10 Reasons Marvel’s ‘Star Wars’ Comic Is The Most

A long time ago, right in the galaxy that you and I babble and drool in every day, there were no prequels. There were no CGI animated cartoons. There was no J.J. Abrams (at least not one who made movies or possibly even had gotten his first zit yet). There was no Timothy Zahn, no “Ewok Adventures”, “Droids” cartoons, or even a Return of the Jedi, Empire Strikes Back, or Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. Way back in 1977, there were only two ways you were going to get “Star Wars” stories: by seeing the movie or by reading Marvel’s brand-new line of Star Wars comics.

It all started on April 12, 1977, with writer Roy Thomas and artist Howard Chaykin’s faithful six-issue adaptation of the first film. The successful comic was not going to end there, though, and since George Lucas’s proper sequel was still more than two years away, Marvel’s writers had to get a bit creative with the “Star Warriors,” as they christened Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and C-3PO (interestingly, without any muscle to throw around or vocabulary, the ever-popular R2-D2 was very rarely given much to do in the comics’ ten-year run). Before Star Geeks debated endlessly and exasperatingly about what was and wasn’t “canon,” these illustrated adventures could get pretty daffy, but that was a big part of the fun. At times, Marvel’s Star Wars comics could even be genuinely thoughtful and dramatic. Fans who don’t take a trio of children’s films about wookiees and jawas too seriously will find plenty of reasons to agree that those old Marvel comics were the most. Here are ten of them.

1. Deleted Scenes

Ten Reasons 'Bride of Frankenstein' is the Most!

There’s a lot of brilliance packed into Bride of Frankenstein’s slight 75 minutes. Here are 10 reasons why James Whale’s final monster movie remains cinema’s greatest.

1. What of My Mary?

As we open on Bride of Frankenstein, we witness one of its most inspired scenes. We are not in a laboratory of blasphemous horrors but an opulent living room where literary giants Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley discuss the latter’s most famous creation. Informing her husband that Frankenstein “wasn't the end at all,” she proceeds to tell the tale of the Monster’s quest for a mate. There is literary accuracy in this scene, since Shelley’s original novel did, indeed, include a major subplot in which the Monster compels Frankenstein to build him a bride. There is also great cinematic ingenuity in this prologue. It is a way to directly transition into the second chapter of Frankenstein, to acknowledge its literary origins, and to tie the new monster to her true creator, as Elsa Lanchester plays both Mary and The Bride. As barrier-breaking ideas often do, the prologue had its obstacles. Editor Ted Kent wanted Whale to cut the sequence, feeling it detracted from the horror. The décolletage-baring gown Lanchester wore as Shelley set off alarms with the censors. Fortunately, Whale ignored Kent and a few minor cuts placated the censors enough for the prologue to remain, providing Bride of Frankenstein with its cleverest postmodern touch.

2. Woman… Friend… Wife

She only has four minutes of screen time in the film named after her, but Elsa Lanchester’s Bride of Frankenstein is without question the most memorable female monster in cinema history and certainly the first significant one. With her lightning-streaked fright wig and childlike awkwardness, The Bride has inspired countless imitators and been captured on an innumerable amount of merchandise. Her unsettling combination of morbid weirdness and early-Hollywood glamour (designed by Universal’s resident makeup whiz Jack P. Pierce) laid the groundwork for all of the sexy grotesques that followed her, from Vampira to Princess Asa Vajda of Black Sunday to Morticia Addams to Elvira to Lady Sylvia Marsh of Lair of the White Worm. Her hairstyle has been appropriated in one form or another by personalities ranging from Lily Munster to singer Dave Vanian of The Damned. Her teasingly brief presence in Bride of Frankenstein sparked numerous attempts to fill in the gaps (Elizabeth Hand’s imaginative feminist novel The Bride of Frankenstein: Pandora’s Bride; Franc Roddam’s film The Bride), yet she packs a lot of living into her four minutes on film. She learns to walk by leaning on the shoulders of her creators, takes in all around her with a wide-eyed mixture of wonder and disgust, tentatively considers a romance with an ugly but sensitive brute, and ultimately says “no thanks” to it all. That concise arch from childlike hesitancy to aggressive self-reliance makes The Bride a fully realized personality despite her lack of screen time. Couple that complexity with an iconic appearance and you’ve got the most unforgettable female monster of them all.

3. A Perfect Human

Ten Reasons Christopher Lee is the Most!

Today, Christopher Lee turns 90 and Psychobabble surveys decades of reasons why he’s still the most.

1. Has any actor ever portrayed as many iconic characters as Christopher Lee? He equaled Lon Chaney, Jr., by playing four of the major movie monsters: Dracula, The Frankenstein Monster, The Mummy, and Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde (renamed Dr. Marlowe and Mr. Blake). He also filled the shoes and cloven hooves of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, Fu Manchu, Rasputin, Lucifer, Tiresias, Saruman, and the Jabberwocky. That’s quite a cv.

2. Christopher Lee had a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the studio and role that made him famous. He has been known to refuse to sign memorabilia depicting him as the title vamp in Hammer’s Dracula pictures. At the same time, he has been strangely devoted to Hammer. In the studio’s earliest days, he was quick to defend its films against its many critics by describing them as “adult fairy tales” rather than “Horror,” a term he loathed. In later years he often narrated documentaries about the studio and answered the call when it revived in 2007 to take a role in its comeback flick. The Resident was a pretty bad movie, but it was still nice to see Mr. Lee’s face follow the Hammer logo once again.

3. After playing the Count in the romantic tradition of Bela Lugosi a couple of times, Christopher Lee got the chance to be the first actor to really portray Dracula as Bram Stoker described him in Jesús Franco’s excellent Count Dracula (1970). Lee wasn’t the first to don a mustache to play the vampire. That distinction goes to John Carradine, but Lee was the first to resemble Stoker’s Dracula and perform in scenes and speak dialogue far closer to the source novel than we’d seen in any earlier Dracula film.

4. On screen, Dracula had a first-class nemesis in Van Helsing. In real life, Christopher Lee had a wonderful friend in Peter Cushing. Though the serious Lee and the jocular Cushing could not have had more different personalities, they remained close friends and were always quick to defend each other to jerky journos looking for discord behind the scenes of those nasty, nasty Hammer gore fests.

5. Christopher Lee’s closest Horror associate will always be Peter Cushing, but he was also involved with the genre’s definitive star. Christopher Lee was both a co-star of Boris Karloff (Corridors of Blood, The Curse of the Crimson Altar) and a next-door neighbor. In his autobiography, Tall, Dark, and Gruesome, Lee wrote, “When we came out of our houses simultaneously, people expected to see body-bags dumped on the pavement”!

6. Christopher Lee is literally the most! At 6’5” he is one cinema’s tallest leading men.

7. Christopher Lee is a man of numerous talents, not the least of which is his stunning bass. He first got to show off his singing abilities in his best film, the 1973 Horror musical The Wicker Man. In 2010 he released his very own album, the wacko “symphonic metal” opera Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross.

8. Paul McCartney loaded the cover photo of Wings’ excellent 1973 L.P. Band on the Run with familiar faces: boxer John Conteh, journalists Michael Parkinson and Clement Freud, actors Kenny Lynch and James Coburn, and of course, the three members of Wings. But by far the coolest face belonged to Christopher Lee.

9. OK, so the Star Wars prequels weren’t too hot (and The Phantom Menace was downright wretched). Still, it was pretty groovy that George Lucas selected Christopher Lee to play the villainous Count Dooku in Episodes II and III. Lee’s casting was a neat way to link the new films with the original trilogy because of his unbreakable association with Peter Cushing, who’d played General Tarkin in 1977’s Star Wars. And let’s not ignore the significance of his character’s name: “Dooku” may sound like something you’d find in a diaper, but “Count” is another unmistakable reference to Lee’s best known role. It was a cool move for some pretty uncool movies.

10. Even as Christopher Lee turns 90, he is just as in demand as ever. The 21st century has been one of the most active eras of his career. According to imdb, Lee has loaned his voice and face to some 30 films and television series since 2000. They have included such major releases as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and upcoming Hobbit movies, the Star Wars prequels, several Tim Burton films, and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. After all these years, Christopher Lee is still creating new cinema icons. That’s the most.

50 Years/50 Reasons The Rolling Stones are the Most!

According to Karnbach and Bernson’s It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first went to see Brian Jones and Ian Stewart rehearse with their new blues band on May 25, 1962. Kismet. For the next fifty years, The Rolling Stones would remain the definitive Rock & Roll band, leaving a trail of milestones in their wake. Here are 50 that prove The Stones are and have always been the most.

1. Start Me Up
“Hot Stuff” notwithstanding, Stones albums could always be counted on to get off to a rousing start. Track one always packed a little extra kick: “Route 66” on their debut, “She Said Yeah” on Out of Our Heads, “Sympathy for the Devil” on Beggars Banquet, “Gimme Shelter” on Let It Bleed, “Rocks Off” on Exile on Main Street, “Start Me Up” on Tattoo You. Sometimes The Stones lured you in with beguiling mood music, as they did with “Mother’s Little Helper” on Aftermath, “Yesterday’s Papers” on Between the Buttons, and “Sing This All Together” on Their Satanic Majesties Request. No matter what, as soon as the needle drops on side one, there’s no mistake you're listening to the world’s greatest Rock & Roll band.

2. Imagination
Sometimes The Stones’ exploits overshadow their music. Mick and Keith are rarely spoken of in the same breath as fellow lyricists Dylan or Lennon and McCartney, but could they be Rock’s greatest wordsmiths? They were not as poetic as Dylan. They were not as empathetic as The Beatles. Yet Mick and Keith were far more personal, varied, and imaginative than many listeners realize. Songs such as “Before They Make Me Run” and “Wild Horses” are vulnerable contemplations of real situations. “Citadel”, “Torn and Frayed”, and “When the Whip Comes Down” establish incredibly detailed scenarios of fantasy and reality. “Sympathy for the Devil” may be Rock & Roll’s finest—and most frightening— character study, while “Monkey Man” might be its most hilarious self-parody.

3. Copy Me
One of the things that made Mick Jagger such a stellar frontman was his ability to mimic the greatest frontmen before and of his time. He spent the first few Stones records working hard to capture Chuck Berry’s audible smirk, Jimmy Reed’s slur, Marvin Gaye’s sweet roll, and Otis Redding’s transcendent shout. By the mid-‘60s he was an expert impersonator who had Ray Davies’s wryness (“Cool, Calm, & Collected”), The Beatles’ Liverpudlian harmonies (“Yesterday’s Papers”), and Dylan’s whine (“She Smiled Sweetly”) down pat.

4. The Bass Player He Looks Nervous…and the Drummer, He’s So Shattered…
Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman were never a flash rhythm section like Moon and Entwistle, or rhythmic melodists like Starr and McCartney. They just locked into grooves like no other white rhythm section, smearing slicks of drums and bass Keith could slide all over with his greasy licks. So what if Charlie played a little behind the beat? So what if Bill didn’t have the interest in distinguishing his lines from the mix, making it necessary for Keith to tear the bass from Bill’s hands and do the job himself from time to time? There’s still an undeniable magic to their boogie: Charlie wacking away like a slightly slack metronome; Bill tossing off walking runs with ease, occasionally dive-bombing down neck like Bo Diddley. On stage, the guys looked like they could not have been less interested in what they were doing. The exquisite rumble they made proved otherwise.

5. …and the Guitar Players Look Damaged
While Bill and Charlie were perfecting their rhythms at the back of the stage, Keith Richards and Brian Jones were out front revolutionizing guitar dynamics. The lead and rhythm player had always been distinct entities in Rock & Roll. Keith and Brian started changing that through a technique Keith christened “weaving,” instinctively trading rhythm and lead roles within a song. While Mick Taylor’s virtuosity meant that the roles became less integrated during his tenure, The Stones’ acquisition of Ronnie Wood in 1976 resulted in the most perfect weaving Keith would ever achieve with a guitar partner.

6. Slipped My Tongue
It’s been slapped on T-shirts, jackets, and air fresheners (though it’s hard to believe anything associated with The Stones would actually make the air smell better). Over-commercialized for sure, The Rolling Stones’ tongue is still a perfectly lascivious, unbelievably iconic logo for the world’s dirtiest band of pirates. It has certainly gotten more mileage than if it had “slowly (turned) into a cock,” as Keith Richards once suggested it might.

7. I Got the Blues

Five Reasons Dave Davies Is the Most

As founding Kink Dave Davies celebrates his 65th birthday today, let’s take a look at a few reasons why we think he’s the most…

Slashing the Fart Box

Guitar distortion had been a tool of Rock & Rollers since before the genre even really began (check out Ike Turner’s work on Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88” in 1951). Yet many credit “You Really Got Me” as the first instance of fuzzed-out guitars because the sound Dave Davies achieved on it was so unique. He’d been experimenting with guitar sounds since the age of 16 when he nearly barbecued himself by linking his little Elpico amplifier to a 60-watt Linear, a Vox AC 30, and a radiogram. When one of the wires crossed the transformer at the back of the Linear amp, Dave was blown across the room in a puff of smoke. That taste of electricity only electrified his curiosity, and he kept searching for the ultimate crunch, which led him to put a razor blade to the cone of his Elpico. He shredded it, and something new was born. While brother Ray was messing around with a new two-chord riff on the piano, Dave plugged into the amp he’d rechristened “the fart box” because of its funky new sound. Suddenly, the jazzy number called “You Really Got Me” came into focus as a monstrous rocker. Before long, the cagey techs at Gibson had commercialized Dave’s cro-mag amp modification with its first fuzz pedal, the Maestro Fuzz Tone and Rock & Roll forever changed for the heavier.

Got My Feet on the Ground

The fuzzy weight of The Kinks’ early hits dissipated as the ‘60s boogied on, and Ray’s delicacies, such as “Waterloo Sunset”, “Autumn Almanac”, and “Days”, replaced power-chord pile drivers like “You Really Got Me” and “Till the End of the Day”. For many Kinks fans, this period was the band’s finest, yet they never shed Rock & Roll completely. This is largely due to the increasing involvement of Dave Davies. As Ray’s songs grew more tender, Dave balanced them with the raging voice he was developing in nasty stuff like “Love Me Till the Sun Shines”, “Creeping Jean”, “Mindless Child of Motherhood”, and “Rats”. It is telling that Ray handed the heaviest number on the largely fragile Village Green Preservation Society, “Wicked Annabella”, to his younger brother. Dave’s raw, ragged voice was a potent counterpoint to Ray’s quavering whisper. His guitar work remained forceful even on the softest tracks. Dave was capable of ethereal beauty on occasion (“Strangers”), but he would always be the Rock & Roll heart beating inside The Kinks.

Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Between the sharp yet conservative mod styles of the early ‘60s and the “Showering and shaving is for pro-establishment scum” aesthetic of the late ‘60s, fashion exploded in a rainbow of vibrant shades, dazzling patterns, and daring shapes. Clothing choices traditionally limited to women were now fair game for the lads, who could be seen sporting great floppy hats, and according to “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”, “frilly nylon panties.” Ray may have intended his toe-tapping tune as a chastisement of trendy clothes horses, but brother Dave could have only regarded it as a celebration considering how he attempted to out-do his fellow fashion followers. Photos of Dave circa-1967 will reveal a chap dedicated to only the most outrageous of dress and grooming. Upon a figure sporting plank-sized muttonchops, the most severe hair-part this side of Oscar Wilde, and mascara-drenched eyes, Dave draped lacey Edwardian blouses, tinted goggles, flowing scarves, yards of paisley, skintight tartan trousers, and a stripy stove pipe hat. Like his buddy Brian Jones, Dave was confident and physically beautiful enough to always carry off the wildest fashion with utmost dignity.

There Is No Life Without Love

Brian Jones and Dave Davies nearly shared more than forward fashion sense when the Stone and the Kink flirted with a sexual liaison in the mid-‘60s. The potentially historic union was never meant to be, though Dave did not hold back when it came to other boys. During an age of adventurousness and experimentation, and years before pop stars like Elton John and Freddie Mercury stepped out of the closet, Dave Davies was freely engaging in bisexual dalliances with Swinging London figures such as Long John Baldry, who’d talk Elton out of an ill-conceived hetero-marriage and inspire the epic “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”. Dave Davies largely defines himself as heterosexual, but is unabashed about his affairs with men in his autobiography Kink. While old-guard rockers like Little Richard were futilely attempting to stamp out their true selves with the dried-out Band-Aid of religion, Dave Davies was doing as he pleased and didn’t give a damn what anyone else thought.

This Is Where I Belong

Ray’s dominance of The Kinks was a sticking point between him and his brother, so you’d think Dave would have been over-enthused by the prospect of a solo record. This was Pye Record’s scheme to capitalize on Dave’s budding songwriting skills, as evidenced by his hit “Death of a Clown”, without unbalancing the power within The Kinks. Dave generally was allotted a track or two on the band’s L.P.s à la George Harrison. The formula worked well, so the label decided it made sense for Dave to branch into some extra-Kinks activities with an album of his own. The project was something of a ruse from the start, as Dave’s backing band was none other than The Kinks and Ray was on board to produce. In effect, Dave’s “solo” album would really be a Kinks album. But the record was not meant to be, largely because Dave preferred proper Kinks records despite the inflated role of his older brother. Pye continued to push for the disc, and Dave obliged by forcing out songs to his dissatisfaction. Much of his work during these sessions was stellar—“Mindless Child of Motherhood”, “Creeping Jean”, “This Man He Weeps Tonight”, “Lincoln County”—but his heart was never in it and the label eventually lost its zeal too. Although Dave would pursue solo projects with greater commitment in the years to come, he was perfectly happy remaining in the band. Fortunately for the rest of us, Universal Music finally released these sessions as Hidden Treasures late last year, indicating that he could have had a great solo career had he not been so loyal to The Kinks. The wait may have been tough for fans, but Dave’s loyalty is just further proof that he’s the most.

10 Reasons Donovan’s the Most

Donovan quickly evolved from a folksinger many critics dismissed as the UK’s pale response to Dylan to a completely unique psychedelic minstrel. As Mr. Leitch turns 65 today, let’s dig ten reasons why he’s the most.

1. Do Look Back

With his little cap and acoustic guitar, the press were quick to label Donovan a Dylan clone, and Bob was rightfully skeptical when reading headlines about his new rival during the 1965 tour D.A. Pennebaker captured in Don’t Look Back. When Dylan hosted a Double-D summit in his hotel room, the guys sat down and debuted their latest songs for each other. Donovan’s was the flimsy, twee “To Sing for You”; Dylan’s the lacerating “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”. For years this sequence was held up as a prime example of Dylan’s hipness and Don’s lameness. Viewed decades removed from the incident, it’s hard not to see this scene in a totally different light. Sitting off to the side in his shades as Donovan sings, Dylan is condescending and patronizing (“Hey, that’s a good song, man!”). Donovan comes off as sweet and gracious in light of the undercurrent of ridicule. In just a little over a year, Donovan would reemerge with a totally new sound, and no one could justifiably accuse him of clinging to Dylan’s Cuban heels again.

2. All Raga All the Time

In 1965, The Kinks (“See My Friends”) and The Beatles (“Norwegian Wood”) introduced a new pop subgenre by melding modern folk-rock with the drone and instrumentation of Indian raga. By the next year, everyone was jumping on the “raga rock” wagon: The Stones, The Cyrkle, The Byrds, The Yardbirds. And though The Kinks and The Beatles were not finished with the form yet, only one artist fully explored raga rock as a conceptual thread streaming through nearly every track on 12 inches of vinyl. In September of 1966, Donovan released Sunshine Superman. Aside from a couple of rocking tributes to Swinging London (the title track, “The Trip”) and one spooky vision of apocalypse (“Season of the Witch”), the LP was essentially Rock’s first full-length raga rock album. Donovan approaches the style from the modal acoustic folk of “Legend of a Girl Child Linda” to sitar spiked stuff such as “Three King Fishers”, “Ferris Wheel”, “Guinevere”, and “The Fat Angel”. Intoxicating.


3. Legend of a Girl Child Linda

Linda Lawrence thought she had it made when she hooked up with Brian Jones, the pretty, enigmatic, and absurdly talented original leader of The Rolling Stones. Things turned sour when she became pregnant with one of the many kids Jones sired. True to form, he lost interest in Linda when she broke the news. Even more loathsomely, he got violent. Brian and Linda’s scuffles were so dire that The Pretty Things, who roomed below Jones, could here the crashes through the ceiling of their flat. Linda lucked out when Jones took off for good, and sweet, gentle Donovan entered her life. After a long courtship, the two married in 1970, and Don became father to young Julian Brian Jones, now Julian Brian Leitch. Linda and Donovan had two kids together, and celebrated their 40th anniversary last year, which must be some sort of Rock & Roll record.

4. Busted

The Drug Bust that rattled the ‘60s pop world was certainly the one that went down at Keith Richards’s Redlands estate on February 12, 1967. Keith and Mick faced stiff sentences on trumped-up charges, and the outcry from their fans, peers, and even the press (conservative William Rees-Mogg’s famous Times editorial “Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?”) was unprecedented. The Stones’ bust may have been Britain’s loudest, but the first was aimed at innocent little Don. A few months after some of Donovan’s friends were depicted enjoying a toke in the TV doc A Boy Called Donovan, the blue meanies arrived to whisk him off for holding a little grass. Fortunately, the charges evaporated and Don was free to continue sprinkling his psychedelic pixie dust on the tracks that would comprise Sunshine Superman. If Donovan’s bust shocked the older generation, his complete renunciation of all drugs after meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi a couple of years later must have been equally shocking to the kids.

5. Sky of Blue...

John, Paul, George, and Ringo were quite generous with their talents, assisting pals such as The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Ron Wood, Cream, and Elton John in the studio. But the first artist deemed worthy of a Beatle’s helping hand was Donovan. Paul McCartney could be heard bumping and grinding on Don’s late ’66 hit “Mellow Yellow” (he is especially audible ad-libbing during the instrumental break). Months earlier, Donovan became the first composer aside from Lennon to co-write a tune with McCartney when he contributed the “Sky of blue, sea of green” line to “Yellow Submarine”.


6. “All they know is what we teach ‘em.”

Donovan made an even greater contribution to Beatledom in 1968 when he tagged along with the Fabs on their Indian retreat with the Maharishi. During the trip he reportedly taught both Paul and John the fluid finger picking technique taught to him by finger picking virtuoso Bert Jansch years earlier. Without this valuable knowledge, “The White Album” may have lacked such tracks as “Blackbird” and “Julia”. Thanks, Donovan!

7. “Getting a little bit better, no doubt.”

Lots of ‘60s rockers spoke out against war, but few put their money where their mouths were like Donovan did. His first single of’67 was, in the opinion of this writer, his greatest. “Epistle to Dippy” is musically beguiling, with its twangy guitar hook and cheeky fiddle break. Lyrically, it is a message to Donovan’s old friend, who went by the nickname “Dippy” and was currently serving in the ranks of the British Army stationed in Malaysia. When Dippy heard himself name checked in Donovan’s latest hit, he contacted the singer. And what did Donovan do after reconnecting with his buddy? He personally paid for Dippy’s military discharge! We should all have friends like that.


8. For Little Ones

The inescapable popularity of “Yellow Submarine” inspired every artist swinging in mid-‘60s London to bake up their own confection for the kiddies. The Kinks, The Who, The Move, even The Rolling Stones all made records fit for pre-teen consumption. But none of these artists were as apt for such tunes as whimsical Donovan. In late 1967, he released Rock’s first full-on children’s album. The double-disc (and Rock’s first box set) Gift from a Flower to a Garden included one record aimed at adults called “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” and one appropriately titled “For Little Ones” on which he delivered such delicate fantasies as “The Enchanted Gypsy”, “The Tinker and the Crab”, and “Starfish-on-Toast” (the two discs were released as separate albums in the U.S.). Solidifying his devotion to making listenable music for tots, he put out H.M.S. Donovan in 1971. This time all four sides of the double L.P. were custom made for the kiddies. Young parents must have expelled a hearty sigh of relief knowing they could finally toss those old copies of “The Hokey Pokey” in favor of a platter more pleasing to mature ears.


9. Truth

Those who may have been inclined to dismiss Donovan as a lightweight have long praised him for one monumental contribute to heavy rock: his “Hurdy Gurdy Man” is the first record to feature all three of Led Zeppelin’s instrumentalists: Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones. Actually, it isn’t. In fact, John Paul Jones is the only Zep to contribute to “Hurdy Gurdy Man”, but that does not squelch Donovan’s heavy credentials. On his next L.P., Barabajagal, he recruited The Jeff Beck Group to back him on the title track and “Superlungs (My Supergirl)”. The results are two bits of white-hot evidence of Donovan’s power as a pure rocker and the Jeff Beck’s Group’s ability to stir up a funky murk to rival Sly and the Family Stone.


10. “One chants out between two worlds.”

The Beatles got all the press for following Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but his most devoted pop follower was Donovan. More than four decades after his first Indian excursion to visit the Maharishi, Donovan continues to lecture about the benefits of transcendental meditation as a path to opening the consciousness and achieving inner peace. Donovan’s TM advocacy also resulted in one of pop-culture’s most unlikely teams when he joined forces with fellow meditator and freaky genius David Lynch to spread the word. As a member of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, Donovan works to promote the introduction of transcendental meditation into school curriculums.