More Youtube stuff:

I watched Zodiac for the first time last night... really, surprisingly solid, actually. Knowing nothing about the actual events that took place, I expected it to be sort of like Se7en, David Fincher's other serial killer movie in which the murders are based on the seven deadly sins. Except... you know, based off of the 12 signs of the Zodiac. Well that was wrong. It was more about obsession and those agonizing over piecing together a puzzle long after everyone had stopped caring about it... but that isn't why I'm here right now. I'm here to post silly Youtube videos.

Anyway, the first murder scene of the movie is soundtracked by Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man... and it's absolutely awesome and chilling. I tried finding the actual scene on Youtube to no avail, so just use your imagination with the entire song.



The only songs I know by Donovan are his hit singles and the crap that Wes Anderson includes in his movies. They're all sort of dopey and hippie, but in a charming way. (Donovan himself looks really dopey... which apparently has led to an impressive resume of girlfriends/wives/whatever. Go figure.) The Zodiac scene casts him in a much more exciting light, which makes me want to delve deeper into his catalog to see if anything else invigorates me similarly. But I'm probably either going to find just 3rd rate Bob Dylan ripoffs or 3rd rate psychedelia. So let's just admire the singles that I know I already like!

-Sunshine Superman (this is his best song, for the record. Also, I find myself really favoring 60's pop over anything released today. Sure, some unpleasant stuff was going on, but a lot of stuff sounds joyful and idealistic, which is nice. Today I don't think anyone could release a song of this caliber without lacing it with a strong coat of irony.)



-Season Of The Witch (this has probably been in a bunch of films as well... including, hopefully, Nicolas Cage's Season Of The Witch. I'm trying to figure out which film I remember this from, but I can't place it.)



-Mellow Yellow (I really liked this song when I was younger until I found out that it apparently was a reference to smoking banana peels... and now by looking at Wikipedia I see that it's actually about vibrators. I feel like if I paid attention to lyrics I might have figured that out by now.)



-Atlantis (just saw this in an episode of Futurama. It's also in Goodfellas. And speaking of irony a few songs back, I'm surprised that the spoken word interlude hasn't made a huge comeback by now. It'll be stupid if it does... cause it was sort of stupid back in the 60's, but in this song it somehow adds its charm.)




This song isn't Donovan... but I found it while looking for all of these, and... it's pretty awesome.