Songfacts®:

• Although Donovan is often credited as this song's author, it dates back to the 1930s as a song called "Can I Do It For You" by Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie. Donovan has said that he didn't know who wrote it so he got the credit. He retitled it "Hey Gyp" because his road buddy's name was Gypsy Dave (sculptor Gyp Mills). It is sung as a boy-girl exchange.
• The Animals later covered this song and included it in their 1967 Newport Folk Festival Exchange. It was also used in a Chevrolet commercial because the opening line is "I'll buy you a Chevrolet." >>>

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• Donovan explained his rewritten lyrics to Mojo July 2015: "Gyp, of course is Gypsy Dave.... All right, we're sitting back, listening to music. A little bit high, high on maybe the ganja, and there's an incense stick. It's very quiet, the music's really low, jazz maybe, and I turn to Gyp, and say, 'Hey Gyp, dig the slowness.' Because, when you're actually in an altered state, you can watch things that are moving really slow, and you can really watch them."
• The Raconteurs recorded a ragged cover for their 2019 Help Us Stranger album. Their version started life as a studio warm-up - "an icebreaker to get our brains working," frontman Jack White told The Sun.