Donovan - The Very Best Of The Early Years (2005) [FLAC] (Compilation)
The Very Best Of The Early Years is an overview of the first steps Donovan took as a recording artist.
The material here is culled from early singles and EP's, and from Donovan's first two albums, What's
Bin Did and What's Bin Hid and Fairytale.
Release Info
Released: Apr 2005
Label: Metro
Cat. No.: METRCD155
Playing Time:58:02
Track List
1 - Catch the Wind - 2:19
2 - Ballard of a Crystal Man - 3:53
3 - Colours - 2:47
4 - Sunny Goodge Street - 2:58
5 - The Summer Day Reflection Song - 2:14
6 - Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness) - 3:11
7 - You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond - 4:04
8 - Donna Donna - 2:57
9 - Goldwatch Blues - 2:33
10 - Universal Soldier - 2:14
11 - The Ballad of Geraldine - 4:41
12 - Do You Hear Me Now - 1:49
13 - To Try for the Sun - 3:39
14 - To Sing for You - 2:45
15 - The War Drags On - 3:42
16 - Tangerine Puppet - 1:52
17 - Oh Deed I Do - 2:08
18 - Turquoise - 3:31
19 - Jersey Thursday - 2:14
20 - Cuttin' Out - 2:19
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, All Music Guide, Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Both the best and worst thing that happened to Donovan early in his career was being compared to Bob
Dylan: best because he gained significant publicity from it, and worst because he gained significant
publicity from it. Here was a curly-haired, acoustic guitar-strumming, harp-blowing troubadour, a
traditionalist on one hand (Donovan even covered a Woody Guthrie song on his debut album) but with
something new to say on the other. The comparison was even played for laughs in the documentary Don't
Look Back, in which Dylan can be seen taking his supposed rival less than seriously as a contender.
Donovan quickly lost the Dylan clone tag and established himself as an original voice once he went
electric with hits like "Sunshine Superman" and "Mellow Yellow," but his earliest folk recordings
were quite charming and often rather beautiful, as this collection reminds. The 20 songs on The Very
Best of the Early Years find Donovan's proclivity for mystical imagery already fully formed ("Catch
the Wind," "The Summer Day Reflection Song"), his melodicism finely developed ("Tangerine Puppet,"
"To Try for the Sun"), his leanings toward jazz ("Cuttin' Out") and blues ("Hey Gyp") firmly in place,
and his singing and instrumental work quite impressive. As a lyricist Donovan, like the other guy,
applied the poet's touch, but he largely avoided the heavy-handedness that often characterized Dylan's
early work. Dylan, in his antiwar and miserable-state-of-affairs songs ("Masters of War," "A Hard Rain's
A-Gonna Fall"), was often caustic, while Donovan, who borrows his antiwar songs from others (Buffy
Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier" and Mick Softley's "The War Drags On"), goes for messages that are
direct but comparatively simplistic. Donovan was clearly headed into more fanciful writing than in
topical songs anyway, and although his taste for covers was finely attuned (his love for guitarist/
singer Bert Jansch's work is already clear in the two songs rendered here, "Do You Hear Me Now" and
"Oh Deed I Do"), it's Donovan's carefully crafted originals like "Sunny Goodge Street," "Colours" and
"Turquoise" that indicate where he'd soon be heading. The material here is culled from early singles
and EPs, and from Donovan's first two albums, What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid and Fairytale. These
recordings were a tentative start but their quality is unquestionable.
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