Legend Of A Girl Child Linda

Linda Lawrence was born in 1947 to a normal middle-class contractor's family in Windsor, Berkshire. As a teen in the early 60s, Linda was into jazz. "I was what they called a Beatnik," Linda says, " and I hated pop and Cliff Richard and all that." Brian Jones met Linda in 1962, when she was fifteen and he was twenty, during the Stones' run of several summer Tuesdays in Windsor's Ricky Tick club. Despite Linda's affinity for jazz, she definitely took to the Stones' rhythm and blues: ". . . the music was amazing. A couple of girls and I, we just danced all night and had a fantastic time." She was "terribly turned on" by Brian's talent in particular, and the two hit it off immediately. They soon lived together, and just before Brian left to tour with the Stones in early 1964, she announced that she was expecting a child (her first, his third) that summer. Brian left to tour America, and the Stones had gained a considerable amount of fame when he returned to England to his son, Julian. It was then that he broke off their relationship. Linda and Brian reconciled by 1965, and thereafter she was in the background of his new-found life with Anita Pallenberg. It was then that she met a new folk-rock musician and friend of Brian's, Donovan (Leitch), on the set of Ready, Steady, Go!. They began an on/off relationship that lasted five years (while Donovan had two children with another girlfriend, Enid Stulberger), as Linda was wary of becoming steady girlfriend to a pop star once again. Linda was muse to many of his late 60s songs. Of "Catch The Wind," Donovan said "I wrote it for Linda, although I hadn't really met her yet. It is a song of unrequited love, yet I hadn't really met her, so how could I miss her? And I seem to write prophetic songs in the sense of the Celtic poet and I wrote this song before I met Linda, of a love I would like to have had and lost." Of "Sunshine Superman," he said "It's not a normal love song. On the face of it, the song is about being with Linda again." Again reaffirming her muse status, he said "Linda's in all the songs. 'Sunshine Superman,' 'Hampstead Incident,' 'Young Girl Blues'... Linda's the muse." Linda was shocked by Brian's death in 1969, and attended his funeral despite hostility from the other Stones' women. Throughout the end of the sixties, she had hoped to reconcile fully with Brian (at least in regard to Julian). Linda and Donovan bumped into each other by chance, just before he embarked on a world tour, and they fell and love and married in 1970. Julian took the surname "Leitch" and Linda and Donovan had two children in the seventies; Astrella Celeste and Oriole Nebula. Donovan and Linda are still married today, after over 40 years.

(Photos from: Donovan Unofficial, Donovan Official, Vintage Groupies, Tumblr, screencaps from Donovan Japan 1973, and scans from The Autobiography of Donovan: The Hurdy Gurdy Man and Rock Wives. Quotes from Rock Wives [Linda's] and Songfacts [Donovan])