard #1 hit on its 50th anniversary for the BergenPAC crowd, urging the audience to sing along with him in their best British accents!
“This next one is for all of you witches out there,” exclaims Donovan as he launches into a compelling rendition of his 1966 psychedelic rocker, “Season of the Witch.” At the end of this captivating number, the audience applauds and rewards him with a standing ovation.
Next up is a performance of his 1968 Top 5 single, “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” the crowd singing along to his trademark tremolo vocal sound. Donovan follows that up with an audience favorite, his 1966 #2 hit, “Mellow Yellow,” the audience smiling and joyfully singing along.
Exclaiming, “Thank you, Jersey! Thank you for 50 years!” the crowd leaps to its feet, cheering for yet another song.
After returning to the stage, Donovan thanks his fans with an encore of his 1968 Top Ten hit, “Atlantis,” the entire BergenPAC crowd happily singing along on the ubiquitous, “Way down below the ocean, where I want to be, she may be,” chorus.
“Peace. Thank you so much!” exclaims Donovan, bowing and blowing kisses to the audience.
At this point, Joolz joins his grandfather on stage and takes a selfie with the crowd in the background of the musical pair bowing together.
As the audience makes its way out of the theater and into the lobby, we chat with several members of the crowd who tell us about their experiences regarding Donovan’s 50th Anniversary of Sunshine Superman Concert.
Danny from Ridgefield — who got tickets for his wife as a gift — reveals, “This concert was a surprise for my wife, Marianne, who is a big fan.”
Marianne — adorned in a flowing dress with flowers in her hair — tells us the concert brought back a lot of happy memories for her.
“I used to lock myself in my room when I was young and listen to Donovan’s songs over and over,” she reveals.
“I had over 20 albums,” Marianne acknowledges, “and some of my favorite songs were ‘Jennifer Juniper,’ ‘Catch the Wind,’ and ‘Universal Soldier’ — all songs Donovan performed tonight!”
Going on to add, “I first saw Donovan in Grenwich Village when I was a teenager, and I threw beads on the stage for him,” Marianne concludes, “his concert tonight was just great!”
Likewise, Donna from Middlesex agrees, calling the show, “Excellent.” From her bird’s eye in the front row, Donna happily adds, “We had the best seats in the house and his stories were wonderful.”
As we make our way out of the lobby and out into the dark night, it suddenly dawns on us that — even though a half century has managed to slip by since we first tuned into his music back in the ‘60s— for so many children of that era, Donovan is still our “Sunshine Superman.”
To learn more about Donovan please go to https://donovan.ie. For further information on upcoming performances at BergenPAC — including The Happy Together Tour 2017 starring The Turtles, Chuck Negron, The Association, The Cowsills, The Box Tops, and The Archies’ Ron Dante on June 20; Don McLean on June 24; and The Zombies on July 24 — please click on www.bergenpac.org.
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