Elly Roberts reviews
EMI
- Released: May 2005
- Rating: 10/10 for the collection
- Tracks include: Mellow Yellow, The Hurdy Gurdy Man, Catch The Wind, JenniferJuniper, Colours, There Is A Mountain.
- Cat.nos:
Sunshine Superman (873 5662)
Mellow Yellow (873 5672)
Hurdy Gurdy Man (873 5682)
Barabajagal (873 5692)
One singer, one name, four CDs.
Acclaimed sixties flower-power iconDonovan (Leitch) now 59 years-old, gets a long overdue overhaul with therelease of some back-catalogue classics. Dusting down the archives,hisflowery philosophy,considered passé in the 70s and 80s, are now seen assuperb examples of folk-rock hippie mysticism.
Sunshine Superman was his second album from 1966,spawning the titletrack single – his biggest hit making No.2 in the UK chart – laying the pathfor a succession of imitators, influencing the budding Mark Feld aka MarcBolan, who morphed into Tyrannosaurus Rex then T.Rex. Some even believed Bolanwas a Donovan reincarnation.
Donovan came to prominence after dropping out of college and began recordinghis songs at the age of 18 years. Talent scouts from seminal tv programmeReady Steady Go soon picked on him and he became a regular on theshow. Working with legendary producer Mickie Most until 1969, Donovan exploredfolk-like refrains and exotic instrumentation (flutes, cellos, sitars andharps), scattered over this huge collective tracklisting, they combined tomake him a household name.
In the interim years hes continued to tour, written poetry and scored films.Apart from the original song titles were given an abundance of bonus tracks,some demo versions, first versions and alternative arrangements.
For latest tour information visit weblink: Donovan.ie
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.