DONOVAN ~ ANTHOLOGY 6

This Donovan's Anthology ends here. Six CDs totalizing 8 hours and containing 145 songs, from 1964 to 1981

DONOVAN ~ ANTHOLOGY 5

DONOVAN ~ ANTHOLOGY 4

DONOVAN IN CONCERT (1967-11-17)

Original released on CD EMI / 0946351400020 (EU 2006)

DONOVAN ~ ANTHOLOGY 3

DONOVAN ~ ANTHOLOGY 2

DONOVAN LIVE IN L.A. (2007, JANUARY 21)

 

The CD and DVD of one of the best perfomances 

from Mr. Donovan Leitch

DONOVAN ~ ANTHOLOGY 1

DONOVAN ~ "OPEN ROAD"

Original released on LP Epic E 30125 (stereo)

(US, August 1970)

This is, no doubt about it, my favourite Donovan album ever. I've listen to it hundreds of times, since its release, back in 1970. Until today, the music in this wonderful album brings me the memories of the beach of my native city (LM, in Mozambique). "Riki Tiki Tavi" is the stand out track and with it's child-like lyric it's one of those really catchy songs that you can't help but sing along with.  The rest of the album flows really nicely and the more rock orientated "Celtic Rock" vibe really appeals to me. This album was quite a departure for Donovan in one way. It sterns from Donovan's post "Barabajagal" period, when he was still very much aware of his roots, while willing to experiment. His peculiar sense of humour, his charm, sincerity and singularly pleasant singing voice all combine to make this a true Donovan experience. Although it was a disappointing seller and signaled the start of Donovan's commercial decline, "Open Road" has been a new beginning for the singer. Prior to this, it was extremely difficult to find out who had played on any Donovan album; he had essentially used session musicians as necessary for each individual track.  Here, he uses an actual band (and even features them on the cover). As a result, the album has an overall flow and feeling of wholeness that had been notably absent from his previous two LPs. That, combined with the fact that the songs are consistently appealing, makes this one of his strongest albums.

DONOVAN: "Barabajagal"

Original released on LP Epic BN 26481

(US 1969, August 11)

Donovan was in a tremendously creative phase during the latter part of 1968, owing to both a tour of the United States (which yielded a live album) and the chemical and social stimulation of his surroundings. Amid all of that activity and his subsequent recordings, his European performances, and the slightly late catch-up of his British career to his American success, Donovan's work blossomed in several different directions on the resulting album, "Barabajagal". He still sounded like a folkie, but on the title track as well as "Superlungs My Supergirl," he was backed by the Jeff Beck Group and an outfit that included Big Jim Sullivan and John Paul Jones, respectively. With "Barabajagal", Donovan intermingled soft, lyrical, spaced-out folk, hard psychedelia, children's songs, anthems to free love (along with a lusty appreciation of the fairer sex that runs throughout the album), and even antiwar sentiments ("To Susan on the West Coast Waiting"). The result was the most challenging album then issued by Donovan, but also one of his most successful, with album sales driven by the presence of the U.S. hit "Atlantis." (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

DONOVAN: "Sunshine Superman"

Original released on LP Epic LN 24217

and LP PYE NPL 18181 

(US 1966, August 26; UK, June 1967)

Paced by the title track, one of Donovan's best singles, 1966's "Sunshine Superman" heralded the coming psychedelic age with a new world/old world bent: several ambitious psychedelic productions and a raft of wistful folk songs. Producer Mickie Most fashioned a new sound for the Scottish folksinger, a sparse, swinging, bass-heavy style perfectly complementing Donovan's enigmatic lyrics and delightfully skewed, beatnik delivery. The two side-openers, "Sunshine Superman" and "Season of the Witch," are easily the highlights of the album; the first is the quintessential bright summer sing-along, the second a chugging eve-of-destruction tale. The rest of "Sunshine Superman" is filled with lengthy, abstract, repetitive folk jams, perfect for lazy summer afternoons, but more problematic when close attention is paid. Accompanied by acoustic guitar and a chamber quartet, the second track, "Legend of a Girl Child Linda," plods on for nearly seven minutes, Donovan's hippie-dippie delivery rendering "lace" into "layyyzzz." After that notable low point, he performs much better, tingling a few spines with his enunciation on the ancient-sounding folksongs "Guinevere," "Three King Fishers," and "Ferris Wheel." Elsewhere, he salutes the Jefferson Airplane on "The Fat Angel" and fellow British folkie Bert Jansch on "Bert's Blues." Donovan's songs are quite solid, but Mickie Most's insistence on extroverted productions (it would grow even more pronounced with time) resulted in a collection of songs that sound good on their own but aren't very comfortable in context. (John Bush in AllMusic)

DONOVAN: A Gift From a Flower to a Garden

Original released as 2-LP box on Epic 

B2N 171 (stereo); L2N 6071 (mono)

(US, December 1967)

Rock music's first two-LP box set, "A Gift from a Flower to a Garden" overcomes its original shortcomings and stands out as a prime artifact of the flower-power era that produced it. The music still seems a bit fey, and overall more spacy than the average Moody Blues album of this era, but the sheer range of subjects and influences make this a surprisingly rewarding work. Essentially two albums recorded simultaneously in the summer of 1967, the electric tracks include Jack Bruce among the session players. The acoustic tracks represent an attempt by Donovan to get back to his old sound and depart from the heavily electric singles ("Sunshine Superman," etc.) and albums he'd been doing - it is folkier and bluesier (in an English folk sense) than much of his recent work. My copy of the original issue was found many years later in a dark basement, in New York.

The beauty of this album is that it creates a magical world of its own, a gentle world filled with love, flowers, trees, babies, tinkers, crabs, starfishes, magpies and other assorted creatures: some might find all this quaint and naive hippy-dippy nonsense, but then on the other end of the stick there are those who feed on starry-eyed idealism daily and who will find it touching, uplifting and absolutely breathtaking. I am among the latter and thus consider "A Gift From a Flower to a Garden" the most positive album ever-I have yet to find an album that manages to convey such a quantity of happiness and pure optimism as this wonderful, wonderful double LP. His stripped-down folkiness is particularly enchanting with its earthy, natural simplicity and is bound to put a smile on your face. The first half is the "electric" album and features fuller arrangements with drums and bass and organ, as well as Donovan's guitar. I get the impression that Donovan knocked this off quickly and his heart lay with the acoustic half of the album. So while the songs on the first half are good (often very good), they're very slight and nowhere near as inventive or serious as the songs that appeared on "Sunshine Superman" or "Mellow Yellow". The "acoustic" half is different story. This half of the album is absolute perfection - probably Donovan's best work. A collection of songs concerned with magpies, starfish, gypsies, singing dancing monkeys, naturalist's wives all accompanied by taped selections of birds singing and waves crashing. Listening to this half of the album makes me want to move to the countryside - the most magical, peaceful album ever recorded. (in RateYourMusic)

DONOVAN'S Greatest Hits

Original released on LP EPIC BXN 26439

(US, March 1969)

Donovan is a sometimes forgotten figure in today’s music world, but during the 1960s many ranked him second only to Bob Dylan in the pantheon of folk poets. His series of hit singles and successful albums made him a superstar during the second half of the decade. His mystical prose, for want of a better definition, and quiet music explored the gentle side of the violent sixties. His place in the upper echelon of folk artists and troubadours made him a 60s icon. He released this Epic's "Donovan's Greatest Hits" album at the height of his popularity. It was the most successful album release of his career in the United States, reaching number four on the Billboard’s Pop Album Chart. The album contains the re-recordings of two of his earliest folk songs, "Catch the Wind" and "Colours," (longer versions) and that is the first reason to have this album in your collection. I've bought it when it came out 50 years ago (I was just 15 years old), and it was my first Donovan album. I heard all these great songs over and over for months and only much later I went to discover the early albums. And all the songs here, prove Donovan and producer Mickie Most could craft irresistible folk-rock and psychedelic pop singles. Some of the sounds and sentiments may sound a little dated, but the productions and the songs - "Sunshine Superman," "Jennifer Juniper," "Wear Your Love Like Heaven," "Season of the Witch," "Mellow Yellow," "Hurdy Gurdy Man," "Epistle to Dippy," "There Is a Mountain," "Lalena" - have proven to be classics of the era, and this is the best place to get them all on one collection.