Donovan’s ‘Hitchhiking Song’ – “To Try for the Sun“.
Donovan’s “To Try for the Sun” doesn’t come roaring in with big declarations, rather it arrives quietly, carrying the kind of determination you only really notice when it stays with you.
Released in the US in January 1966, the single backed with “Turquoise,” gives us a song that feels like a soft-spoken pledge, “Keep moving, even when there’s no proof the road will lead you anywhere”.
To Try for the Sun.
Lyrics and Vocals: Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer, Donovan Phillips Leitch, known mononymously as Donovan.
To Try for the Sun.
We stood in the windy city, the gypsy boy and I.
We slept on the breeze in the midnight with the raindrops and tears in our eyes.
And who’s going to be the one they say it was no good what we done?
I dare a man to say I’m too young for I’m going to try for the sun.
We huddled in a derelict building and when he thought I was asleep,
He laid his poor coat round my shoulder, and shivered there beside me in a heap.
And who’s going to be the one, that says it was no good what we done?
I dare a man to say I’m too young for I’m going to try for the sun.
We sang and cracked the sky with laughter, our breath turned to mist in the cold.
Our years put together count to thirty, but our eyes told the dawn we were old.
And who’s going to be the one that says it was no good what we done ?
I dare a man to say I’m too young for I’m going to try for the sun.
Mirror, mirror, hanging in the sky, won’t you look down what’s happening here below?
I stand here singing to the flowers, so very few people really know.
And who’s going to be the one they says it was no good what we done?
I dare a man to say I’m too young, for I’m going to try for the sun.
We stood in the windy city, the gypsy boy and I.
We slept on the breeze in the midnight, with the raindrops and tears in our eyes.
And who’s going to be the one, they say it was no good what we done?
I dare a man to say I’m too young for I’m going to try for the sun.
END.
The song is tied to Donovan’s early, uncertain years, around Hatfield, Hertfordshire, U.K., his busking, hitchhiking, sleeping rough at times, and learning how to persist before anything “works out”.
Alongside him was close friend and fellow traveller David “Gypsy Dave” Mills, part of the shoestring, unconventional arty style life that fed directly into his earliest writing.
Donovan later described “To Try for the Sun” as essentially a hitchhiking song, and even clarified that its “windy city” isn’t Chicago, it’s Manchester. That detail keeps the track grounded: real roads, real cold air, real miles.
The hitchhiking of the 1970’s for the most part here in Ireland has faded, shaped by reported safety fears, a culture of distrust, and the sheer availibility and convenience of cars and modern travel.
The song’s message still lands, hope without hype, and a simple decision to always keep trying, anyway.
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