Barabajagal

Coincidentally to this CD arriving, I was reading something yesterday about how, more and more, marketing is all about companies making increasingly hyperbolic claims in order to cover up increasingly cheap and shoddy quality and service. That pretty much sums up this release.First of all: Donovan's music and album are fine. It's what you would expect if you know and like Donovan and his late 1960s music, as I do. Not much need to discuss that. I would give the album a four or five because I like the music.My issue here is with the packaging of the disc being sold here. Here is what the inner sleeve says, bragging about the Sony Legacy label:"NOT JUST REISSUED ... REIMAGINED.""Legacy Recordings, the Grammy Award-winning division at SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT founded in 1990, is charged with the task of revisiting, restoring, reintroducing and enhancing one of the world's greatest music catalogs!"Yes, Sony Legacy did indeed reimagine this album -- as an insultingly lazy, pared-down-to-the-bare-minimum-they-could-get-away-with budget release (although, strangely, without a budget price). I sure don't see any restoring or enhancing going on. On the contrary, I see subtraction and whatever the opposite of "enhancing" is.Aside from Donovan's original cover (surrounded and marred by the blue Sony Legacy line format imagery on the cover, of course) there is no original artwork included ... no image of the original album back cover ... no producer credit (as was included on the original album cover) ... no listing of the musicians involved in the album (as was included on the original album cover) ... no listing of when the tracks were recorded (as was included on the original album cover) ... We aren't even given the length of each track (as was included on the original album).There are no new liner notes about the background history or recording of the album ... no extra bonus tracks (such as the 13 extras included on an earlier release of this album) ...Just this lazy, minimal effort, cookie-cutter, "fill in the slots" release with only hyperbolic claims about how incredibly wonderful the shoddy product you've just received is.

This album meant a lot to me in high school and since my kids took all my vinyl long ago, I bought this on CD in June 2020. I bought it brand new from Sony and it sat in perfect safety in wrapping until this morning 3-19-21 when I finally got to hear it. Help. The first four songs were trashed. Unplayable. Got maybe 7 seconds of music all told from those songs. Songs 5 - the end were okay. The problem besides the disappointment of sending away for stuff and having it come not working, is that it has been 9 months so I seriously doubt Amazon would replace it. Furthermore I really don't like the hassle of returning things to the special mail place etc. So just in case that was a fluke I will order another and if it comes shot to heck (and I will check immediately this time) I will send both back to Amazon. Just: beware. My son said Sony is a very good brand and he didn't know why they would release CDs in such bad shape.UPDATE: Second CD was the same. Both were produced by Sony. Then I bought a used CD which was guarenteed to work and it did thankfully. The used CD was by EPIC. So the problem lies in a bad bunch of CDs sent over by Sony.

1969, BARABAJAGAL was the last collaboration of the Donovan Leitch and Mickie Most years, encompassing SUNSHINE SUPERMAN, MELLOW YELLOW, A GIFT FROM A FLOWER TO A GARDEN, HURDY GURDY MAN, and this one. In a sense, this was the last "classic" Donovan album for many fans. All of the aforementioned albums had a sense of cohesiveness to them even though every one of them was diverse musically, and as with all of them BARABAJAGAL is "diverse", yet it seemingly suffers from being too diverse, as if most of the songs came from extreme different sessions. This has left most reviewers and critics with a sense of calling the album jumbled or disconnected. I for one, have always been very fond of BARABAJAGAL and considered it a direct outgrowth of HURDY GURDY with more electrical rock songs and some jazzy, even a "lounge" number, items that would have fit nicely on the HURDY GURDY album. Granted there is a wide range of material present here, but on closer inspection, how can that be considered unusual with any Donovan album? Perhaps it was just the overall feel, or maybe it was due to the straining relationship between Donovan and Most. In any event, this album has its own uniqueness that can be appreciated as one of Donovan's best efforts, if not one of his best "collection" of songs. This album was being recorded about the same time as Donovan was assembling singles for a Greatest Hits album and that could have contributed to the "collection" sense of material. Donovan and engineers "re-channeled for stereo" Season Of The Witch and Sunshine Superman, the latter being extended in length as well. He also re-recorded Colours and Catch The Wind (much better in my opinion) which were inaccessible to Epic Records because of Pye Records legal holdings of those. Singles not appearing on albums (ie. Laleña, Epistle To Dippy, There Is A Mountain, etc) were assembled along with these remasters (a shame they did not re-channel Mellow Yellow for stereo at the time as it would have no doubt appeared on these EMI reissues of 2005, but all of the albums are completely remastered in stereo for the EMI 2011 reissues) for DONOVAN'S GREATEST HITS released in April 1969.Diversity on BARABAJAGAL more clearly is a result of various series of recording efforts that took place in several locations, studios, and with various personnel. The easiest way to "review" this album is to separate these efforts into groups.Happiness Runs and Where Is She were both recorded during the sessions that produced HURDY GURDY MAN and both songs would have fit perfectly onto that album. They are the two ethereal songs of this album and distinctly different from the rest of BARABAJAGAL. Where Is She is a soft-jazz melody reminiscent of the alternative jazz-rock music of the period. Harry Nilsson's "Without Her" which was recorded by Blood Sweat & Tears is cut from the same cloth. Happiness Runs is a row-row-row-your-boat song cycle round which beautifully incorporates his Pebble & Man (DONOVAN IN CONCERT) into a round sung by Donovan, Leslie Duncan (Elton John TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION, Pink Floyd DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, Alan Parson's Project EVE, and just about every 60's period Dusty Springfield song), Graham Nash, and Paul McCartney's younger brother Michael McCartney.Atlantis, I Love My Shirt, To Susan On The West Coast Waiting were recorded in November '68 after release of HURDY GURDY MAN. Immediately in the UK Atlantis was released backed with I Love My Shirt, a mundane and childish throw-away and the only really dispensable song on this album. Atlantis did not fare well as a single and when released in the states, it was the B-side of To Susan... however, radio play and fan requests soon elevated the release to becoming a doube A-side and Atlantis broke the top 10 in the USA despite the producers predictions (too long and not "radio-friendly"). There are rumors that Paul McCartney sung in the closing Hey Jude style coda of the song and played tambourine but Donovan has cleared that up as a myth. Donovan did not clearly keep track of session players on albums and so conflict even exists where Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and even Bonham played on his albums. Page insists he was there for Hurdy Gurdy Man and Jones says he was not. There is no doubt he was contracted for the album recordings but on which songs remains in dispute. Atlantis, with the fanciful counterculture anthem, has remained popular to this day, whereas To Susan On The West Coast Waiting (From Andy In Vietnam Fighting) has become predictably dated.The "rock songs" recorded in November '68 and May '69 are the real meat of BARABAJAGAL, a more contemporary rock album than any previous effort and featuring predominantly the backing of The Jeff Beck Group (also under Mickie Most's production and guidance at the time). The Jeff Beck Group included "vocals extraordinaire by Rod Stewart" in those days however I myself, and many reviewers/critics are hard pressed to find his voice on this record. Barabajagal, backed with Trudi, was released as the next single. In the UK it made it to #12, but only to #36 on the USA Billboard. Both songs are overtly sexual in nature, in fact Trudi was released as "Bed With Me" in the UK, and both are solid rockers featuring the main talents of Jeff Beck and his keyboardist Nicky Hopkins who has lent his sound to anyone and everyone in rock from The Stones, to The Beatles, to Led Zeppelin! Superlungs My Supergirl, finally released on this album after two previous attempts with tempo, instrumentation, and less refined lyrics and vocals, is a dead on straight rock number with cute innuendo lyrics and delivered with electric guitar lead in spades. You can find the early versions on the EMI reissues of SUNSHINE SUPERMAN and MELLOW YELLOW, the latter being the better of the two. The Love Song is a typical Donovan rocker fused with some carnival inspired barking and Pamela Jo is a burlesque/vaudeville piano rocker which descends into tavern song with a huge chorus of repeated lines ad infinitum. Many critics pan these songs, yet more reviewers, like myself, and fans, like myself, enjoy these treasures from the last set of Donovan and Most recordings.The whole album suffers only from the inclusion of I Love My Shirt which belongs on (and ends up on) one of his children's albums (Pied Piper). It would definitely not have fit on For Little Ones, as it is a slightly rock and roll jazz delivery. The lyrics are just so inane.Bonus material, including more songs with The Jeff Beck Group are heavily included in this last of the EMI reissues. Half of them are demos which would fill out early 70's albums, and the first half are all recordings that "should have been." The highlights of these are Lauretta's Cousin Laurinda which would have been a perfect song to replace I Love My Shirt with and might have elevated the album in sales. Swan The Lord Of Reedy River in its original form is also included. Donovan and Paul McCartney would provide this song, as well as guitars and voices, to Mary Hopkins first release on Apple Records. The best of the demo songs is the punishing Lord Of The Universe which would sit in a closet until 2004 when it was filled out and included on Donovan's BEAT CAFÉ album.Even with I Love My Shirt, this one still garners five full stars, it is the ending of an era of dominance in music and is as entertaining as rock and roll could get at the end of the 1960's. As a last word, the best word to describe BARABAJAGAL is "cool".

"Barabajagal" was Donovan's last album to be released in the 1960's and his fifth produced by Mickie Most.Compared to his previous albums this is probably the most versatile, partly due to the fact that it was recorded during several sessions, featuring different musicians.The three hit singles "Atlantis"; "To Susan on the West Coast" and "Barabajagal" are good examples of the album's great variety. "Atlantis" is a fine folky tune with an ecstatic ending ending much like the Beatles' "Hey Jude". "To Susan on the West Coast" is an acoustic anti-war song and "Barabajagal" is an almost riff-based rocker with solid backing by Jeff Beck Group.Among the tracks I like "Happines Runs" and "Superlungs My Supergirl", but the rest are mostly sub-par tracks. The original album had a very short playing time, a little more than thirty minutes. Fortunately a lot of relevant bonus-tracks have been added to the album.Interesting to hear "Stromberg Twins", another track with backing from Jeff Beck and his band; and song that ought have been included originally. But the strongest material are found among the last seven tracks, which are just demos; but all sounding great."Marjorie" and "Palais Girl" are really great songs that finally get a deserved release.The booklet contains the final chapter of the Mickie Most Years ( part 4, Nov. 68 to Dec. 1969 ), which is great read; and although the album is not quite up to the standards of its predecessors, it's still a quite fine album.

It was the title song I heard on a recent telly advert. Spent a few days tracking it down, as I remembered it being played on the radio when I was tiny, but had no idea of the singer, or title! I couldn't 'hear' what the lyrics were on the ad, so after spending ages looking for the song details, I finally found this album.I've always enjoyed Donovan's music, so this will be a treat, even though I really wanted the Barabajagel record!

Although the tracks on Sunshine Superman for instance may be more consistent this later album has a few groovy gems such as the title track and Atlantis. The bonus tracks include several little-heard gems, in my case The Swan (Lord of the Reedy River) as I adored the divine Kate Bush's cover from a vinyl single B-side. A few underwhelming tracks but all are worth a listen.

Love all the works of Donovan up to 1974, this album has 2 duff tracks otherwise its great and of its time, delighted to purchase on vinyl.

Good but a definite change in style.for hard core Donovan fans only I'd say.