Donovan - 1966 - Sunshine Superman (Stereo Special Edition) (2011) @320
Forty-five years after the 1966 US release of Donovan’s trailblazing Sunshine Superman album, this expanded reissue coincides with a celebratory, anniversary-marking Royal Albert
Hall appearance, and a sympathetic new stereo mix allows the songs to flex as never before.
(The original mono mix comprises Disc Two.)
A labyrinthine web of circumstances led Sunshine Superman into sounding the way it did in the first place. In terms of subject matter, it simultaneously mourns the absence of his future wife, Linda Lawrence – pursuing a modelling career in the US at that time – while softly and persuasively beckoning her to return. The decorous Legend Of A Girl Child Linda is immersed in introspection, and a similarly indulgent seam of sumptuous melancholy runs through Celeste. Conversely, the recreational habits of a young hash-head pop star with a freshly acquired LSD fascination inform wantonly unconcealed compositions such as The Trip and The Fat Angel. Taken in tandem, everything significantly points towards manifestations of love, peace and an expansion of the universal consciousness…
Key also is the intervention of producer Mickie Most and arranger John Cameron, who, from Sunshine Superman onwards, would work with Donovan until the close of the 60s. Most’s
vulpine pop instincts stimulated Donovan’s creativity, while Cameron’s fearlessness as an arranger rationalised a heady brew of influences encompassing beat poetry, Celtic folk, boho jazz, chamber music and mainstream pop. In the new mix, harpsichord and string bass tickle the cochlea on the title track and wide-eyed Swinging London paean Sunny South
Kensington, one of a welter of bonus tracks including the vastly superior first takes of ’67- era songs Museum and Epistle To Dippy. Shawn Phillips’ sitar describes serpentine convolutions across Ferris Wheel and Three Kingfishers, while Season Of The Witch gains an ambient extra dimension in its tense spaciousness. (Record Collector)
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