What is the meaning to Donovan's song Mellow Yellow. You can get the full lyrics at Genius. 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
"Electrical banana 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?
It seems that this story will never die. Amy Winehouse took to smoking bananas (Reported 8 April 2009) A source told Britain's Daily Star newspaper: "Amy wandered onto a private porch on Cariblue Beach and began speaking to a group of locals who were smoking banana skins. She made sure there wasn't anything really bad in them because she's being so good now. They made one in front of her using dried strings from the inside of the peel instead of tobacco, and putting it onto a piece of rolling paper. She loved it and has taken to drying her own peel in the sun and smoking it in the evening." Amy - who admitted her favourite food is banana and crisp sandwiches - insists she had turned over a new leaf and put her drinking and drug habits behind her. She is quoted as saying: "I'm clean now and feel much better for it. I'm just a normal girl now."