Donovan's Greatest Hits

Familiarity with Donovan's recordings is essential to understanding pop culture of the 60's, particularly the psychedelic/flower power/Summer of Love era. Donovan had a strong mystical, spiritual edge and a quality of educated refinement and erudition which not only fit right in but also gave the era some class. This collection is a very good summary of what Donovan had to offer. The versions of "Catch The Wind" and "Colors" on this CD are the original folk (acoustic) versions, as opposed to the rock-band versions found on the original LP of the greatest hits. Why this was done, I don't know, but it's OK with me, because that is how I first knew Donovan, and his evolution into a rock artist had a similar shock value, although lesser, to Bob Dylan's. The thing to remember is that both were folk artists first, and they brought that sensibility to rock music, thereby changing it. And change it they did! "Sunshine Superman" and "Mellow Yellow" not only have fascinating lyrics and superb music, but the vocals - how cool can you get? I love "Epistle To Dippy" because of the mindbending humor and the tight, tight production - a most excellent track, one of my absolute favorites. "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" has colorful imagery, spiritual lyrics and magical music - it's practically a hymn. "Jennifer Juniper" is special to me because it has some French lyrics, and I was learning French at the time it was released. Also, the hot book at the time was "Valley of the Dolls", which had a main character named Jennifer. I always associated that song with her, and it took on added poignancy when Sharon Tate, who played Jennifer in the film, was murdered. "Hurdy Gurdy Man" is a musical and poetic explosion that really blew my mind when I first heard it. "Lalena" is a more personal piece, a somber song about a woman who leads a suffocating life. "Atlantis" has a beautiful spoken description of how that island might have been, and it ends with a rousing "Hey Jude"-style repeated sentence, and fades out. And "Barabajagal" - "Love is hot, Truth is molten..." The song is funky and boiling. What else can I say? If you want to explore Donovan more deeply, the "Sunshine Superman" album is a masterpiece, with my favorite tracks being "The Trip", "Guinevere" and "Celeste". Also, the "Mellow Yellow" album is almost as good, with "Sand and Foam", "Writer In the Sun" and "Sunny South Kensington" being standouts.

Great selection of Donovan's music. Takes me back to some good times. I would recommend this CD to anyone who likes the music of Donovan.

Wonderful

The odd thing about Donovan is that he produced some of the coolest tunes to come out of the 60s (Season of the Witch, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Sunshine Superman) and some of the most cringe-inducing (Lalena, Jennifer Juniper, and especially To Susan on the West Coast Waiting, a song I hadn't heard before I bought this CD and which is horrifyingly Barry Manilow-like). Everything else here falls somewhere in-between, depending on your tolerance/appreciation for Donovan's unabashedly flower-power sensibility. On the whole this is a great collection, with the balance tilted more toward coolness than dippiness. I must remark in passing on Donovan's liner notes, which are rather ickily self-important (for example, of Sunshine Superman he says "this was a new sound in a new age of pop music" and claims the song influenced Beck because Beck apparently used harpsichord once) and, well, New Agey (of There is a Mountain, which I think is a great song, he says "The lyric carries the listener into a Zen Koan. What's the answer? The answer is to dance into the spirit!"). Also, he looks uncannily like a skinny Marie Osmond in the photo on the front cover.

Maybe it's because of where I live, or we're in a retro-fad again, but Donovan sure gets some props when friends come over and hear him Sunshine Supermanning through my windows. Or maybe there's no expiration date on good music, and I just bought a copy of this off Amazon as a stocking stuffer. It's got all the big hits that I was too little to hear the first time around but rediscovered in the late '70s', and although one reviewer said that these aren't the original recordings, I like what's here and think that the quality's great. This is available for MP3, as well as CD form, and there are over a dozen songs on it, including "Sunshine Superman", "Mellow Yellow", "Jennifer Juniper", "Hurdy Gurdy Man", "Lalena" and my favorite, "Season of The Witch", which, as I write this, is being used for a cell phone commercial, but I'm going to ignore that and continue to revere 60s' music for what it stood for (And don't even get me started on the diapers one using "Get Together/Love One Another" - shame on the advertising world, shame!). I love this music, and I may be in SanFran now, but I'm from Chicago...and it plays just fine there, too!

Arrived intact, no issues.

Journey to the center your mind in easy lyrical music. I was18 years old. Donovan was shaking up the music world. Soft Celtic poetry and matching musical score and a voice you would never forget. A true troubadour the likes never to be found again. Somewhere between folk and pop music is where you will find Donovan. Great in 1964 and just as great in 2021. We could bore you with at least a score of musicians age 75 or older but you can google them. Take a chance and either relive music greatness or discover the flavor of the 60's through his eyes.

Everything you need vis a vis Donovan is here. Every song is really good, with perhaps the exception of "Jennifer Juniper". The songs he wrote nailed the hippy phenomenon in the 60s. I didn't know Donovan was a folk balladeer before he went psychedelic. There are two cuts of his old material, and damn if doesn't sound like Dylan, but not heavy content wise-just wistful love songs. But then you get hit with "Hurdy Gurdy Man", which to me is one of the best songs to emerge from the psychedelic movement. And it just gets more bizarre with "Epistle To Dippy", with its insistent thrumming bass, and backward treatment of the vocals. Far out, just the way I like it. You also get the indispensable Zen singalong "There Is A Mountain". Also included is the post drug bust "Season Of The Witch", which you can call upon when something s***ty happens to you and you find the world against you. It's close enough to call this all killer and no filler. Five stars, this is a great document of the hippy era.