HMS Donovan has the amazing Lord Of The Reedy River on one of the 4 sides. Mary Hopkin ' Postcard "album there's a cover version with Paul McCartney producing.
He had some cute singles in his day, but apart from "Season of the Witch", there really isn't anything spectacular. He also comes across as somewhat pompous, and the mysticism with which he seems so fascinated is quite annoying.
That is a terrific song...I have it on a bootleg live LP but I haven't heard the studio version yet. Gotta check it out!
Anyone else remember the shampoo commercial that used Donovan's "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" as background music?
he is nothing like dylan but i understand why he was compared to him in the sixties. i'd much rather listen to donovan than dylan any old day.
This Machine Kills Fascists. Guthrie This Machine Kills Donovan Perhaps Dylan noticed that, or perhaps there's a blowing in the wind ' catch attached.
The last Donovan album I bought was Essence To Essence, not as cosmically conscious catchy as the previous platter.
Ditto. Last one I got too was 'Essence To Essence'. Only I won it in a competiton ran bythe Record Mirror. I loved it. But there was so much going on musically at the time I never bothered with any of the follow-up albums. I grew away from him and the next time I heard him was as support to Yes at Wembley. 'Catch The Wind', 'Universal Soldier' and 'Season Of The Witch' are musts for any 60s compilations though.
Micky Most produced his better tracks,some of which almost rock. His image was wrong in the UK, the silly Dylan cap did not help and he appeared on the wet Julie Felix tv shows another negative We were used to erzatz local versions of US stars and he seemed to fit that bill The Fairports started with a US slant, they soon mined Cecil Sharp house and RT Fenderised those classic songs of murder mayhem and deceit into a powerful amalgam Mr Leitch never achieved that.
But the Fairports didn't break America, or were competing withThe Beatles in the charts. The Glasgow laddie did alright with the faery music I thought.
Alex ,he never recorded Liege and Leiff or Shoot out the lights, thats the bleedin obvious difference.
I was just listening to "A Gift from a Flower to a Garden" side 2 (aka "For Little Ones"). Really wonderful songs...
Outstanding writer and performer! His collection of hits is as strong as anyone's and I agree with many here that Season of the Witch is awesome. That track just sounds so good too, a crystal clear recording that could have been laid down last week. Heavy track for the time, or any time. Hurdy Gurdy Man is very good too. It's true he can sound affected today but what did Neil Young once say when it was observed he was flat on part of a song, "Hey man, that's my style".
Very prolific in 67' he had 4 albums out.The song Guinevere from his Sunshine Superman I'm sure Nico used as a music-template for her Elektra albums. They dated in 66' London ..history museum south kensington was their meeting rendezvous.
This thread seems to have been resurrected. As with any artist, some people will like the man’s work and others will not, but I think Donovan deserves more respect and recognition that he gets. His run of singles in the 60’s reminds me of The Lovin’ Spoonful in that he always sounded like himself, but each of his records was distinctive; he didn’t rewrite [formulaic] hits. And like The Lovin’ Spoonful his vision didn’t translate too well beyond the 1960’s (while his work paints a beautiful portrait of that time period). I guess you had to be there. I’m glad I was.
In the late 70s there was so much going on,that it was easy to forget Donovan.The Arista/RAK album was the last one I bought.Picked it up as a $1.99 cut out.I actually think it's better than some of the later Epic stuff.Like Essesnce to Essence,I think it's OK,and much better than Slow Down World.
