Paul McCartney Said Donovan Tried Helping Him With the Lyrics for ‘I Will’ but It Was All ‘Moon/June Stuff’
Paul McCartney said Donovan didn’t have the best suggestions for his Beatles song “I Will.” The “Mellow Yellow” singer tried helping the “Yesterday” singer during their stay at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in India in 1968. He had better success inspiring Paul’s bandmates.
Paul McCartney said Donovan didn’t have the right suggestions for ‘I Will’
In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul said the melody for “I Will” was around for a while. The music came quickly. However, the lyrics came slower, which is strange because “it’s a pretty basic set of ideas.”
Paul and The Beatles were at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in India when he wrote the tune. Donovan tried helping with an early version of the lyrics, but his suggestions didn’t fit the song’s vibe.
Paul wrote that Donovan’s ideas “didn’t quite pass muster. It was even more basic, all moon/June stuff.”
Paul wasn’t the only Beatle who worked with Donovan on songs
According to Joshua M. Greene’s Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, Paul wasn’t the only Beatle to have worked with Donovan on music.
Greene wrote that it was Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” that brought him into contact with George Harrison, and George suggested that Donovan start sitar lessons.
Although Donovan couldn’t inspire any good lyrics on “I Will,” he did influence the rest of The Beatles while they were at the ashram. In his autobiography, The Autobiography of Donovan (per Rolling Stone), Donovan recalled showing John Lennon his fingerpicking style on the guitar that changed how he wrote songs.
“My new pupil went to it with a will,” he wrote, “and he learned the arcane knowledge in two days. … In this way John began to write in a whole new way, composing ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘Julia’ in no time flat.”
George advised Donovan to get sitar lessons, but the singer-songwriter claimed that what he and George played together in India later influenced George’s White Album songs. “He said he really had a Chet Atkins picking style,” Donovan recalled in a separate interview (per Rolling Stone).
“But what George was fascinated with was these descending chord patterns that I was playing and out of it came the most heartrending song I’ve ever heard him write, but also that anybody had written: ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps.'”
In return, George helped with the lyrics of Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man.” In his autobiography, Donovan said, “Songwriting came easy. Paul Mac never had a guitar out of his hand. He let us all get a few songs in though, and you can hear the results on the records that followed, the Beatles”White Album,’ and my own ‘The Hurdy Gurdy Man.'”
Like George, Donovan enjoyed the teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
George was the only Beatle most interested in the guru’s teachings. Donovan joined him in his curiosity.
In Greene’s book, Donovan said the guru gave each student a device that allowed them “to look at our own thoughts.” The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi divided mantras into smaller syllables to make repeating them easier.
“He said our thoughts were like bubbles in the ocean, some of hope, others of fear. You could see the thoughts passing if you set yourself apart to look at them. To do that, you chanted the mantra inside, breathing in, breathing out,” Donovan explained to Greene. “The mantra he gave the Beatles was ‘EE-ng’ just a sound to help follow the thoughts, which pass before you like a movie.”
Paul did not follow the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s teachings as faithfully as George and Donovan. He liked the quiet that the ashram gave them and liked that it allowed for uninterrupted songwriting time. All the meditation was an afterthought.
