donovan - mellow yellow, the hurdy gurdy man, sunshine superman, barabajagal
if you only know the mans stuff for a couple of 60's twisted pop nuggets and some dodgy associations with happy mondays in the 90's, then you only know a fraction of the story that comes alongside the man known as donovan. recently, mojo magazine published a full rundown on the period when donovan transcended the folk troubadour ("uk's answer to bob dylan" was standard tagline of the day) formula, and started dipping his toes into the newly found psychedelic music that was bursting forth at the time. so rather than go into all that detail, dig out the article and see just why i became more interested to hear these lovely reissues that are out soon. for the fans of the original albums it should be noted that these reissues are being released in full remastered form and feature a whole host of lovely extra demos, alternative takes etc.
i will admit that a lot of these tracks do indeed fall into the hippy drippy pop music that makes me wince if in the wrong mood, but dig in and there are some absolute classic tracks with some fun lyrics and interesting genres being used. for me, the best material is the full band tracks which incorporate backing musicians from all sorts of well established acts of the day eg led zeppelin, on the lead track from 'barabajagal', where the band create a seriously funky break beat, and could form the basis for any wild funky hip hop jam in 2005.
of these 4 albums i would avoid the 'mellow yellow' album, which is a little too dreary other than the lead title track, but definitely head for any of the other albums, as each feature some fine examples of the era. to summarise a few of the highlights there is 'sunshine superman' featuring loopy harpsichords and string section breakdown on 'berts blues', the fabulous eerie psych-rock jam 'season of the witch' (a track that is often quoted as one the mans all time best tracks), the sitar overload of 'the fat angel' or the full on orchestrations of 'celeste', making 'sunshine superman' a wonderful album. which, according to the mojo article, suffered a protracted delayed release, meaning it came out after the beatles 'white album', therefore not getting the recognition the album deserved for its progressive experimentation.
'the hurdy gurdy man' album continues the format where the best known track opens the album before donovan lets rip with his genre jumping. this time he tries out jazzy ragtime blues which gets a nudge in 'as i recall it', sitars and bongos in 'the entertaining of a shy girl' and 'tangier', echoed funky drums and far away moods of 'get thy bearings' with its gorgeous sax line (someone tell me where the sax line has been used .. it drives me mad!), the 60's pop flute-y loopy 'west indian lady' as well as several other lovely romantic pop songs ('jennifer juniper' being the obvious highlight).
then there is the excellent full on rock mode of the 'barabajagal' album, with many tracks featuring electric guitars, drums, phased vocals, and the whole range of instruments that were now available to successful pop stars, the rock tracks sit nicely alongside the laid back loveliness of 'where is she' and 'happiness runs' the hilarious 'i love my shirt', the catchy-in-excelsis 'the love song' (incorporating a superb hand clap, funky piano break down !), and the bizarre 5 minute epic of 'atlantis' where donovan leads a 'hey jude' style sing-a-long homage to the ocean (!!), and not forgetting the downright fun of piano centric 'pamela jo' (featuring more studio audience singalongs!). hugely entertaining stuff - all of which makes this probably my favourite of these reissues.
highly recommended for a lazy sunny afternoon when you need to have time out from noise and beats, and need to take a break from the pressures and stresses of the modern world.
for more information than you could ever get from a simple review than this, check the fine official website, its like a time warp on your monitor as are the songs and sounds on offer with these time re-releases.