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Taking a break from sessions this week and diving into no genre in particular. Tonight it's 60's Folk-Pop-Psych icon Donovan and one of the Jazzier selections from his Mellow Yellow album of 1967, The Observation. With the exception of his debut, most of his earlier projects of the 60's were a combination of Folk, Pop, Psychedelia and a nod in the direction of Cool-School Jazz. Usually making for an interesting and somewhat eclectic listening experience, it also tried to deflect from the stereotype that Donovan was presented to mainstream music as a sort of Bob Dylan-Lite, which just wasn't true. But in the world of pigeon-holes, he had to be put in one, and as we all know, Jazz isn't big commercially.

So here's Donovan's nod to Beat-Poetry and Word Jazz from 1967.

Familiar territory tonight - anyone who was around during the heyday of flower-power/psychedelia will cite at least one Donovan track as background for some chemical exploring. Anyone who wasn't around and who has gotten any one of the hundreds of sixties reissue packages will find at least one Donovan track as essential required listening. Usually it's Mellow Yellow or Sunshine Superman or Hurdy Gurdy Man or Wear Your Love Like Heaven - all songs closely associated with a specific place and time, usually with heavy doses of herbs, pharmaceuticals and liquids.

Tonight it's one of the lesser contributions, The Trip - a song that was actually released as a single but was just as quickly banned from radio airplay because of certain drug references (Methadrine or "Meth-o-dren" as Donovan put it) and a sure-fire bad influence on impressionable youth learning the finer points of roach holding.

Today it seems tame and a little too "on-the-money", but at the time it was risque and oh-so-groovy. And of course, because it was banned, everybody knew about it and made it all that much more popular.

Maybe it just goes with Friday night, no matter when.

(Dana Gillespie - Championship Water Skier, Pop Singer, David Bowie Discovery, Blues Belter . . in that order)

Most people probably remember Dana Gillespie from her RCA album "Weren't Born A Man" which had the distinction of a: being produced by David Bowie and b: best use of a corset in a photo shoot.

I suppose if you wanted to get really abstract about it, her pop-star period could resemble that of Samantha Fox, only in the 1960's. But I think that would be a cheap shot, because Dana Gillespie was (and still is) multi-talented, as is evidence by her solid reputation as a blues singer these last twenty years.

This particular track goes back to her first album issued in 1968 (although it dates to 1967. it wasn't issued in the states until a year later). It's rumored to feature a virtual who's who of London session musicians, including Jimmy Page. "You've Just Got To Know My Mind" opens the album Foolish Seasons, and is written by Donovan. It's a great track that sadly made little impression in the U.S. but was enough to establish her as a major artist in the U.K. and Europe (which was no mean feat, considering the competition at the time).

I admit, it rocks.