Donovan wrote and recorded much of "The Hurdy Gurdy Man" in late 1967, not long after recording the songs that would form "A Gift from a Flower to a Garden". The rest of "The Hurdy Gurdy Man" was recorded in April 1968, after he visited Rishikesh in India to study Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. John Lennon, Cynthia Lennon, George Harrison, Pattie Boyd, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Ringo Starr, Mia Farrow, Prudence Farrow and Mike Love were there as well. Harrison wrote a verse for "Hurdy Gurdy Man" when they were in India, but it was cut from the studio version in order to ensure that the song was not overly long for a single. On his 1973 live album "" and his 1990 live album "Rising", Donovan explains the story and sings the previously omitted verse. The last verse of "Hurdy Gurdy Man", written by Harrison, is: "When the truth gets buried deep / Beneath a thousand years of sleep / Time demands a turn around / And once again the truth is found".