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Product Details
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Track Listings
| 1. Sunshine Superman |
| 2. Legend Of A Girl Child Linda |
| 3. Three Kingfishers |
| 4. Ferris Wheel |
| 5. Bert's Blues |
| 6. Season Of The Witch |
| 7. The Trip |
| 8. Guinevere |
| 9. The Fat Angel |
| 10. Celeste |
| 11. Breezes Of Patchulie |
| 12. Museum (First Version) |
| 13. Superlungs (First Version) |
| 14. The Land Of Doesn't Have To Be |
| 15. Sunshine Superman |
| 16. Good Trip (Demo) (Mono) |
| 17. House Of Jansch (Demo) (Mono) |
Editorial Reviews
Customer Reviews
In my opinion, Sunshine Superman is his best album, although Mellow Yellow, A Gift From a Flower to a Garden, and Hurdy Gurdy Man are also excellent. Sunshine Superman includes three of Donovan's greatest hits -- the title track, Season of the Witch, and the Trip -- all great rock songs, but, for me, what makes this record shine is the other album tracks. Songs like Legend of a Girl Child Linda, Three Kingfishers, the Fat Angel and bonus track Breezes of Patchulie are simply some of the best psychedelic-chamber-folk-pop songs ever recorded. John Cameron's arrangements are gorgeous throughout. If you like languid mood music with beautiful melodies, and the sounds of sitars and harpsichords, these tunes are bliss (and honestly, if you don't like such things, you shouldn't be listening to Donovan anyway).
One more thing: this record sounds AMAZING. Partly this is due to whoever engineered it forty years ago, but whoever remastered it this year is a genius. EMI, PLEASE hire the responsible party to remaster the Beatles' catalog IMMEDIATELY.
One complaint though: the liner notes are very poorly written.
We begin with "Sunshine Superman," which smiles in blurry, dreamy, tropical-beach sunlight while beneath, exotic undercurrents pulsate and groove. It was released as a single and became the first of many hits. Next, a fairy tale called "Legend Of A Girl Child Linda" is presented, complete with a princess. It teeters for a bit between minor chords before moving to major, giving it sparkle, only to resolve back to minor again. This progression gives this song the most magical and wistful of moods. No words can describe how gorgeous it is (nor how enchanting). The song structure is somewhat unique: there is no chorus or bridge and the verses are separated by short instrumental interludes of tasteful imagination and delicacy. The percussion here is quite understated, true for the majority of the album. (This magical album doesn't "rock," it meditates.) Hand drums are used...I believe they're bongos, not tablas. "Legend" seemingly lasts forever, but that's not nearly long enough. As it ends, I sigh.... On to "Three King Fishers" - another trance-inducing marvel. The rhythm ceases on the chorus and Donovan's voice, matched by the sitar, embraces an exotic Middle Eastern scale. (Perhaps the first rock tune ever with this scale?) Hypnotic. The sitar twangs gently and beautifully; one of the most peaceful songs I've ever heard. We've been in a state of nirvana for two songs now, and "Ferris Wheel" keeps us there. Then comes the cosmically jazzy "Burt's Blues," the mystically groovy "Seasons Of The Witch" and the grooviest of all, "The Trip," which shu-shu-shuffles along while Donovan colorfully paints his uniquely psychedelic imagery. When I haven't listened to this album for a while, I sometimes forget how gorgeous "Guinevere" is: pensive, dark...haunting beyond belief. "Fat Angel" and "Celeste" are also meditative wonders. These songs offered the essence of `67 in 1966.
Here is an album that fits the bill as one of my favorites, a record that easily falls within my top five of all time. Donovan, the ever-youthful romantic, was indeed prophetic. This album, filled with enigmatic innocence, is definitively psychedelic. And considering that the title track was recorded as early as 1965, we have much to ponder in terms of who really ushered in the psychedelic movement.
In light of the wonderful reviews on this page, it should be obvious that the album at hand means a great deal to us. But through the years, Donovan has been unjustly served by the so-called music critics (the pros who have consistently failed us). Had these self-professed authorities done their job, there'd be no reason for these customer-review pages other than self-expression. Donovan was a much-loved artist in the 60s. In those days, he was respected by oodles of recording artists. In 1965, Donovan won a Beat Instrumental's Gold Star Award for Best Folk Guitarist, beating out such artists as Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. There are many people who still love the fabulous and inimitable Donovan. If you love the music of the 60s (a time when people weren't ashamed of nonviolent emotions), please...please do yourself a favor and get this magical treasure piece. Its inherent spells will never wear off!
Cheers,
Murray
"Sunshine Superman" originally appeared in September 1966 in the US only in "reprocessed stereo", and when it was finally released in the UK in June of '67 (which made it seem less pioneering than it was in those heady times) it was combined with songs from "Mellow Yellow" in a mono version that sounded OK but in spite of the clear genius of the songwriting and arrangments, the sound on both versions seemed "off" and the CD versions up to this point did nothing to improve matters. Finally, forty years later, some wizard at EMI properly remastered the sound and the results are astonishing: the acoustic guitars, sitars, tablas, harpsichords and organs have a deep, rich resonance to them which wraps around the listener's ear like a fine silk tapestry.
The album contains not a single weak track and although the pace towards the end of the first side slows to a crawl (with three slow tracks in a row), all are gorgeous. The title track and "Season Of The Witch" were memorable psychedelic rockers, while stoned ballads like "Three Kingfishers" and "Guinevere" are awash in a dreamy, novel synthesis of Indian and Celtic influences that is simply intoxicating. The combination of acoustic and electric guitars, electric violin, harpsichord, strings, sitars and tablas made it one of the first pyschedelic reocords and Donovan has since belatedly been recognized for his contributions to the movement, his influence on The Beatles being particularly strong (see The White Album).
The next two albums, "Mellow Yellow" and "A Gift From A Flower To A Garden" were equally focused and essential but "Sunshine Superman" remains his greatest, both lyrically and musically,
and the measure by which all of his later works were compared.
This remastered version also contains the essential outtakes "Breezes Of Patchulie", "Museum" and "Superlungs" which are all in the same breathtaking mold as the album (all three should have been included, actually, and "Museum" and "Superlungs" may have balanced the album a bit more with rockers, but both found their way in satisfactory versions on later works), as well as a few acoustic demos never before released. In all, an essential purchase for all Donovan fans, who have been waiting years and years for something like this to come out--and unlike some reviewers here, I thought the liners were fine and quite detailed.
to come out of the 60 's . Read more
were probably the last significant albums issued in mono and phony... Read more
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