Don't Smoke The Banana Man!
I receive a number of hits looking for the lyrics, and/or the meaning to Donovan's Mellow Yellow. You can get the full lyrics at Song Lyrics. As to the meaning. I can now tell you right from the horses mouth. I heard Donovan interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR Freshair. The section on smoking bananas can be heard here.
In this interview he is asked to explain the lyrics. He goes on to tell a story about the electric banana. He claims that he knew nothing about smoking banana peels, and is surprised that anyone could believe that you could get high smoking banana peels. The mystery was revealed to him when he was sitting next to Country Joe McDonald in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland in about 2000, and McDonald said to him "It was me man." Donovan asked him to explain.
Back in 1966 Country Joe and The Fish were giving a performance that they wanted to publicise. They managed to find an old carnival float which had a huge banana on it. They decided that they would drive this float through Height-Ashbury with the band playing on the back of it. To ensure maximum publicity McDonald released to the press the information that you could get high by smoking banana peels.
All would have been forgotten, except the following Friday Donovan released "Mellow Yellow" with the famous lines
Is gonna be a sudden craze
Electrical banana
Is bound to be the very next phase"
And the rest, as they say is history.
The song is apparently about being mellow, the colour saffron being the colour of a Buddhist Monks robe, and also a girls name. Donovan just wanted everybody to be laid back and cool.
I wonder how many people have actually tried to smoke banana peel?
Donovan, by the way became the first of the sixties stars to be busted for smoking pot. In 1967 he became the first one to renounce drugs and urge his fans to do the same. By then he had turned to Transcendental Meditation
Country Joe's version of this story is on his website. It seems to disagree with Donovan's version of events. Will We ever learn the truth?