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TL;DR:

  • Donovan said he might have written a surreal line from The Beatles’ “Julia.”
  • Donovan felt he had an influence on the chords and guitar-playing from The White Album.
  • The line in question sounds like the sort of phrases John Lennon put in The Beatles’ songs.
Donovan at a microphone
Donovan | Avalon / Contributor

The Beatles‘ “Julia” includes some beautiful surrealist imagery. Donovan said he might’ve written one of the tune’s most striking lines. Subsequently, Donovan unambiguously said he wrote the line.

Donovan said a line from The Beatles’ ‘Julia’ reflected his interest in Victorian Britain

During a 2008 interview with Goldmine, Donovan discussed the possibility that he co-wrote “Julia.” “I think I might have thrown a line in, not a melody, into ‘Julia,'” he recalled. “It sounds like one of my lines, anyway.”

Donovan was asked which line of the song he wrote. “I don’t know,” he said. “‘Seashell eyes,’ maybe. It sounds like that could be John’s, maybe (chuckles), but you know, the actual theme of being on the beach, the whole song, walking along the sand with his little hand in his mother’s and all that, it sounds like me, because obviously, all my songs were full of oceans and seas and seacoasts (laughs) and seashells and the whole Victorian, romantic coastline of Britain.”

The ‘Atlantis’ singer later said he influenced ‘Julia’ and other ‘White Album’ songs

During a 2016 interview with Vulture, Donovan discussed spending time with John around the time he wrote “Julia.” “The Beatles and I were drawn together, and the time I spent in India teaching him as a student, away from fame and fortune, was wonderful,” he said. “He was a good learner, he learned in two days what I’d learned in three.”

Donovan noted his influence on The Beatles’ music. “These flamenco, blues, and jazz chord forms that I taught him, and the finger-style technique, developed into some of the extraordinary songs on The White Album,” he opined. In that interview, Donovan unequivocally said he wrote the line about “seashell eyes” from “Julia.” The “Mellow Yellow” singer said he had rarely divulged that information before.

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‘Seashell eyes’ sounds like a Donovan line or a line John Lennon would write for The Beatles

It’s not clear whether Donovan or John wrote the line about “seashell eyes” from “Julia.” On one level, Donovan is correct: it sounds like one of his lyrics. It’s an unusual phrase and he was one of the most unusual songwriters of the 1960s, perhaps the peak decade of avant-garde songwriting. Specifically, it would have fit perfectly into the lyrics of his unorthodox undersea hit “Atlantis.”

On the other hand, “seashell eyes” sounds like one of John’s trademarked oddball phrases. In “Come Together,” John sings about “walrus gumboot,” “bag production,” “spinal cracker,” and “joo joo eyeball.” John was great at using surrealism to make his music sound more whimsical or mysterious depending on the song. Ultimately, the song was credited to the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership.

We might never know if Donovan added a certain line to “Julia.” Regardless, it’s clear that he was a significant influence on The Beatles.

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