The World of Donovan (1972 Album) - Sunshine Superman

Sunshine Superman

By 1966, Donovan had shed the overt Dylan/Guthrie influences and become one of the first British pop musicians to adopt a flower power image. More importantly, his music was developing and changing rapidly as he immersed himself in jazz, blues, Eastern music, and the new generation of U.S. West Coast bands such as Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. He was now entering his most creative and original phase as a songwriter and recording artist, working in close collaboration with Mickie Most and especially with arranger, musician, and jazz fan John Cameron. Their first collaboration was "Sunshine Superman", one of the first overtly psychedelic pop records.

Donovan's rise stalled temporarily in December 1965, when Billboard broke news of the impending production deal between Klein, Most, and Donovan, and then reported that Donovan was about to sign with Epic Records in the US. Despite Kozak's strenuous denials, Pye Records dropped the new single from their release schedule, and a contractual dispute ensued, due to the fact that Pye had an existing US licensing arrangement with Warner Bros. Records. As a result of the dispute, the UK release of Sunshine Superman LP was delayed for many months, robbing the album of the impact it would otherwise have had. Another outcome was that the UK and US versions of this and several later albums differed markedly – three of his Epic LPs were not released in the UK, and Sunshine Superman was issued in a completely different form in each country. Several significant tracks featured on his late 1960s Epic (US) LPs were not released in the UK for many years. The legal dispute continued into early 1966. During the enforced hiatus, Donovan holidayed in Greece, where he wrote "Writer in the Sun", inspired by the rumours that his recording career was over. He toured the USA, during this visit he appeared on as a guest on episode 23 of Rainbow Quest with Shawn Phillips and Rev. Gary Davis. After his return to London, he developed his friendship with Paul McCartney and reportedly contributed the line "sky of blue and sea of green" to the song "Yellow Submarine".

By late 1966, the American contractual problems had been resolved, and Donovan signed a $100,000 deal with Epic Records. Donovan and Most went to CBS Studios in Los Angeles, where they recorded tracks for a new LP, much of which had been formulated and composed during the preceding year. Although folk elements were still prominent, the album showed the increasing influence of jazz, American west coast psychedelia, and folk rock, especially The Byrds. The LP sessions were completed in May, and "Sunshine Superman" was released in the US as a single in June. It was a big success, providing Donovan with his American chart breakthrough, selling 800,000 copies in six weeks and reaching No.1. It went on to sell over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The LP followed in August, preceded by advance orders of 250,000 copies, reached No.11 on the US album chart and sold over half a million copies.

The US version of the Sunshine Superman album is set in chamber-style folk-jazz arrangements, and features an eclectic range of instruments including acoustic bass, sitar, saxophone, tablas and congas, harpsichord, strings and oboe. Highlights include the swinging "The Fat Angel", which (Donovan's book confirms) was written for Cass Elliott of The Mamas & the Papas. The song is also notable for name checking the cult San Francisco acid rock band Jefferson Airplane, well before they became known internationally and before Grace Slick joined. Other tracks include "Bert's Blues" (a tribute to guitar hero Bert Jansch), "Guinevere", and "Legend of a Girl Child Linda", a track featuring voice, acoustic guitar and a small orchestra, and which runs for over six minutes.

The album also features extensive use of the sitar, which was played by American folk-rock singer Shawn Phillips. Donovan had met Phillips in London in 1965, and he became a close friend and an important early collaborator, playing acoustic guitar and sitar on several major recordings including the Sunshine Superman album, as well as accompanying Donovan at numerous concerts and on their TV appearance on Pete Seeger's TV show. Several of the songs including the title track had a harder edge. The driving, jazzy "The Trip", named after the Los Angeles club of the same name, chronicled an LSD trip he took during his time in L.A. and is loaded with references to his sojourn on the West Coast, and name-checks both Dylan and Baez. The third "heavy" song, destined to become one of his most enduring recordings, was "Season of the Witch".

Recorded with American and British session players, it features Donovan's first recorded performance on electric guitar. The song was covered by Brian Auger on his first LP in 1967, and Al Kooper and Stephen Stills recorded an 11-minute version on the 1968 album, Super Session. Donovan's version is also heard in the closing sequence of the Gus Van Sant film, To Die For. Due to his earlier contractual problems, the UK version of Sunshine Superman LP was not released in Britain for another nine months. This was a compilation of tracks from the already released US albums Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow. Donovan had no input into the track selection for this release. On 24 October 1966, Epic released the single "Mellow Yellow", arranged by John Paul Jones and purportedly featuring Paul McCartney on uncredited backing vocals.

In his autobiography Donovan explained that the phrase "electrical banana" was a reference to a "yellow-coloured vibrator". The song became Donovan's signature tune in the US and was another big chart hit there; it reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, #3 on the Cash Box chart, and earned a gold record award for sales of more than one million in the USA alone.

Through the first half of 1967, Donovan worked on an ambitious double-album studio project, which he produced himself. In January he gave a concert at the Royal Albert Hall accompanied by a ballerina who danced during a 12-minute performance of "Golden Apples". On 14 January, New Musical Express reported he was to write incidental music for a National Theatre production of As You Like It, but this did not come to fruition. His version of "Under the Greenwood Tree" did appear on "A Gift from a Flower to a Garden".

Later that month Epic released the Mellow Yellow LP (not released in the UK), which reached No.14 in the US album charts, plus a new non-album single, "Epistle to Dippy", a Top 20 hit in the US. Written in the form of an open letter to an old school friend, the song had a strong pacifist message as well as psychedelic imagery. The real "Dippy" was at the time serving in the British Army in Malaysia. According to Brian Hogg, who wrote the liner notes for the Donovan boxed set, "Troubadour", Dippy heard the song, contacted Donovan and left the army as a result. On 9 February 1967, Donovan was among the select group of guests invited by The Beatles to join them at Abbey Road Studios for the final orchestral overdub session for the Lennon-McCartney collaboration "A Day in the Life", the grand finale to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.