Donovan - Summer Day Reflection Song Lyrics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkCuzuouBXc

A classic song I remember, from a classic album of great note.

so bonny a laddie

From his early "Fairytale" album. Pure poetry.

3,000 Beat-group loving American teenyboppers witness the birth of Psychedelia. One of his best songs!

Donovan - Summer Day Reflection Song Lyrics:

Cat's a-sleeping in the sun
Eyes take heed the colours call
Sunlight patterns touch the wall
Red kerchiefs sail and fall
Cat's a sleeping in the sun
Dragon kite in the sky
Wheel and turns, spin and fly
Attacked by rooks and never fail
To cry the sound of fairy tales
The cat is walkin' in the sun

All the pebbles I have seen
Precious stones for Colleen
Every minute I pass through
With the grooves spent with you
The cat is yawning in the sun

Jewelled castles I have built
With freak feelings of guilt
And the words stab to the hilt
Pick the flower and it will wilt
Cat's a-shifting in the sun

Marionette dangles death
Insensitivity is fed
By the TV wizard's wand
Once in the spell you're conned
Cat's a-smiling in the sun

Cat's a-smiling in the sun
Eyes take heed the colours call
Sunlight patterns touch the wall
Red kerchiefs sail and fall
Cat's a-smiling in to me

Long ago, played this song, and sang with sister in the park in San Francisco while there for a Human Be In in support of no draft and no more war...........good memory.

I love Donovan so much.

i love donovan

"freak feelings of guilt" what a great lyric.

I don't know what that girl has taken but I'll pass thanks.

its called true love!

C'est lui qui m'a donné envie de jouer de la guitare !!

on day like today Don's crystal visions

Can anyone tell me what the song is about?

Victor it's just about tripping thru the day man kinda stoned you know😎

so good you will listen again and again ,i never tire of listening saw him live in the 60s

Used to play Donovan a great deal in cruising cars and portable speakers when I was fifteen. Haven't fully listened to this track in roughly a year or so. Came back to it after watching Jake Bugg perform a cover. Never gave too much thought to the lyrics but always imagined brightly vignetted summer days, much like the ones I used to spend in early high school. Anyone care to share their interpretation of the lyrics on this one?

Cam Galloway I actually discovered this song through Jake Bugg, my new favorite, and I think of a summer where I hung out with a cat often which enjoyed being outside until dawn :)

Loved this song then and now.

Very advanced for 1965.  I reckon that (and his "Jersey Thursday" - recorded at the same time) was the start of psychedelia (along with The Beatles' "If I Needed Someone" - also late 1965).

Just Fabulous...that's all! ...Thanks Garry.

WOW that chick at 1:25 is really starting to feel it

Or maybe she needs to go to the bathroom really badly.

so short, so good, so.... don know

This Is One Lovely Song, my cat likes it as well! she is listening in the sun.

Can't stop listening to this

I heard this in the sixties while high on LSD. I have not heard it again until today

Don't try and tell me that music wasn't better back then .

Seems, even a maharishi-worshipping, Dylan copyist can have a moment of pure magical genius. Wonderful!

Hardly a Dylan copyist.

Nigel Longhurst Wrong Donovan even in his 64 65 phase still was close to Dylan but not on the verge of copying him

Interesting the way you combine an insult and a compliment in one post.

I had heard this as a kid and thought it was on "Sunshine", but it wasn't. Took me years to find it and so glad I did.

you dont have to apologise you obviously love dons music thats all that matters !

@whittingham4665 Quite right my friend, I'm not sure myself how I slipped up here, unless it was something to do with not being computer literate and being new to YouTube. I've had the albumn for over forty years so yes I definately am aware Donovan wrote this song along with most of the other songs on this fantastic albumn, which I can't recommend more highly.

@19HurdyGurdyMan46 its you sir that does not know much about don -donovan wrote this song! the only song on fairytale that jansch wrote is oh deed i do!

@lotus21 whats bert got to do with summers day reflection song ( pure donovan ) the only song on this album by jansch was oh deed i do!

one of my favs on fairytale along with maybe oh deed i do and er the rest of the album

@rivlax Do you happe to know what pickin' technique he's usin here??
I just can't figure it out....

@grabbitphonya You're welcome ;)

that's a great upload thanks!! hear the screams of them? Do you mind if i leave a link to my Donovan cover...? ok :)

A lovely Bert Jansch song played beautifully by Donovan.This album is so wonderful.If you don't know that much about Donovan start with his early stuff it'll blow you away.

It's not a Bert Jansch song. It's a Donovan song.

Bonjour, vous aimez les sixties ? écoutez et podcastez mon émission "le super son des 60's" sur le site de plumfm. You like the 60's ? please, listen and podcast my broadcast "le super son des 60's", connect to "plumfm". Salut et faites gaffe au rock and roll.

This transports me elsewhere and brings back a lot of memories.

OMG Cherry Sunburst Gibson J-45, that guitar was so handsome....

thank you, looked for thos for a long time its one of the most beautiful song's that blend music an words, thank you again..

@gibsonvolume Aint she just

hes so amazing wicked style ive been listening to his song and most of them have a little orchestral break perfect for sampling

this sends tingles thrume body...mmm

Sigh... :)

Very true!

That girl looks a lot like Judy Collins.

Though he does not use the technique on this song, Donovan was one of the best flat pickers there ever was. His flat pick work on the "Catch the Wind" album and on several songs on "Fairytale" is as good as it gets.

Sounds like an enchanted sunny day with the cat smiling and why does the red kerchief sail and fall? Is it a cat toy?

Few says this so I'm gonna say it: Donovan is a genius. You can see it on his early acoustics, on Sunshine superman and on his double "A gift from a flower to a garden"

thats as simply as great- a "blaupause" for all songwriters after his appereance. easy chords , a unique style- true expressionism.and my cat is smiling in the sun also.

Enchanting song, but what else can one expect from guid ol' DOnovan

i like the lyrics.

VERY awesome video

Thanks Karen