Buried Treasures

The Morgan Studios Sessions 1971

01 Saccharin Sue

02 To Whom It May Concern

03 The Crunch

04 Two Lovers

05 The Runaway (remake)

06 Train Whistle

07 Don't Look Now

     (aka Over Grown Gardens Of Dream)

08 Corsica (#1)

09 Epistle To Scouse

10 The Trail Of Success *

11 If *

* See below.

All songs written by Donovan.

Dated March 3rd, 1971 on the tape box, this second CD in the "Buried Treasures" series is not as enjoyable as the first, but there are still some decent songs here, pretty much on-par with the quality of Donovan's "Open Road" tracks. The recordings are all in stereo this time and, unlike "Buried Treasures 1970," sound as if they could have been recorded at the same session.

"Saccharin Sue" is more finished (and upbeat) than the demo I discussed on the previous page. Donovan would re-record "To Whom It May Concern" years later for "Neutronica" (as "Only To Be Expected"). This version is better. An earlier demo of "Two Lovers" can be heard on "Buried Treasures 1970" (see previous page for more information). An earlier demo of "The Runaway" was included in the bonus tracks for the 2005 "Barabajagal" CD, and an earlier version of "Don't Look Now" was released on "Buried Treasures 1970" (as "Over Grown Gardens Of Dream"). This is the only studio recording of "Train Whistle," though Donovan had performed it at the 1970 Isle Of Wight festival. "Corsica" would be rewritten as "Half Moon Bay" for 1981's "Love Is Only Feeling" LP. The last two songs, "Trail Of Success" and "If" are the same performances covered on the tape discussed below, with additional reverb added here.

Additional Demos - ca. 1971

01 The Runaway (remake) (mono)

02 Two Lovers (mono)

03 Corsica (#2)

04 So You See (#2)

05 Dream (#1)

06 Dream (#2)

07 Joanna For Santana

08 Peace Has Her Victories (#1)

09 Peace Has Her Victories (#2)

10 Peace Has Her Victories (#3)

11 The Earth Is My Body

12 Walking

13 Watching The Sun Go Down

I've already covered these performances of "The Runaway" and "Two Lovers" above, under "Buried Treasures 1971." These are the same takes, with less reverb. Although the tape I have is in mono, it's likely these were from the original 2-track stereo mixdowns. "Corsica" is simply an alternate take of the song heard on that CD. "So You See" is a different take, in a lower key, than the one on the March 3rd multi-track. There are two similar takes of "Dream" (a.k.a. "European Hotel") as well, but it's still not much of a song. "Joanna For Santana" isn't very good, either, though it's still better than most of these uninspired demos. There are three takes of "Peace Has Her Victories," which wouldn't have sounded out of place on "Open Road." "The Earth Is My Body" (my title) is very unfinished. I'm putting "Watching The Sun Go Down" here, but I honestly have no idea when it was recorded. A more up-tempo rendition was used on the unreleased 1990 "Celtia" album (finally released in 2022 as "Gaelia").

Message To Love

The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970

01 Catch The Wind

On August 30th, 1970, Donovan appeared with Open Road for the last time at the Isle Of Wight festival. "Catch The Wind," from that performance, was released in the film "Message To Love" and the accompanying soundtrack CD (both unreleased until the 1990's). Unfortunately, Donovan's performance can only be seen in the film for a few seconds, although it's complete on the CD, of course.

HMS Donovan

01 The Walrus And The Carpenter (Lewis Carroll / Donovan)

02 Jabberwocky (Lewis Carroll / Donovan)

03 The Seller Of Stars (Thora Stowell / Donovan)

04 Lost Time (Frida Wolfe / Donovan)

05 The Little White Road (Thora Stowell / Donovan)

06 The Star (Anon. / Donovan)

07 Coulter's Candy (Anon. / Donovan)

08 The Road (Lucy Diamond / Donovan)

09 Things To Wear (Agnes Grozier Herbertson / Donovan)

10 The Owl And The Pussycat (Edward Lear / Donovan)

11 Homesickness

12 Fishes In Love

13 Mr. Wind

14 Wynken Blynken And Nod (Eugene Field / Donovan)

15 Celia Of The Seals

16 The Pee Song

17 The Voyage Of The Moon

18 The Unicorn

19 Lord Of The Dance (Sydney Carter)

20 Little Ben

21 Can Ye Dance

22 In An Old Fashioned Picture Book

23 The Song of The Wandering Aengus (Y.B. Yeats / Donovan)

24 A Funny Man (Natalie Joan / Donovan)

25 Lord Of The Reedy River

26 Henry Martin (Adapted and Arranged by Donovan)

27 Queen Mab (Thomas Hoods Music Arranged by Donovan)

28 La Moora

Songs not otherwise attributed are

written by Donovan

"HMS Donovan" is a double album full of marvelous songs that still manages to fall flat. Released on Dawn (a subsidiary of Pye) in the U.K. only in July, 1971, "HMS Donovan" suffers from a severe identity crisis, as might be expected when the songs on it were recorded over several years (especially when you consider how quickly the musical world changed in the 1960's) as well as poor sequencing. Some of these tracks might have been recorded for the unreleased "Moon In Capricorn" album (see page 4), and Donovan plays several of them for Paul McCartney on a bootlegged 1968 tape (see page 6). Many of the numbers are set to lyrics from old children's books - enough for a single album (he'd gone down this road before, if you remember, setting Shakespeare's "Under The Greenwood Tree" to music on "A Gift From A Flower To A Garden"). If it had been released this way "HMS Donovan" would now be seen as an interesting concept album and a follow-up to "For Little Ones" (the second LP in "A Gift From a Flower To a Garden"). That said, it's the original, acoustic numbers on "HMS Donovan" that are really the highlights, with songs such as "The Voyage Of The Moon," "In An Old Fashioned Picture Book," "Lord Of The Reedy River" (finally!) and "La Moora." The worst tracks are those on which Donovan attempts to sound more contemporary. "Celia Of The Seals" is a distasteful protest song about clubbing baby seals (and, though Epic passed on releasing the album, they did put out "Celia" as a single in the States) and "Homesickness," the only number credited to Mickie Most as co-producer. This awful song seems to be a left-over from the "Barabajagal" sessions and is probably the worst thing that Donovan had issued to date. The vocal speed variations on "The Walrus And The Carpenter" and "Mr. Wind" also come off as little more than annoying, five decades later. Although "HMS Donovan" was released to decent sales and surprisingly positive reviews in the UK, these days the album is almost forgotten. Indeed, Donovan himself whittled the material down to a single album's length and released it in 2017 on his website as "The Living Crystal Faery Realm."

As far as available versions are concerned, vinyl pressings are fairly expensive, so you're better off with one of the reissue CDs - either the one released by BGO in 1997 (which sounds fine) or the two-disc version on Donovan's own label, Donovan Discs, that came out in 2020.

The Sensual Donovan

01 Only You

02 Amore

03 Two Lovers

04 Astrella

05 Amore (backing track)

06 Hotel Lonely

07 Two Lovers (backing track)

08 Open Up Your Heart

09 Astrella (backing track)

10 The Dignity Of Man ("bonus track")

All songs written by Donovan.

So, with The Beatles having broken up and the decade of flower-power having ended, where, musically, was Donovan to go? Evidently, he felt that easy-listening lounge-jazz would be the right direction. What survives from these sessions was released in 2012 as "The Sensual Donovan," with six finished numbers (some with newly added instrumentation), backing tracks for three of them, and a bonus track ("The Dignity Of Man") presumably recorded around the same time.

Recorded with members of the Jazz Crusaders and co-produced by The Mamas And The Papas' John Phillips in Hollywood, Donovan, on his website, states that the material on "The Sensual Donovan" was recorded in 1970, but "Words and Music" magazine reported (in December, 1972) that an unreleased album for Warner Brothers named "Astrella" was pending release. Since "Astrella" is one of the songs here, it's possible that what we have here are what remains from those sessions.

Surprisingly, once you acclimate yourself to the abrupt change in style, the material here isn’t bad. "Two Lovers" (a song that we’ve already heard on both volumes of "Buried Treasures") has been reworked yet again, and "Astrella" is an early version of "Lady Of The Stars," which Donovan would re-record in 1977 for the "Donovan" album and again in 1983 for "Lady Of The Stars." "Open Up Your Heart" is a re-worked version of "Honey Mouth," a demo of which is on "Buried Treasures 1," and "The Dignity Of Man" would be re-recorded in 1973 for "Essence To Essence" and performed on the "Live In Japan - Spring Tour 1973" album. "Only You" isn't the old Platters' song - all of the numbers here are Donovan originals.

Demo Tape

March 3rd, 1971

01 The Trail Of Success

02 If

03 A Soldier's Dream

04 Old Ladies Of Kensington

05 Crazy Mazey

06 I'm Not Unhappy

07 Freedom Road

08 Are You

09 So You See (#1)

10 Lonely Avenue

11 The Ferryman's Daughter

This multi-track tape of demos was sold at auction in 2024. It's dated March 3rd, 1971 (the same day as the second "Buried Treasures" tape), though it's possible these recordings were made earlier. Certainly, there's nothing about them to suggest they weren't all recorded on the same day. All of the performances feature guitar and occasional vocal overdubs, and it's unfortunate that Donovan didn't continue the "Buried Treasures" series and release these songs.

The first two numbers, "Trail Of Success" and "If" were released as the final two numbers on the second "Buried Treasures" CD (above), although a massive amount of reverb has been added to Donovan's vocal there. The first of these was his attempt to write an autobiographical number, while the second is a fairly lightweight song (prefaced by several false starts and a breakdown, here). "A Soldier's Dream" would be re-recorded the next year for the film "Brother Sun, Sister Moon," and again in 2004 for Donovan's re-recording of the soundtrack songs. This also has several false starts. "Old Ladies Of Kensington" is a brief, light-hearted number that would probably have sequenced well on "HMS Donovan." This version of "Crazy Mazey" rocks a bit more than the arrangement on the earlier demo discussed on page 6. "I'm Not Unhappy" is also more finished than the earlier version. "Freedom Road" is a remake of an old composition which can be heard on "Sixty Four" (see page 1). "Are You" and "So You See" are reflective ballads which wouldn't have been out of place on "Hurdy Gurdy Man."  "Lonely Avenue" is reminiscent of "Where Is She," from "Barabajagal." It was finished enough for Donovan to perform live in Italy in July, 1970. After a few false starts, the tape wraps up with another performance of "The Ferryman's Daughter." This version is different from the one I covered under "Moon In Capricorn" (see page 4).

Mix-downs of these performances circulate (except for "So You See"), with the false starts omitted and reverb added to Donovan's vocals. My copy of this is in mono, although someone probably has it in stereo.