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41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A mid-sixties masterpiece, brilliantly remastered, June 27, 2005
If Donovan had died young like Nick Drake or lost his mind like Syd Barrett, everyone would recognize his greatness now. Rather, like Paul McCartney, Donovan is a well-adjusted guy who's lived a full life, who made some absolutely brilliant music in the 60's and some less-than-brilliant music after the 60's. Good for him, but lousy for his legend.
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.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
After forty years, finally a definitive version of a masterpiece, January 28, 2006
"Sunshine Superman" remains to this day Donovan's greatest work, a pioneering masterpiece which ranks as one of the best albums of all time. That the 19-year-old could write and perform a work so ahead of its time--he was working on the same artistic level as The Beatles, who were recording "Revolver" during the same months--seems astonishing today, but it took forty years for a proper version of the album to be released.
"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.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Releases a lot of sunshine on this pivitol album, June 8, 2005
this is the remastering we've always hoped for (not the royal "we" but the millions to whom this recording is elemental). thank you thank you thank you to Donovan and all involved in this superb remastering!
and oh! the extra cuts (you can't get this soon enough). in the past i'd sought and found white label promo first pressings (vinyl) of Sunshine Superman in search of the sound quality I longed for. never thought i'd say it about digital 16 bit vs analog but THIS IS IT!!! This is the pressing of this to own. Trust me on this one...
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by Donovan 
