Donovan — “Celeste”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 3, 2023

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

1,036) Donovan — “Celeste”

Donovan (see #908) gives us “[o]ne of the most beautiful, poignant and plaintive love songs ever recorded” (Stephen-kl9wu, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X6VC9zAd6lM&pp=ygUPZG9ub3ZhbiBjZWxlc3Rl), a “majestic” song with “an unforgettable melody” (Stuart Penney, https://andnowitsallthis.blogspot.com/2020/04/donovans-50-greatest-songs-ranked.html?m=1), “one of the most gorgeous Baroque folk-rock tunes by anyone”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/song/celeste-mt0007533448)

Yet, as Unterberger writes:

Celeste,” the closing track on Donovan’s 1966 Sunshine Superman album, is perhaps the singer’s most unjustly underrated track. . . .

[It’s] the natural climax to the Sunshine Superman album’s pioneering blend of rock, classical, and folk instrumentation. The main instrumental hook of “Celeste” is the first sound you hear: a wavering two-note, incantational tone combining the timbres of strings, reeds, and guitars. The sweetly crooned verses, in which Donovan excels at stretching out certain syllables for emphasis, seem to be mixing a paean to both a physical lover and to a muse that visits the singer/songwriter for inspiration. For 1966, it was an unusual ambiguously seductive lyric of the mystical kind that George Harrison would, later in the 1960s with the Beatles and in his early ’70s solo career, also explore from time to time. The melody weaves through an extremely attractive assortment of major and minor keys with unhurried ease. A sympathetic sitar, usually in the background but never used as a lead instrument, adds a suitable hint of Middle Eastern delights. Particularly lush and wondrous is the instrumental break, which provides the title for the song. For the word “Celeste” is not sung, but it’s a celeste* that becomes the lead instrument during that intermission.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/celeste-mt0007533448

* In fact, the name Celeste doesn’t appear in the lyrics. “An actual celeste – per the song’s title – makes its appearance around the 2:06 mark. Unlike a piano, the celeste (also known as celesta) employs its hammers to strike metal keys, not strings.” (Zero to 180, https://www.zeroto180.org/celeste-makes-a-tinkly-sound/).

Here is Donovan live:

Live again:

Here is Scott McKenzie:

Here is Paul Jones:

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