Members of Led Zeppelin helped create Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” in the studio. The tune paved the way for a lot of the band’s later work. Donovan himself argued that Jimmy Page’s ...

Twenty-seven years ago, in search of a hurdy-gurdy master, Donald Heller wandered into a music shop in Budapest. There, he saw a beautiful maiden, an ancient-looking stringed instrument in her lap ...

But there’s one exception to its straightforward approach: The use of “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” a bit of ’60s psychedelic pop from British folk singer Donovan. Forrest Wickman Forrest Wickman is ...

If you’ve never heard a hurdy-gurdy before, you’re in for a treat. Not many people have, since they’re instruments which are uncommon outside of some eastern European communities.

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The hurdy-gurdy is the duck-billed platypus of instruments. It has strings but you don’t pick or strum them.

George Harrison wrote a verse for Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man.” Donovan revealed why George’s lyrics weren’t used in the final song. In addition, he said the tune might’ve been inspired ...

In 1968, Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan released Hurdy Gurdy Man – the influential title track of his The Hurdy Gurdy Man album from the same year, which featured the contributions of a ...

Donovan’s 1968 song, “Hurdy Gurdy Man” noted “the crying of humanity” over the war in Vietnam and widespread civil unrest. Counter culture balladeers — Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, ...