#0098: Sunshine Superman - Donovan

So many tracks I actually know but never knew their titles or who recorded them and this is no exception.  The title track is that legendary chromatic hook that somehow never gets old as the mostly acoustic arrangement bobs and dips thru its 3 minutes of overture pop.

I say overture cuz track 2 is a bold change of pace, immediately plunging us in at the deep end with a 7 minute, slow rhapsodic song called Legend of a Girl Child Linda.  It is centred on a baritone melody supported by a simple acoustic guitar and orchestral interweaving themes from strings, flutes and oboes.  I suppose it remains to be seen whether this was the best positioning for this song.  It's a proper ballad, as in it's verse after verse of what I gather is some kind of soft tragedy.  I'm not saying it isn't good or that I might not eventually like it but it's no Stairway.  Now there's a 7+ minute song that just hits you and stay hit.

Three Kingfishers then is the song that will do most to determine the character and tone of this album and hopefully give me some idea of where it's g-oh fuck.  Here come the sitars.  It's the most authentic sounding sitar I've heard on a hippy album to date but it's still sitar music.  Directionless, meandering nonsense and the music is pretty aimless too.  Thankfully there's only 3 minutes of it.

Well, I say 3 minutes.  I'll have to add the running time of track 4 onto that as well cuz even though it's more melodic than the previous song, it's still got a really nasty twanging noise phasing into the pain zone every third beat of the bar.  Unfuckingbearable.  40 seconds to go mostly taken up by someone practising scales on the sitar.  We practice scales so we can play tunes.  Just sayin'.  Rehearse on your own dime, motherfucker.

Bert's Blues releases us from the cinnamon scented grip of its hideous forerunners but it's a fucking mess.  After the first couple of rounds it drops into a sort of harpsichord tone poem.  The cellos interweaving are doing well to sound out of place (i.e. good) against this.  What a waste. 

I think I've heard somebody else's version of Season Of The Witch.  It sounds familiar.  This isn't too bad.  It's more akin to the opening track but it's a two chord groove and while the chorus and verse are distinct arrangements, Donovan can sing and the melodies do differ, it's still....fucking dull.  This kinda reminds me of my problem with The Doors.

The Trip starts promisingly.  Nothing too aggressive in this.  It's a nice little walking blues (I think - blues aficionados may well be able to correct me on that) with a not too ambitious vocal and this is what you want from your music.  They're supposed to make it sound easy.

That last track restored some of my faith in this but when you see the next track is called "Guinevere", I tend to clench up if it's not the David Crosby masterwork.  Yes, earnest anorak, that other song has an extra "n" in it.  Well spotted, now fuck off. :0)  This Guinevere is a predictably courtly, lamentably pedestrian and forgettably historian ballad about days of yawn, sorry yore.

The Fat Angel.  I was desperate for this to be funny.  It's a funny title.  More sitars.  Instead of paying attention I did some editing on the last paragraph. Perhaps you noticed.  No?  Thanks.

The last track is called Celeste.  It's a slow number with a smidgen of sitar.  Not wholly offensive but nowhere near good enough to help this awkward lump of congealed soup get beyond two stars.