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47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A world in itself., November 10, 2002
I can't say enough good things about this album. Preliminary warning: if you're not tuned into Donovan's world, philosophy, and mindset, this album will probably seem uninteresting, unexciting, and childish. But if you're in the mood and you *are* tuned into Donovan's cozy world of nature, friends, gypsies, hoboes, babies, love, and in general an appreciation for the small things in life, it's absolutely outstanding. The way I got tuned into this music was from a songbook of Donovan songs: after reading the lyrics and actually playing the songs myself, I developed a profound appreciation of every single song on this album. In my days of hitchhiking and riding busses into natural coastal areas, these songs would run around my head and in time I learned to play every single song here on guitar. Every single song here has some subtle but very appealing hook if you listen carefully: a cool jazzy bass intro, a beautiful acoustic guitar riff, lyrics from Shakespeare, poetic imagery of the underworld, contrary motion in the lines of a piano riff, a call to environmentalism, analogy of children with flowers, the charm of old friends far away, human qualities in starfish, rock 'n' roll chords played quietly on organ in contrary motion to a melody, an interesting flute embellishment, the contrast between the world of children and adults, several poems with beautiful beach imagery, poems of married love and the eccentric husband, the pain of faithfulness, glimpses into life on the lam, psychedelic contemplation of colors, images inside a forest, ad infinitum. Absolutely charming. Many of these songs have strong imagery of places in Europe. For example, while staying at an inn in Germany, the innkeeper told my sister that Donovan's lyrics about the "flower pot on a window sill" (in "Skip-A-Long Sam") were written about their inn. Similar imagery arises from lyrics about sheep, English & Flemish geographical names, magpies, etc. The only song I know that got radio play was "Wear Your Love Like Heaven." The rest reside in their own special world.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Flower children never fade... we just produce seeds, December 22, 2002
At 17 years old in 1967 I would lie in my room under my psychedelic crystal ornaments and the "Frodo Lives" slogans written on my wall to listen endlessly to Donovan. I dreamed one day of having children of my own to whom I could sing the gentle love songs of the second half of this album. Life passes and I lovingly protected this album and it's beautiful lyric sheets. The songs became the lulabys of my two darling daughters. Late nights with fretfull children... "the silver girl, the wild jewel's neice" and "the raggle taggle gypsy" would sweep them back into sleep. Now my beloved eldest is far away with her love, and for Christmass I am sending him this album ( now a CD) so that he may sing her the songs.... and perhaps someday to new little buds in the garden.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SIMPLY -- AND BEAUTIFULLY -- ONE OF HIS BEST..., March 6, 2003
...and a shining example of how good music from the 1960s 'hippie' movement could be. Following on the heels of his hits 'Sunshine superman' and 'Mellow yellow', the two-record set 'A gift from a flower to a garden' gave Donovan the chance to spread out - the first album of the set (entitled 'Wear your love like heaven' in its individual release) presents Mr. Leitch with a full band, including some of his regular collaborators (Candy John Carr and Harold 'the very debonair' McNair) along with some fine UK studio musicians, including Jack Bruce of Cream, who plays bass on 'Someone singing'. The songs on this part of the album are all extremely hummable pop ditties with jazz and folk overtones (keyboardist Mike Carr does some beautiful work on vibraphone), and the lyrics give us a glimpse of Donovan at his 'hippie-dippie' (and that's NOT a derogatory term, trust me) best. He sings of love and the beauty of nature - and some of the songs sound like he's addressing them to children in his gentle, characteristic way. One tune - 'Under the greenwood tree' - is taken from Shakespeare; he ends the tune fading out with '...do the Willie the Shake...' 'Wear your love like heaven' is the only real hit from this double set, and it's a great, memorable song.The second half of 'Gift' was also available separately, under the title 'For little ones' - which would seem to indicate an album of songs for children. While several of them would easily fit into that category - and the arrangements on this half, all acoustic, would make it more listenable for younger ears - the subject matter of some of the selections is a bit dark. I suppose I can admit here that MANY fairy tales are VERY dark, when viewed closely - so this is a minor point, and certainly not a complaint. Harold McNair is present on this half as well - his flute is perfectly integrated with Donovan's guitar lines, the mark of two musicians who know and respect each other deeply - along with string bass and percussion, all tastefully added. The arrangements are all pretty sparse, but beautifully so, with Donovan's acoustic guitar, occasional harmonica, and delicately picked banjo gently in the fore - and of course, there's Don's voice, an instantly recognizable instrument in itself, marvelously suited to his songs. BGO Records has done a nice job with the re-mastering - they originally issued this in mono, unaware that it had ever been released anywhere in the world in stereo (it was only available in mono in the UK in its original release), then recalled their release, found a good stereo master, and re-issued it. The recording overall is very clear - the sound on Donovan's guitar is especially nice on the acoustic album, and the blending of the musicians on the more electric half is done very nicely indeed. My only gripe is that the artwork that originally accompanied the acoustic half is represented here only in reduced images. The original set included an 8 X 10 page for each song on the second half, in different colours, on some very nice stock - not practical in a cd release, I know, but something in between the two presentations would have been nice. Ah well - another small complaint. It's a grand thing that this recording is available again, and my thanks go to BGO for that. There's an American release of this set, available through Sony - and while the artwork mentioned above is reproduced more nicely there, the lyrics to the 'Wear your love like heaven' half are included as a single-page reproduction of the album art, and are so small that they're practically illegible. The deciding factor was that BGO had the integrity to withdraw their original release and reissue it in stereo -- it's a wonderful thing to see a company in the music business that cares enough to do that. It's too rare a thing. I had the opportunity to make a choice, and I chose the BGO edition. Listening to this album, after all of these years, makes me think there's hope for us yet...
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