“We Put It to the Test”: How Donovan and the Beatles Proved How Close They Really Were in 1968

The sheer power of Beatlemania and the incomparable eccentricities of Donovan have made The Beatles and Donovan somewhat separate in musical legacy, despite being close colleagues. The five musicians were not only colleagues but also friends, something Donovan would later attribute to the similarities in their upbringing. Speaking to The Telegraph in 2025, Donovan said his and The Beatles’ hometowns were alike in many ways.

“Liverpool and Glasgow were very similar,” Donovan explained. “There were ships coming from all over the world, bringing culture in. So, when you listen to the songs of Donovan and The Beatles, there is a rich root of American folk, blues, and pop. But when you peel off the surface, you see that it was fed by an enormous amount of Irish, Scots, and Welsh talents.”

In 1968, Donovan and The Beatles pushed their connection to the test when they traveled to India to study under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the creator of transcendental meditation. Could the musicians, in an environment totally unknown to them, still find a way to relate to one another? “We put it to the test,” Donovan recalled.

Donovan and the Beatles Passed Their Test With Flying Colors

Donovan and The Beatles maintained their friendship during their studies under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but not every Beatle stayed. The Fab Four’s drummer, Ringo Starr, left after just over a week, citing discomfort with the food and living conditions. John Lennon stuck around but, as Donovan recalled to The Telegraph, would often “get disillusioned with Maharishi” and “lash out.” Generally speaking, Donovan and George Harrison were the two musicians most interested in diving deep into the world of transcendental meditation.

In between their meditation practices, Donovan and The Beatles played music. Donovan taught the remaining three Beatles how to play guitar clawhammer style, a technique Lennon would use on songs like “Julia” and “Dear Prudence”, and a descending Bach bass pattern, which informed Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird” and Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.

“I didn’t own these techniques,” Donovan told The Irish Times in 2013. “I just passed them on. But this simple guitar style and these chords had given them a whole new horizon.”

All three of the aforementioned Beatles songs were on the band’s next record following their time in India, their 1968 eponymous “White Album”. Donovan’s post-meditation retreat album was The Hurdy Gurdy Man. And much in the way he influenced The Beatles, Donovan mused to The Telegraph in 2025 that there seemed to be a clear connection between his psychedelic heavy rock album and subsequent bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin.

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