Lord Of The Reedy River: Mary Hopkin and the Donovan connection

Ian Malin

A song caught my ear on the car radio recently. The voice was familiar. The song floaty, ethereal. Barely two minutes long, Lord of the Reedy River was a balm on a day of constant cold rain and wind. It took me back to the late Sixties. The tranquil ballad was the first song on a long-forgotten album, Post Card by Mary Hopkin. The Welsh teenager was one of the first artists signed to the Beatles’ Apple label and Post Card was produced by Paul McCartney.

Mary Hopkin had come to the public’s attention on the talent show Opportunity Knocks and soon rose like a comet. At 18 she had a UK No1 with Those Were The Days, a song for whom the phrase middle of the road could have been coined. It was infectious and somewhat annoying. Hopkin, with her long blonde hair and girl-next-door vibe, was not exactly a counter-culture figure. Instead she had the air of a popular primary school teacher who had picked up her guitar to play a couple of songs in assembly.

McCartney plays guitar on Lord Of The Reedy River. It is one of three tracks written by Donovan and based on the classical myth of Leda and the Swan. These were heady days for Hopkin. Post Card was launched with a party in the Post Office Tower and among the guests were Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. The sleeve of the album features a photograph by Linda Eastman, soon to be Mrs Macca, with Hopkin staring out a like a young fawn trapped in the spotlight and looking even younger than her years.

Lord Of The Reedy River brought together two young artists who were to sell millions of records in the late Sixties and early Seventies. McCartney penned Hopkins’ next hit, the jaunty Goodbye, in 1969 and soon her crossover appeal was making her a household name. The following year Knock Knock Who’s There saw her represent Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest. The young Welsh woman was beaten into second place by Ireland’s Dana with All Kinds Of Everything. These two cloying confections are best forgotten.

Donovan Leitch was a Glasgow-born songwriter who emerged from the British folk scene in the mid-Sixties. He was so successful that he was once seriously considered to be the British equivalent to Bob Dylan. His first British hit, Catch The Wind, is positively Dylanesque. Donovan’s cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Universal Soldier also encouraged those Dylan comparisons. It was released as a British single in September 1965 but never charted. In the States the song had a greater appeal with civil rights turning to Vietnam as the focus for youthful revolt.

He’s all of thirty-one and he’s only seventeen

Been a soldier for a thousand years

Donovan’s 1966 hit Sunshine Superman went to No2 in the UK charts and went one better in the States. He became a sort of standard bearer for the hippy culture. In the States the flip side of Sunshine Superman was a description of LA’s strip. Entitled The Trip, it references notables such as Dylan, who he calls the Mad Hatter, and the reference to Lewis Carroll spells it out: ‘Girl you drank a lot of drink-me, but you ain’t in a Wonderland.’

Donovan’s successful collaboration with the British Svengali/producer Mickie Most made him a star who rubbed shoulders with the other big names of the day. John Lennon would not have liked the fey-sounding Post Card but Donovan taught him a finger-picking guitar style that Lennon employed on Dear Prudence, Julia and Happiness Is A Warm Gun.

His backing musicians included Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. But as the Sixties became the Seventies Donovan disappeared from the public’s consciousness. He left the industry for a while. There were intermittent recordings and performances but the hippy troubadour was largely scorned by critics and the public.

Mary Hopkin had three years in the spotlight. She married producer Tony Visconti but the hits dried up. Hopkin, though, continued to record and perform. She had a lot of lucky breaks in her career. First Twiggy saw her perform on Opportunity Knocks and recommended her to McCartney. Next she fought off competition from Sandie Shaw, whose own version of Those Were The Days was also released in 1968, to achieve the holy grail of a No1 with her first hit. Global sales of Those Were The Days topped eight million.

Hopkin’s second album was released in October 1971. That year featured a flood of classic albums and Earth Song/Ocean Song was never going to rival Joni Mitchell’s Blue or Carole King’s Tapestry for the public’s attention. The album was produced by Tony Visconti and Hopkin said it was the album she wanted to make. Certainly, it is superior to Post Card, with its filler material of Tin Pan Alley standards.

Hopkin left the music scene to start a family but she later continued to record. She provided vocals on Rachel’s Song for the Vangelis soundtrack to Blade Runner. She sang with The Chieftains and in more recent years featured on several songs with her daughter Jessica Lee Morgan on her first CD I Am Not. Three years ago the pair teamed up again for an album, Two Hearts.

Donovan, meanwhile, had drifted into obscurity in Ireland. He continued to work but has been plagued by ill health, suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It would be nice to think of him listening to Lord Of The Reedy River from time to time. It was also recorded by Kate Bush and it does have a timeless magic.

Black was the night

And starry

She loosened off her garments

And let fall her hair

In the reedy river

In the reedy river

The other two Donovan tracks were Voyage Of The Moon and Happiness Runs (Pebble And The Man). Will he pen another song for Mary Hopkin? Answers, as they used to say, on a Post Card.

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