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Fact #121465

When:

Short story:

Donovan releases his debut single, Catch The Wind, in the UK.

Full article:

Donovan : I wrote it for Linda, although I hadn't really met her yet. It is a song of unrequited love, yet I hadn't really met her, so how could I miss her? And I seem to write prophetic songs in the sense of the Celtic poet and I wrote this song before I met Linda, of a love I would like to have had and lost.

At a club in Southend, I had been discovered by two Crombie overcoats called managers and I was headed for Tin Pan Alley. The hit single, three-weeks on the innovative television show, Ready, Steady, Go!, this record was made and I went from rags to riches in the old way. From the sleeping bag to the hotel suite in three-weeks. I was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for the best new song which rose to number 4 in the charts, this was "Catch The Wind". This award is only given to a few categories and carries great prestige.

Linda, the muse, she is the lady in "Catch The Wind". It came about that I was in Tin Pan Alley as I just mentioned, in this street of many songwriters, along the road was Essex Music where The Rolling Stones were cutting some tracks down in the basement. I was cutting some tracks two doors along in Peer Music.

Brian Jones came in and he said "You sound like Dylan." My first introduction to music was through Brian. Dylan aside, I was to meet the loved one of Brian only weeks later. Linda Lawrence, she was the first who was sensationalised in the press for having a child with a rock'n'roll star. And the first two rock'n'roll stars of Britain, it is understood, are Brian Jones and John Lennon. But before John, Brian was the real first outspoken, outrageous, eccentric British rock'n'roll star. Weeks later, I was to meet Linda and be torn apart in the heart because she'd had this child with Brian and their relationship was breaking up and Brian was very ill and as everybody knows, we lost Brian soon after.

So if I was telling you about my family I would have to start with Linda. I wasn't to marry her for many years later but I loved her and I fell in love with her and after "Catch The Wind" I wrote this for her and she put me on the charts and the lyrics are very prophetic, it'll take time, but we will be together.

Bob Dylan : I quite like that song, and he sings it quite well. He's very young though, and people might like to try to make him into something that he isn't; that's something he'll have to watch. But the song is O.K.
(interview in the Sheffield University Paper, May 1965)

Neil Finn (crowded House) : When I was 12 years old the first record I bought was by Donovan, because I really liked Catch The Wind. He had these lyrics printed on the sleeve and I wrote a tune for them: "Precious little do we kiss the sun and drink the rain." That's all I remember of it.