http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2554

Mellow Yellow by Donovan

Released:  1966

In an interview with the June 18, 2011 edition of the NME, Donovan was asked what the song was actually about? He replied: “Quite a few things. Being mellow, laid-back, chilled out. ‘They call me Mellow Yellow, I’m the guy who can calm you down.’ Lennon and I used to look in the back of newspapers and pull out funny things and they’d end up in songs. So it’s about being cool, laid-back, and also the electrical bananas that were appearing on the scene – which were ladies vibrators.”

When this song came out in 1966, there was a widespread rumor that it was about getting high on banana skins. The idea was that you scraped the fibers off of a banana skin and cooked them over a low fire. This was supposed to release the hallucinogenic qualities…

4 thoughts on “They Call Me Mellow Yellow

  1. Interpretations and presumptions about music/musicians are hilarious. Then years later we look back at those rumors and laugh. Alice Cooper and Ozzy were rumored to be Satanists with hidden messages if you play the record backward. Anyone ever confirmed the banana scrapings rumor?

    Liked by 1 person

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