Our gentle troubadour was born Donovan Leitch, May 10th, 1946 in Glasgow, Scotland. His family moved to the outskirts of London when he was ten; at 15 he enrolled in college where he stayed less than a year. He lived in the tenements of downtown London with beatnik poets and bongo players. He learned a fine, intricate finger picking guitar style based on the playing of Davy Graham and Bert Jansch. At 18 years he was writing his own songs and mixing them with folk standards. The transcendent ballad "Catch the Wind" was his first single. Just an acoustic guitar and the beautiful Scottish boy with the wavery voice and cloth cap. "Britain's answer to Dylan," they said. It was 1965.
Forty years down the line, the cap is gone. The beautiful face is lined and older. The hair still curly, but grey. He is, in 2005, after a few years in relative obscurity, back on tour...his most recent album (last summer's Beat Café) still resonates on informed sound systems. The time is ripe for a rethinking of Donovan's career. Randy Newman recently asked why, after so many hit songs, Donovan was not better appreciated by today's musical community. Well, if Epic/Legacy has anything to do with it, this new three-disc anthology will change that forever.
Entitled Try For The Sun: the Journey of Donovan it begins where the journey started, with "Catch the Wind" and continues through three packed discs bringing the story up to date, with a song from beat cafe and a new recording of one of Don's classics. The trouble is...this might be too much Donovan for the casual listener! When Green Man Review's publisher offered this set for review he said, "Here's a collection of Donovan's best...and his worst." And that, I believe, is representative of how people think of the gentle troubadour. "He had some great songs...but there was all that other stuff!"
I admit that when we visited New York City last summer, one highlight (for me) was Donovan's concert at Joe's Pub but it took some fast talking to convince my friends to accompany me. "He's not gonna sing in that quivery voice is he?" "Oh no," I assured my friend, "That was just for effect!" But...even after delays, and being kept outside on the street in a torrential downpour, a good time was had by all! Donovan just has a kind of magic that works quietly and insidiously.
Disc one contains the earliest recordings. "Catch the Wind," "Colours," and "Universal Soldier" all done with minimal production, just voice and guitar and the immediacy of these recordings is timeless. Beautiful. The programme moves quickly to the Mickie Most productions wherein Donovan's songs were wrapped in layers of harpsichords, sitars, flutes, and yet, still reached the listener on a visceral level. One doesn't focus on the individual instrument...it's the sound...a holistic approach centred on Donovan's voice. Quivery, wavery, however you want to describe it, it's gentle but authoritative. Listen to "Season of the Witch" and hear him push from behind his throat, but he remains as ever that gentle troubadour. Forgive me for repeating that sobriquet, but it describes Donovan perfectly. His voice, his guitar playing, his songs, his image, and his persona all add up to one vision. And however long in the tooth he becomes he still maintains that look. Elfin, innocent, beautiful, gentle. There's no other way to say it. Even when he's talking about lust he remains innocent.
I know what Cat meant when he said "the best and the worst..." some of these songs taken alone have a precious quality about them. You hear the lyrics and roll your eyes. In concert he talks, in his quiet Scottish lilt, about beatniks, or fairies, or the 60s, and at first even the most devoted fan is tempted to say, "Oh, brother...get on with it." But before long you are transported into this mild world, and it becomes your reality while you listen to Donovan. "Fly Trans-Love Airways / get you there on time," who needs acid for flashbacks? Just put on a little Donovan. The first disc also includes mega-hits "Sunshine Superman" and "Mellow Yellow" but also the wonderful "Young Girl Blues" and personal favourite "Sunny South Kensington." I had a girlfriend who lived on South Kensington, but the song rocks!
The second disc is a blend of more Mickie Most productions and some previously unreleased live recordings from the Anaheim Convention Center. "Epistle to Dippy," "There is a Mountain," "Wear Your Love Like Heaven," "Jennifer Juniper," and the somewhat heavier "Hurdy Gurdy Man" hardly prepared anyone for his recording with the Jeff Beck Group, the sizzling "Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)." How could the same person come up with such disparate sounds? The live material is a good sampling of Donovan live. "This is a story of a conversation I had once...with some starfish..." he burrs and then fingerpicks and sings "Epistle to Derroll." I can see the eyes rolling back, but give it a chance. Aahhh! That's better.
"Celtic rock" was one description for the music Donovan was making, and it's not a bad analogy. The third disc gives samples of this direction. Donovan records became harder to find in 1969. Mickie Most was no longer producing him; he took to producing himself. He goes back to acoustic guitar with a bass guitar and some backing vocals for "Celia of the Seals." He was setting poems by Yeats and others to music (which he continues to do) and recording albums for children; he was less in the public eye, but still writing and recording. Several unreleased tracks show him in a meditative, folky style, including the traditional "She Moved Through the Fair." In 1970 he put together a band to play that "Celtic rock" on an album, represented here by two tracks. Open Road was a raw acoustic band project that sounds better now than it did then. Try For The Sun features the hit single "Riki Tiki Tavi," and the more obscure "Clara Clairvoyant." These are followed by some never-released live tracks frrom 1971 where he does "Keep On Truckin'" and "Stealin'" in jugband style. Nice clarinet and kazoo!
By 1973 Donovan was so far out he was...out! The albums Cosmic Wheels and Essence to Essence were virtual parodies of his style, with lyrics that were the oddest of his career. "The Intergalactic Laxative" indeed! That particular classic is not included, but "Maria Magenta" is not one of the strongest songs on the collection. Things picked up a bit with the Norbert Putnam produced 7-Tease (represented by "Your Broken Heart") and Slow Down World which offers "Dark-Eyed Blue Jean Angel." But that was 1975. There is a gap of almost 20 years before Rick Rubin took Donovan back to the basics with 1994's Sutras album. "Please Don't Bend" is the only track from this album, and it is probably the best song from that album, which saw Donovan's guitar and vocals supported by DannyThompson's up-right bass! It was another ten years before beat cafe was released. "Love Floats" is an essential piece of Donovan's work, and aslo features Danny Thompson, along with Jim Keltner on drums!
The three disc set concludes with a new recording of "Happiness Runs" recorded for a television commercial. And that's it. You can spend an evening visiting Donovan's world. "His best and his worst?" Not really...listen to the German import Neutronica album...or get "The Intergalactic Laxative!" But for an in-depth look at a major artist who has been unjustly ignored Try For The Sun is an almost perfect overview of his career. Is there a song I miss? Yep! I'd love to have "A Well Known Has-been" added to this mix...but you can't have everything, can you.
I reviewed a special advance copy. The official release (due in September) will feature a velvet box, a book of photographs, with liner notes by Anthony DeCurtis, and a bonus DVD. The liner notes were included, and they are informed and interesting...I would love to see the DVD, but they say that it's "still in development." Can't wait!
