Sunshine Superman – DONOVAN*****

Sunshine Superman/Legend Of A Girl Child Linda/Three King Fishers/Ferris Wheel/Bert’s Blues/Season Of The Witch/The Trip/Guinevere/The Fat Angel/Celeste

Folk orientated musician Donovan heralded a major change of style with Sunshine Superman, one of the first psychedelic albums. The title track topped the US singles chart and reached No. 2 in Britain. (US:11 UK:25)

"In late 1965 on the heels of two successful UK folk albums, Donovan was forced to take a 'break' in his career through a good part of 1966 while two record companies disputed contract rights for his next album. All the while of course Donovan was writing songs, and he and The Beatles were about to unleash psychedelia upon the planet, first in the form of Revolver and then with Donovan's own Sunshine Superman, the first true 'hippy' album."

"Sunshine Superman was not only the first overtly psychedelic album, but it also was a perfect reflection of 'Swinging London' at the time of its release and inadvertently made Donovan the spokesman for the happening lifestyle."

"The definitive hippy album of an era, more so than anything released by The Beatles, The Dead, The Airplane, or any of the myriads of the San Francisco scene."

"This record simply gets more distinctive as the years pass: a beautifully eccentric and frankly odd setting of impressions and ideas that remain unpredictable and absolutely filled with the sheerness of innocence, light and conviction."

"This contains some of the best of Donovan: Sunshine Superman, Season Of The Witch and The Trip. But then there are the really touching beauties that never made the top 40, but that make a really enjoyable music set. Guinevere is just beautiful, but the real hidden jewel is Celeste."

"Paced by the title track, one of Donovan's best singles, 1966's Sunshine Superman heralded the coming psychedelic age with a new world/old world bent: several ambitious psychedelic productions and a raft of wistful folk songs. Producer Mickie Most fashioned a new sound for the Scottish folksinger, a sparse, swinging, bass-heavy style perfectly complementing Donovan's enigmatic lyrics and delightfully skewed, beatnik delivery."