Donovan Phillips Leitch (born in 1946), known as Donovan, is a Scottish musician and songwriter who knew fame from his début in 1965 to the early 1970s.
In October 1966 his song “Mellow Yellow” was released as a single. It reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and No. 8 in the UK. It was then included as first track in his fourth album Mellow Yellow, released in the US in February 1967.
In a hidden way, this song tells about electric vibrators and a love affairs with a young girl. Here is the YouTube video with the original version:
There is also a remastered version. I give now the lyrics from Genius, where detailed comments are given on several lines:
Mellow Yellow
by Donovan
I’m just mad about Saffron
Saffron’s mad about me
I’m-a just mad about Saffron
She’s just mad about me
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me Mellow Yellow
I’m just mad about fourteen
Fourteen’s mad about me
I’m-a just-a mad about-a fourteen
She’s just mad about me
They call me Mellow Yellow
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me Mellow Yellow
Born-a high forever to fly
A-Wind a-velocity nil
Born-a high forever to fly
If you want your cup, I will fill
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me Mellow Yellow
So mellow, he’s so mellow
Electrical banana
Is gonna be a sudden craze
Electrical banana
Is bound to be the very next phase
They call it Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me Mellow Yellow
Saffron, yeah
I’m just mad about her
I’m-a just-a mad about-a Saffron
She’s just mad about me
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me Mellow Yellow
(Oh, so yellow)
(Oh, so mellow)…
In the first verse, ‘Saffron’ can mean the spice, and also its colour, a shade of orange-yellow. But Saffron is also a feminine first name in the UK, and indeed, he sings “Saffron’s mad about me,” then “She’s just mad about me,” so he is referring to an affair with a girl.
In the second verse, we have ‘fourteen’ instead of ‘Saffron.’ It means a fourteen years old girl. Indeed, on the album Donovan in Concert, he sang the first line of the verse “I’m just mad about fourteen year-old girls.” This is confirmed by the NME (August 17, 2012), which says that Donovan was wont to extend the lyric in this way when performing the track live.
In the fourth verse, ‘electrical banana’ means an electrical vibrator (dildo). In an interview, Donovan said:
I was reading a newspaper and on the back there was an ad for a yellow dildo called the mellow yellow. Really, you know the ‘electric banana’ was right in there and gave it away. And that’s what the song’s about.
And indeed, yellow vibrators came into vogue during the 1960s, so it was a ‘sudden craze.’ In an interview in 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.’ [John] 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.
So, the chorus means that the singer is the vibrator, about which Saffron is mad, the one who can calm the young girl down.
Donovan’s interest in fourteen years old girls is also manifested in the song “Superlungs (My Supergirl),” the second track in his seventh studio album Barabajagal, released in the United States in August 1969. Here is the first verse (from Genius):
You see this kind of chick in every town
Whenever there’s a scene, she’s always hanging around
She’s so naïve and innocent, stares at you with awe
She’s only fourteen but she knows how to draw
One can hear on YouTube the standard version of the song, and also a “rare banned version” where one hears ‘Superlungs’ instead of ‘Supergirl’ in the chorus.