The Hurdy Gurdy Man
Simple songs of love
Kind of a gloomy fall day here - not too cold, but not nice enough to enjoy being outside either. Bill Evans weather. Terry Callier weather. Donovan weather.
My first exposure to Donovan was through Goodfellas. As Tommy (Joe Pesci) and Jimmy (Robert De Niro) brutally beat Billy Batts (Frank Vincent) to death, Donovan’s dreamy “Atlantis” soars in a perfect moment of cinematic juxtaposition. Every time I watch the film, I think to myself, Damn, this is a great song, but it’s never made me want to listen any further until just recently.
Listening to The Hurdy Gurdy Man now and remembering a rather unenjoyable class I had earlier today, I’ve realized that I prefer to be affected by music rather than amazed. Don’t impress me; move me. Of course, some acts do both - Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Rush - and some acts, like Kiss, do neither. In general, though, I’m drawn to music that alters the weight of my being. As much as I can enjoy listening to Johnny Griffin and his rapid-fire lines, I more often elect to listen to Joe Henderson. Joe Henderson and players of that ilk break through a barrier that players who demonstrate far more technical facility or instrumental perfection can’t seem to get through.
Take the third track on The Hurdy Gurdy Man, “The Entertaining of a Shy Girl.” The melody is simple, the form is basic, and the arrangement is somewhat sparse, at least in comparison to other psychedelic music from the late sixties. From a technical standpoint, there is nothing impressive going on here, yet it’s recently become one of my favorite pieces of music of all time. So much beauty and heart. I couldn’t give less of a fuck about how many notes a musician can play or about the complexity of their harmonic/melodic choices. If it doesn’t move me, I can live without it.
Anyway, I think I paid $4 for this original US pressing. The cover has seen better days, but the art is preserved, and you can’t play the cover. After a cleaning, the disc is in great shape and sounds unbelievable; so well balanced and everything is perfectly present. To think I was considering buying a recent audiophile reissue of The Hurdy Gurdy Man for ten times what I paid for this one gives me a bit of a laugh.