Customer Reviews

Fairytale

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fairy Tale has fantastic music and fantastic Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. I've been a Donovan fan for many years. I've had Donovan 45 rpm singles, 33 1/3 albums and CD's. This is the first DVD-audio. I found a sound quality that was not available (to me, anyway) in the 60's. I didn't hear any static or hissing that I associate with remastering of old audio tracks, not even when I turned the volume up some. I don't claim to be an audiophile, but I thought the sound was clean.

The DVD has 17+ "screens" of liner notes. Each song displays a photo, mostly black and white. At least one of the photos is used twice, but is cropped and zoomed. The disc jacket displays the THX/pm3 symbol. I tried this dvd on a few different dvd-players and it played on all of them. The stereo sound through the headphones of a portable DVD player was quite nice.

I hope to see more of the older classics redone is this format. I would even buy another Donovan album in DVD-audio. If you are looking for a higher sound quality of Donovan music, then I highly recommend this DVD.

OK, men...THIS IS THE BEST of The Master!!
When I Found above dust the original vinyl of my father I wondered at any track !!!
This is the first album and you can listen to the simplicity af the guitar arrangements e the beautiful voice of Donovan.
"to try for the sun", "colours", "catch the wind", and most of the other songs are the answer to all searching for the "core" of the artist before electric sounds and Indian influences.
Expecially if you are a "campfire guitar singer" you can't miss this album !!!!
Cheers

i bought "fairytale" in its LP incarnation several times and gave it away as a gift several times, as well. in comparison to donovan's first LP (then called "what's bin did etc..." ) this one was a little wet. donovan's first LP had a folksy powerfulness that came from a solid songbook repertoire, and as a consequence, these first two LPs have often been mounted together and mixed up in various ways to achieve a more coherent feel. this is good and well, but now both of those records are available as expanded CDs, which leaves the original records largely in tact, and adds a few nice touches. (there is in fact a whole batch of recorded demos from before this time, 1964, eg the truly stunning "london town" and "codine" on the "troubadour" compilation that show up donovan's surprising mastery even at age 18.) but "fairytale" needed the EP's worth of extra tracks that have now been appended, including the fabulous pre-LED ZEP "hey gyp" track, to lift it into orbit and into the stratosphere. (or vice versa.) at any rate, in its present shape "fairytale" is indeed the record it should have or could have been all along, a perfect, many-facetted, sparkling little jewel. not way ahead of bob dylan, but perhaps way ahead of the beatles! (at the time.) and still a pleasure to listen to, even now. that's something that cannot be said of all that many records! so - five stars!

What can you say about this album? It's perfect. The dvd-audio is not a bad way to go either. The sound on my TV is loud and very clear, even though I don't have the surround and everything set up.. You know, I love Dylan and I hate to compare them, but Donovan has always held his own in my book. These acoustic tunes are poetic, sung with incredible feeling and beautiful haunting melodies. They seem to come from another world (well, Scotland?) and another time. What I love about Donovan is that none of the tunes are cynical - often they are storys seeming to come straight from the heart of their narrators. Or course there are a few blues driven acoustic numbers on here as well, and not all the tracks were written by Donovan though what he covers he certainly gives new life to. Singer/guitarist Bert Jansch actually penned the songs "Oh Deed I Do", and bonus track "Do You Hear Me Now". "Candyman" is a traditional, etc.. he gives stunning renditions. A beautiful album.

By the way, if you can find it, there's an incredible movie with a Donovan driven soundtrack (set in Scotland I think) called "Poor Cow" by director Kenneth Loach. Made in 1967, it contains acoustic songs (not on Fairyland) "Be Not Hard", "Colours", and "Poor Love", as well as others. The movie itself is as beautiful as this album, as are the Donovan tracks, whose mood and emotional power were made for it, though I hadn't heard those songs before (with the exception of "Colours"). Yes, unfortunately it's a zone 2 movie. The Japanese edition (which should be available on Amazon Japan) looks nicer than the European one if you ever think about getting it.