Donovan. Retrospective. Scotland's Greatest Albums by Billy Sloan

But when the Scottish singer-songwriter was directed to a plush suite, he could not have anticipated what would happen next.

“When I arrived, a roadie said, ‘Bobby is in the TV room’. It was dark apart from the light on a television that was showing an Austrian

ice-skating championship, with a pretty girl in a mini-skirt circling the rink,” he recalled.

“I sat crossed legged on the floor, had a big joint and was feeling mellow.

“Bobby said nothing … and I said nothing. I slowly became aware there were other figures in the room. One of them leaned over and said: ‘How are you, Donovan?’

“The accent was unmistakable. It was John Lennon. Bobby was, of course, Bob Dylan. He turned off the TV and said: ‘Have you met these guys yet?’ It was The Beatles.

“I couldn’t believe it. Here I was, a kid from a council tenement in St. Vincent Street in Glasgow, sitting with the five people who were probably THE most famous musicians in the world at that moment.

“I knew they were going to be important not only in my life, but in many people’s lives. So that meeting really struck a chord in me.”

Donovan could also not have predicted how important his own music would become.

This is underlined on Retrospective, a superb compilation album whose songs include Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, Catch The Wind, Colours, Jennifer Juniper and Hurdy Gurdy Man. They provide the soundtrack to his incredible 58-year career.

“It seems like only yesterday that I walked out of the old Dickens-style building of Southern Music publishers in London’s Tin Pan Alley to record my first nine songs in their dingy little basement studio,” he revealed in the sleeve notes.

“Soon I would learn all the skills of the recording studio as a major new writer of a different kind of song.

“I had the hunger not for fame, fortune and celebrity but to communicate the message of peace and awareness that we 60s youths were discovering in the bohemian books, jazz cafes, art schools and new folk clubs that were everywhere in the winter of 1964 when I arrived on the scene.”

Donovan’s friendship with Dylan was captured by D.A. Pennebaker in the documentary Don’t Look Back filmed on his 1965 UK tour.

When he shot a promotional film for Subterranean Homesick Blues in an alley behind the Savoy, it was Donovan and US beat-poet Allen Ginsberg who wrote the lyrics on the cards he held up to illustrate the song.

Donovan’s relationship with The Beatles also blossomed when he accompanied them to Rishikesh in India in 1968 to study Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

During the trip, he taught Lennon a style of guitar playing which shaped songs on the White Album.

“When we went to India it was walking away from fame, fortune and the Press,” said Donovan.

“We did nothing all day but meditate and in the evening we got the guitars out. John said: ‘How do you do that? Can you teach me?’ It was finger picking.

“I replied: ‘Yes, but it will take a few days’. He said: ‘I’ve got a few days, Don’.

“Paul didn’t need any lessons at all. He’s a genius so was picking up the stuff by ear.

“That’s why Blackbird and Dear Prudence are so acoustic. In The Beatles Anthology, George said: ‘Donovan is all over the White Album’.”

In 2012, the singer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in recognition of great songs such as his debut single, Catch The Wind.

“I’ve received many awards but this one was the biggest searchlight on an artist who has contributed to modern music and art,” he said.

“After the induction I went to Nashville, where it all began for me. I had seven songs I’d kept in my back pocket for 35 years and recorded them for my album, Shadows Of Blue.

“I’d gone to Nashville in 1965 after Catch The Wind was released on a small US label called Hickory Records. It went to No. 3 in the charts and five big league artists recorded the song … Glen Campbell, Dottie West, Buck Owens, Chet Atkins and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.

“So I was accepted into the country music world. I have both Scottish and Irish parents and Nashville is informed tremendously by Celtic music.”

Donovan got his first break when Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones convinced Elkan Allen, the boss of Ready, Steady, Go! – hosted by Cathy McGowan and Keith Fordyce – to put him on the TV pop show.

“I had no record out which I could mime to, so I had to perform live,” he recalled.

“It was a great way to become popular. At Redifussion Television they had mailbags full of letters addressed to “the kid with the guitar and the curly hair’.

“That’s when I began to write the songs you can hear in abundance on Retrospective, many of which featured Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham, later of Led Zeppelin and Jeff Beck, who were top session players back then.”

Catch The Wind was followed by Colours. Both songs reached No. 4 in the UK charts.

“They tried to get me to cover We’ll Sing In The Sunshine by Canadian singer, Gale Garnett, but I said no, I’ve got this,” he recalled.

“I’d written a poem about a relationship I hadn’t actually had yet. It’s about Linda Lawrence who would later become my wife.”

Catch The Wind was also covered by Bruce Springsteen, Eartha Kitt, Cher and Joan Baez.

Later that year, Sunshine Superman – produced by Mickie Most - hit No. 1 in the US charts.

It paved the way for successful singles including There Is A Mountain, Jennifer Juniper, Barabajagal and Hurdy Gurdy Man.

“My records were going up and down the charts in a period of weeks, so Mickie was always looking for the next single,” revealed Donovan.

“I’d be playing one-night-stands around the country and I maybe only had a couple of days to record a new song.

“I’d written Hurdy Gurdy Man and said, I think we should give it to Jimi Hendrix. I could hear him singing it. But Mickie said no … that’s YOUR next single. I played tanpura, an Indian instrument George Harrison gave me, on the recording.”

But one composition, Mellow Yellow, convinced Donovan he’d made the transition from pop charts to street culture.

“I’d seen fans of Liverpool FC singing She Loves You in The Kop at Anfield. They’d adopted The Beatles’ song as a terracing anthem,” he recalled.

“I came home and some street kids spotted me and began singing … ‘They call me smelly belly’.

“Now THAT is fame. I was once one of those snotty nosed, dirty, ragamuffin kids in Glasgow.

“To actually hear that being sung in the streets meant you’d made it.”

The song hit the headlines when it was said his lyric ‘electric banana’ was a reference to a sex toy. Another rumour claimed you could get high by smoking dried skins of the fruit.

“I’d been to a party in Scandinavia and made up a song for everybody to sing. I was just having fun,” he said.

“When I got back to London, Mickie said … okay Don, what have you got? I went through a bunch of songs and began singing, ‘I’m just mad about Saffron … she’s just mad about me’. Straight away he said that’s your new single. I thought he was joking.

“I told him, it’s just something I made up for people to sing along to. He replied, yes Don, and the whole world is gonna want to sing along too.

“I didn’t know Mellow Yellow would go around the planet with its own controversy.”

Now at the age of 75, Donovan has no plans to stop performing. The man caught in the eye of a music and cultural hurricane – who influenced such artists as Alice Cooper, Belle And Sebastian, Marc Bolan and Jack White – says there is even more to come.

“Just being alive is a good thing. When I think of the people who’ve now gone, they were like comets … fiery, bright and full of energy. But comets don’t last very long,” said Donovan.

“Linda has looked after me. I’m in good health. I still have my hair. I sing better than ever. And people recognise me in the street.

“That fame was given to me by my fans. So I’ll continue to do what I’ve always done. I’m supported through my songwriting and am very grateful for that. But I’m NOT finished yet.”

THE Billy Sloan Show is on BBC Radio Scotland every Saturday at 10pm.

WHERE DID THE NAME COME FROM?

DONOVAN was given his iconic name thanks to his father’s love of Hollywood movies.

“One day I said to him … why have I got an Irish last name as my first name?” he recalled.

“He told me that when my mother was about to drop me he went to a Glasgow cinema to see a cowboy film.

“In one scene the sheriff walked into a saloon and said to the outlaw … okay, Donovan, draw.

“His own name was Donald and he wanted another D-name, but not Dougal, Dermott or Douglas.

“So that was it. He said, my son is gonna be called Donovan.”

In 1963, the singer was offered a deal by Pye Records. His father had to sign the contract because he was only 17 years old.

“When they asked him, what’s your son’s name he said … Donovan Leitch. But they thought it would sound better to use just one name,” he revealed.

“My parents had been a bit concerned when I’d hitchhiked away to follow a musical path. But I returned with a hit record and realised I’d actually come from a very literary, poetic, musical and bohemian family.”

Donovan was part of the Swinging Sixties explosion in London driven by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Twiggy and Carnaby Street.

One magic moment really stands out for the singer … the day he welcomed Jimi Hendrix to the UK.

“When I look back, I seem to be at the crossroads of so many changes in music and culture,” said Donovan.

“I was friends with Chas Chandler of The Animals who brought Jimi to this country. We were staying in this crummy hotel in Paddington.

“In walked this thin black guy with an Afro, carrying one guitar case and a tiny bag of clothes.

“Chas said … meet Jimi Hendrix, he’s just come in from New York.”

His first gig was at the Bag O’Nails club, a popular hang out for musicians.

“Chas called everybody in town to come down and see him,” revealed Donovan.

“All the ace guitar players, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend and Jeff Beck were there.

“On stage came Jimi, with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, and the place erupted.

“The story goes that they all looked at each other and said … what are we going to do now?”