98. Donovan - Sunshine Superman (August 1966)

1. Sunshine Superman*

2. Ballad of a Girl Child Linda

3. Three King Fishers

4. Ferris Wheel*

5. Bert's Blues

6. Season of the Witch*

7. The Trip

8. Guinevere

9. The Fat Angel

10. Celeste

A-

So another screw-up, chronologically, by the Book. This album was released in the USA in 1966, and the eventual British release the following year uses a completely different track listing. It's important to note this because music was changing so rapidly at the time that placing things in context becomes vital. Had this album been released in '67 it would have still been a big deal, but it was actually released in '66 just a couple of weeks after the Beatles' Revolver blew everyone's minds. Which makes this not only one of the earliest psychedelic releases, but an incredibly innovative album.

Musically, this album is brilliant. The clever trick it plays is to mix folk and rock music which rich pop production. The best example of this is the title track, which is a storming singalong with "everything but the kitchen sink" production values. Lyrically, it's about a man setting out to woo a woman, but in a lot of ways it's also something of a mission statement for Donovan - defiantly odd, but at the same time incredibly catchy. And the line "everybody's hustling to make a little scene/ when I say we'll be cool, baby, you know what I mean" seems to point a way forward in search of a genuinely free and unconventional way of life, not just counter-cultural conformity and attempts to "make it".

"Sunshine Superman" is a brilliant song, and a deserved smash hit, but it's also somewhat atypical of the album. The very next song, "Ballad of a Girl Child Linda", is a long and rambling chamber-folk piece rich with mediaeval imagery, which seems to be an attempt to conjure the joy and mystery and terror of listening to stories as a child. There are references to talking parrots, wizards, knights in armour and fair damsels, and the imagery is so rich and dense that at times it's almost overwhelmingly sensual. There's also a tactile sense to the lyrics (Donovan uses the word "velvet" at least half a dozen times on this album). "Three King Fishers" follows the folky, mediaeval bent, and then there's the beautiful "Ferris Wheel", a lilting pop-folk number about stumbling upon a carnival during a walk on the beach, which is again about feeling free and following your dreams, and has a very pretty melody. After that comes "Bert's Blues", a dense, strange number written for Bert Jansch, which introduces old timey jazz into the mix, and which involves cold winds blowing on their way to Hades and fairy castles terrible in the moonlight.

I'll be honest - I love this sort of crap. When I think of hippies of the 60s, the British folk revival and songs about knights and elves and the like is where I gravitate towards. And it helps that side one of this album is just incredibly pretty.

On side two, things get darker and weirder and ultimately less successful. "Season of the Witch", with its classic scratchy guitar riff and paranoid lyrics about "beatniks out to make it rich" and the like, is a stone cold classic. It's also carried by a prominent, simple bass line, which is one of the most distinctive elements of the album's sound as a whole, often filling in where chords would on a lesser album. "Guinevere", another mediaeval number, is just a pretty song about Arthurian times, rich in imagery and with a haunting melody. It's pretty great. 

The other three songs are good, but not especially good. "The Trip" is some beat nonsense about a trip Donovan took to LA, where he met a bunch of folk luminaries who he name-drops in the lyrics. It's kind of fun, but not up to the standard set by the rest of the album. "The Fat Angel" is very catchy, but it's just a silly song about a man who "brings you happiness in a pipe" and then "rides off on his silver bike". It's kind of notable because Donovan references Jefferson Airplane in it, I guess. The last song is "Celeste", which opts for a full pop ballad approach and really doesn't work.

So, this is a pretty great album. The production and arrangements are gorgeous, the songs are all trippy without being druggy, there are lots of catchy melodies, and the side openers are two of the best songs of the 1960s. It's not perfect throughout, but it's a lot of fun, full of wit and warmth and optimism. Although if you dislike whimsy, and songs about magic and mystery, I would not recommend it.