Sometimes things take unexpected turns. Thanks to cyber buddy @katharsisdrill I'm doing a short #morgenseiten share about the Scottish-born singer Donovan.

I'm not a huge fan, but he did some classic songs that are worth checking out. Here is one in particular that took an expected turn.

Here is is sweet and perfectly lovely song There is a Mountain.

Here was his inspiration for the song:

The lyrics refer to a Buddhist saying originally formulated by Qingyuan Weixin, later translated by D.T. Suzuki in his Essays in Zen Buddhism, one of the first books to popularize Buddhism in Europe and the US. Qingyuan writes

Before I had studied Chan (Zen) for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and rivers as rivers. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers. source

It was surprising when the sweet Donovan music ended up in the ultimate Guitar Band's live set list, and became famous to a whole new crowd when it appeared on the Allman Brothers Band seminal album "Eat a Peach." Here's the back story.

There was much interplay in the development of this song between The Allman Brothers Band and another influential jam band, the Grateful Dead. According to the book Bill Graham Presents, one night at the Fillmore East when The Allman Brothers were there with the Grateful Dead and Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Graham came into an area where Duane Allman, Peter Green, and Jerry Garcia were jamming together on Donovan's 1967 hit single "There Is a Mountain"; Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun" is also quoted musically in the piece, roughly 22 minutes in. Also heard is a section of the hymn "Will the Circle Be Unbroken".

Preceding The Allman Brothers Band's official release of the song, the Grateful Dead had briefly referenced "There Is a Mountain," both live and in studio. They can be heard quoting a few bars of "There is a Mountain" in their song "Alligator" on their 1968 album Anthem of the Sun. An example of the Dead jamming live on the "There is a Mountain" riff can be heard at the 4:53 mark on the version of "Alligator" they performed at their August 21, 1968, show at the Fillmore West. Conversely, after the Allman Brothers Band release, The Grateful Dead performed a 22:57 version of Mountain Jam on July 28, 1973, at the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen. They also played a 55-second version of "Mountain Jam" to transition between "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" and "Not Fade Away" on November 6, 1970, at Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York. source

The "Mountain Jam" is too long to listen to in its entirety here, but interestingly the second part of the jam captured one of my personal favorite guitar solos from one of my favorite guitarist of all time -- Duane Allman. There is also wonderful interplay between Duane and his co-lead guitarist Dicky Betts. If you listen with headphones, you can recognize Duane in the stereo mix. He plays slide and lead guitar, so as soon as you identify the slide, you can then figure out who is who.

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Finally here is a really cool blue grass tinged version of Donovan's "There is a Mountain" by Steve Earl.

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#morgenseiten is @short 's tag for posts involving your morning stream of consciousness

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Photo from Pixbay.com