"Laléna" (also spelled "Lalena") is the title of a composition by Donovan. Billboard described the single as a "beautiful and intriguing original ballad."
https://youtu.be/K5bdJPvrbOw?si=fEfsc4c4roCVyzK2
Cash Box said that "sweet strings accent a hauntingly beautiful folk-flavored ballad which gets stronger with each listen." Record World said that Donovan "uses his reedy voice exquisitely."
History:
In 2004, Donovan revealed that the song was inspired by the actress Lotte Lenya and that the song's lyrics, addressed to a societally marginalized woman, were Donovan's reaction to Lenya's character in the film version of The Threepenny Opera:
She's a streetwalker, but in the history of the world, in all nations, women have taken on various roles from priestess to whore to mother to maiden to wife. This guise of sexual power is very prominent, and therein I saw the plight of the character. Women have roles thrust upon them and make the best they can out of them, so I'm describing the character Lotte Lenya is playing, and a few other women I've seen during my life, but it's a composite character of women who are outcasts on the edge of society.
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