Donovan was an icon of the flower power (1960's & 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 double album box set is mainly in the psychedelic folk vein although a couple of tracks take a trip into a very jazzy feel
Donovan (Leitch) - A Gift From A Flower To A Garden
Epic Records
Cat# B2N 171 (Yellow EPIC label)
1968
USA release
Box set cover is in good (minus) condition, this means it is holding together fine on three sides but one side strip (top cover) is completely missing. The box is still structurally sound and this missing edge doesn't cause any significant packaging issues. The inside front and inside rear of the box have a graphic sheet that is glued to the box (intentional) No signs of mildew spots - this box set has been keep dry! Includes the special inner sleeve with separate lyric sheets (each is a different coloured paper) for Record 2 songs. I have retained the original mushroom coloured paper sleeves for the vinyl but also am supplying new plastic inner sleeves to keep the vinyl as clean as possible.
New inner plastic liner sleeves
Both vinyl are in very good condition, EXCEPT Record 2 Side 2, see more about this below. A visual inspection shows that 3 sides are in great condition, barely any scratches or marks at all but I can clearly see a mark of some sort on Record 2 Side 2. I love this old vinyl because it is far "harder" than modern plastic "jelly" which scratches very easily. So even though there is a mark which worried me a little, I was hopeful of a nice playback.
So, that's enough about how it looks visually - time to play Donovan!
I then played the double album ENTIRELY, every single track, and there are absolutely no issues with surface noise or click/pops and this includes the mark I mention above - just a couple of surface noises at a low level and certainly nothing dramatic at all - very happy! So in summary, all tracks on this release play great, even the quieter songs that Donovan performs.
New outer protective sleeve
Tracks: Wear Your Love Like Heaven, Mad John's Escape, Skip-A-Long Sam, Sun, There Was A Time, Oh Gosh, Little Boy In Corduroy, Under The Greenwood Tree, The Land Of Doesn't Have To Be, Someone's Singing, Song Of The Naturalist's Wife, The Enchanted Gypsy, Voyage Into The Golden Screen, Isle Of Islay, The Mandolin Man And His Secret, Lay Of The Last Tinker, Widow With Shawl (A Portrait), The Lullaby Of Spring, The Magpie, Starfish-On-The-Toast, Epistle To Derroll
