Customer Reviews

7 Tease / Slow Down World

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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I'm a big time Donovan fan who's only heard the song "Sadness" from these 2 albums. The others I was hearing for the first time. I have all of Donovan's commercially available cd's. First of all, the packaging is superb and the sound quality is excellent. Great job there. About the music though. Some of it's good, some is just plain bad (and corny) and the rest is mediocre. This was a time in Donovan's life when he seemed to be coming down from the high that he was on during his phenominal 60's material up thru his amazing "HMS Donovan" from 71. From 73 to 77, Cosmic Wheels, Essence to Essence, 7-tease, Slow Down World and his "1977" album seemed to be a grab bag of "whatever I feel like doing from one song to the next". Alot of variety in the songs so you cannot say "one dimensional". Although Essence and Cosmic and 1977 have some good songs on them, I'm not particularly fond of them but this 2-on-1 is still very much worth having as there's still some good tunes (ie, Sadness, Mountain, Your Broken Heart, etc..). One song I find quite amusing and chuckle to is "Salvation Stomp". I admire Donovan for making an about-face from his 1964-1971 material with his 1973-1977 albums. Sadly, I can't say I'm crazy about these 2 albums but I cannot (and neither should you if you like Donovan) do without Cosmic Wheels, Essence to Essence, 7-tease, Slow Down World, and his 1977 "green album".

Get this cd and if you're not holding high expectations for these albums, you may find some gems amidst the "skip over" tunes.

Was it worth the wait? Is it worth getting? Absolutely. The songs I don't like will grow on me yet :-) I feel that Donovan had alot of fun doing both of these albums as some of the songs are downright humorous/silly.

These are two of Donovan's best albums of the 70s. I consider them both better than either Cosmic Wheels or Essence to Essence. Maybe not as great as Open Road, but the styles are so different its hard to compare. 7-Tease is full of high energy songs as well as a couple of slower ballads. The backing players are excellent. Donovan's sensitivity and humanity are evident throughout. He obviously had an agenda, but it was a humane one that showed he cared about the world and the people in it. In my estimation, his message is a sincere one and he tries to live the principles he preaches. His songs should be heard. Sadness is lovely, but all the songs are good, some humorous, others with biting political comment and spiritual and ecological overtones. Slow Down World is mostly mellow with light percussion, and with more subdued ornamentation (save for the funky horns on Well-Known Has-Been). Again, the backing musicians are excellent, Lyrically, Donovan was too critical of himself on WKHB, but it ends on an optimistic note. The title track is poignant, and its simple but important lyric rightly predicts the destructive spiral humans are spinning down through greed and running the rat race. Liberation Rag celebrates femininity; Dark-eyed Blue Jean Angel is a love song to Linda. Cryin' Shame and Children of the World discuss a litany of troubles in today's world, and Mountain offers solace with beautiful words from Derroll Adams. My favorite track is Black Widow, for its delectable sensuality (and I like spiders). Anyone with more than a passing interest in Donovan should find this CD delightful, and you get two albums for the price of one. As someone who thoroughly enjoys Donovan's music, I recommend this wholeheartedly to anyone with an open mind and a giving heart.

These two albums from long ago are evenly Great and Silly. Donovan is a deep-surface-deep guy. Both dimensions are in all his work and these two records seem perfectly matched. I'm eternally grateful I got this package when I did--just a couple years make all the difference in pricing. Any disc over a hundred dollars I guess they just want to go away. Shame. This is beautiful music made by a beautiful meditative soul. Sunshine Superman again and again is what the market demanded--he moved on--surprise surprise. My favorite songs here are Your Broken Heart, Salvation Stomp, Ride-a-Mile, and How Silly from the 7-Tease half and from the Slow Down World show: Cryin' Shame, The Mountain, A Well-Known Has-Been and Black Widow. If you know somebody who knows somebody you should probably give these tunes a listen. I mean, who knew that such cool stuff would have to disappear? The market works for some, some of the time--and it worked for Donovan for a bit--but it coldly dismisses everything else. In the Big Archive in the Sky this may live on, but we may have to access it post-digitally. Super.

This Donovan twofer has two albums he made when he was approaching 30. The first "7-Tease" (seventies get it?) was done in Nashville as a concept album for a concert stage show. It includes among others, Buffy Sainte-Marie whose "Universal Soldier" was a big hit for Don in '65. "Slow Down World" was produced by Donovan himself in L.A. with some of the big names of the day like David Foster, Tom Scott, Lee Sklar, Jay Graydon and Jim Keltner. It includes Donovan's beautiful homage to Linda (aka "She") his wife and muse "Dark Eyed Blue Jean Angel" which should have been a chart single. Two of the songs were written by his old friend Derroll Adams (the "banjo man with a tattoo on his hand")"Love Song" and "The Mountain"- which is sort of a follow up to "There is A Mountain" indeed it was Derroll who taught Donovan the Zen koan that inspired his 1967 hit. Maybe had someone else produced the album it would have been more successful. The liner notes also mention a cover of David Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" which was released as a single circa 1975 but has never seen the light of day on CD. Perhaps Donovan will include it as part of his new "seventies archive" along with other songs of the day that never saw the light of day...

Gotta say that I really love this disc and I play it a lot. It leads out with the rocking, "Rock and Roll Souljer" and slows right down with "Your Broken Heart." A normal musician couldn't make that transition without losing his listener for a bit, but Donovan was/is no normal musician. When he's good, he's great. "Ride-a-Mile" is just about my favorite Donovan song ever, and that's saying something from the man who recorded "Catch the Wind" and "Season of the Witch." Even the Nashville musicians work here. These guys are spot on, the arrangements perfect.

And to Pair "7-Tease" with "Slow Down World" on one disc is, in my humble opinion, nothing short of brilliant. it's just too bad they couldn't fit on the four extra songs that the UK version has on the end of "7-Tease," but I understand that there is only so much space on a CD and the material here just works so very well together. Heck, you don't even notice the transition from "Tease" to "World" so well do these two recordings blend. And I have to say, "Dark-Eyed blue Jean Angel" is another of my favorite Donovan songs, as is "Well-Known-Has-Been." There is an awful lot to like here. This is a disc any casual fan of Donovan's should own. This is a period in Donovan's career that is just outstanding and it should have been as big for him as his Mickey Most Period was, but sadly it wasn't. Still, you can get this stuff now, listen to it and enjoy it. I know I do.

7 TEASE;I have the original vinyl releases of these two albums, and loved them back then when I first heard them. But speaking from a biased point of view, I am a long standing Donovan fan of thirty years, so owning these was never an option.
If you love that brassy 70's sound, 7 Tease has it all, reminicent of that earlier 60's swing beat it is a mixture of that. Opinions are split on this album some fans like, others don't. What was annoying about the release of these two albums, is that they are combined into one CD, which may be convenient, but the downside to that was the added expense. It wasn't cheap, will set you back around £40. I ordered my copy from US, which was a lot cheaper including postage.
SLOW DOWN WORLD; My personal favourite of the two, this features some great tracks, definately more of the old Donovan style, but incorporating that newer sound that Don was making in the late 70's. Well worth a listen, a must for fans, but the price might put you off.

Commercially, both albums sold poorly, but "Slow Down World" is not only my favorite Donovan album, it is in my all time top 10.
7-Tease from '74 was a preview of Slow Down- and it too is awesome. This release is very nice, artwork, etc.
It is LONG AWAITED and VERY COOL!!!
HIGHLIGHT: "A WELL KNOWN HAS BEEN"

Commercially, both albums sold poorly, but "Slow Down World" is not only my favorite Donovan album, it is in my all time top 10.
7-Tease from '74 was a preview of Slow Down- and it too is awesome. This release is very nice, artwork, etc.
It is LONG AWAITED and VERY COOL!!!
Highlight: "A WELL KNOWN HAS BEEN"