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More reissues for this single

Jennifer Juniper/Poor Cow

Side A:

Jennifer Juniper

Side B:
Poor Cow

All tracks by Donovan P. Leitch.

Musicians:

· Donovan: vocals and acoustic guitar.

· Danny Thompson: bass.

· John Cameron: arrangement.

· Tony Carr: percussion on Poor Cow.

Trivia:

· Jennifer Juniper was written for Jennifer Boyd, Pattie Boyd's younger sister, on whom Donovan had a crush. Juniper was the name of a boutique Jennifer Boyd ran in London. They went together to the famous trip to India with all the Beatles. Jennifer Boyd appears in a short movie directed by Karl Ferris called Wear Your Love Like Heaven, when Donovan was preparing his album A Gift From A Flower To A Garden. Despite the rumours around the song and the possibility of a love affair between them, Donovan denied anything happened in his autobiography The Hurdy Gurdy Man. He just wrote the song because he felt like doing it. The words Jennifer and Juniper are etymologically the same.

· In 1968 a lot of girls were named Jennifer, after the song's title. The same happend with Lalena.

· In the film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Natalie Portman plays Jennifer Juniper on the piano.

• · Poor Cow through many changes since Donovan first composed it. Its original title wasn't Poor Cow, but Poor Love. Originally, Donovan composed Poor Love as part of a series of songs he was writing for The Lord Of The Rings. He had the idea of making a film based on the book, but then he learned that the Beatles were working on a similar project and were first in line. The project was stopped because J. R. R. Tolkien didn't want his story made into a film or even illustrated, he wanted everyone to imagine the characters by themselves. The original lyric of Poor Love includes the lines:
  
  

  Oh, I dwell in the north, in the green country

  Faramir, far from here

  
  Donovan sings this lines in the single version and also in the Donovan In Concert version, which was recorded (before the release of the film) at the Anaheim Convention Center on November 17, 1967 but was released in August 1968 - and in this concert he even introduces the song as Poor Love, although in the tracklist is listed as Poor Cow.
• · Donovan changed the name of Poor Love when it was going to be featured in Kean Loach's movie. The film version was probably recorded during the first sessions for the Hurdy Gurdy Man album, in November 1967 and features only Donovan with acoustic guitar and a very brief instrumental intro. The lyrics were changed, too: the rural green landscape was replaced with a grey industrial one, to match the script. Thus, were the original version said "I dwell in the north in the green country", the film version said "I dwell in the town in the grey country". The word "wearily" replaced "far and near" (which already had replaced "Faramir"!). "I dwelt with my pride and my songs and things" was replaced with "I live with my pride and my babe (or kid) and things". The "greenwood" was replaced with a "wasteground". The part that mentions Sandy Lee ("And I dream of the girl with the sunshine eye/Sandy Lee, wherever she may be") didn't appeared at all in the film version because it wouldn't have made any sense, so Donovan sang instead "And I take to my rest at the end of day". And finally he doesn't "make a song" anymore, he just "hear a song".
• · The studio version of Poor Cow was eventually released as the B side for the single Jennifer Juniper (although the American single was first scheduled to have Poor Cow as the A side). It was recorded in an unknown London studio, probably Olympic Studios, with producer Mickie Most, Danny Thompson on bass and Tony Carr on percusion. It is unclear who played the accordion, maybe Jack Emblow. Strings were added later by an orchestra arranged and conducted by John Cameron. The single version was probably part of the Hurdy Gurdy Man album sessions, in November 1967.

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