Talk:Wear Your Love Like Heaven

Color names
Prussian blue and alizarin crimson are pretty common colors. Searching for Havana lake and rose carmethene will mostly return hits to this song. As it turns out, only Havana lake is a real color name. I found a swatch of that color on art-paints.com, then looked at the other paints in the same line, Linel gouache (which is Lefranc's high-end gouache). When I saw 'Carthamus rose', I knew that Donovan must have been inspired by paints from that particular line. That name is slightly changed in the song, but the connection between 'carthamus rose' and 'rose carmethene' is clear. Alizarin crimson, a well-established name, is pronounced more like "alizarian", as well. (It's even possible the color was called something different in the 1960s.) My guess is he either saw the paints in a store or noted the interesting names on the tubes when working with a poster artist.

It's worth mentioning that gouache would have been the usual medium for a poster artist in the 1960s. Gouache is also a medium where fugitive pigments, ones that are not lightfast and fade over time, are more commonly used. (Alizarin crimson is notoriously fugitive.) This is because the artwork is usually intended for reproduction, unlike in watercolor and oil where the original has more value than a print. What that means in this context is that someone wanting bright, psychedelic colors would prefer gouache over another medium.

Roches (talk) 01:43, 22 November 2013 (UTC)


 * > only Havana lake is a real color name.


 * That's true... except for scarlet, crimson, and carmine, which make it not true.


 * But other than your statement being false, yeah, it's true.


 * Verdana ♥ Bold 14:06, 29 April 2016 (UTC)


 * > It's worth mentioning that gouache would have been the usual medium for a poster artist in the 1960s.


 * That's fascinating! Except for the fact that Donovan is a musician and not a poster artist—which renders it completely irrelevant—that is a very astute observation!


 * Verdana ♥ Bold 14:15, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

God, Verdana. You're such a pedant that you're making me groan 4 years in the future. Between havana lake and rose carmethene, the only one of the two that is a real colour name is havana lake. Not the entire song. Also, don't you think during all his travels and meetings with artists and connoisseurs of psychedelia that Donovan may have rubbed elbows with psychedelic artists? Your dripping sarcasm is completely unneeded. I appreciate the commentary from Roches, as it explains the possible thought process of why the colours were chosen as lyrics. Melonsquid (talk) 03:25, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

Donovan's color catalog
Note that except for prussian blue, which he probably knew about already, all the colors are shades of red. Extremely similar shades, too, except for Havana Lake.

Donovan undoubtedly opened a color swatch book to the red section, probably at random, and found a lot of cool names, as opposed to leafing through the whole thing.

It's amazing how, by recognizing patterns, you can look at actions done in the past like with a time machine. Verdana ♥ Bold 13:59, 29 April 2016 (UTC)