Donovan was an icon of the flower power 1960's and 70's movement, an aspiring beatnik born in Glasgow Scotland.
Donovan moved in amazing "circles" in those days, associating or friends with the likes of all members of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Byrds and many other luminaries of the times - what a wonderful melting pot of musical ideas!
Later in the 1980's his success took a dip with the advent of the British punk scene though (how could an acoustic folky singer complete with The Pistols?). The youth were sick of the fluffy "smell the flowers" stuff and had become angry at the establishment, punk was the new scene.
Donovan was commonly thought of as an acoustic folk rock sort of guy, but he was actually much more than that. He wrote and performed some very psychedelic songs, silly comedy songs such as Intergalactic Laxative and also dabbled in jazz Preachin' Love
His commercial success really came from songs such as Hurdy Gurdy Man (a sort of folk metal song) and Mellow Yellow (very flower power peace-love-dove-man sort of song) - he was an artist of the times.
This album, recorded when he was around 22 years old, has a mix of genre's and also his father introducing Donovan at the beginning of the Anaheim concert!
There is traditional folk, political folk, jazz and the psychedelic Mellow Yellow (last track)
WARNING: The music is fine (mostly) but the cover has suffered past storm damage and there is a small issue on the vinyl (short scratch) - PLEASE read the description below for full details ...
Donovan (Leitch) - Donovan In Concert
Epic Records
Cat# ELPS 3560 (Yellow STEREORAMA label)
1968
Australian release
Cover is in good (minus) condition, this means it is holding together (all seams are sound and not split) but oh yes, it has suffered during a past storm and the rear especially became wet and upon separation from the other records, pulled off some of the graphics on the rear. The rear in particular is not pretty, also some old mildew spots as well! I have cleaned and sterilised as much as possible without damaging the cover too much - at least it doesn't stink!
New inner plastic liner sleeve
Vinyl is in good condition, albiet with one small glitch!
This vinyl has seen a fair bit of play and has very light scratches, none look to be serious though. I love this "old" vinyl, it tends to be much more hardy than "modern" plastics and even if it doesn't look great, it plays great.
Enough of the visual inspection talk, what matters is the sound. I then played both sides ENTIRELY and this record has no significant issues with surface noise or clicks/pops on Side A. Side B though has a very short but significant scratch just after the run-in and this DOES cause a couple of mistracks on the first track "Widow With Shawl" but after a few seconds all is good with the world and the rest of Side B is fine and dandy. Other than this mistracking on the one track (not my favourite song anyway!) the album is a great record of one of his live performances in USA.
New outer protective sleeve
Tracks: Isle Of Islay, Young Girl Blues, There Is A Mountain, Poor Cow, Celeste, The Fat Angel, Guinevere, Widow With Shawl, Preachin' Love, The Lullaby Of Spring, Writer In The Sun, Pebble And The Man, Rules And Regulations, Mellow Yellow
Mellow Yellow (Acoustic 1966)
Mellow Yellow (20 years later, more polished performance with an audience that really "digs" Donovan
